On November 26, 1976, legendary Canadian-American rock group The Band performed their final concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. In addition to Rick, Robbie, Garth, Richard and Levon, the show featured a who’s who of rock royalty including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and others. The performance was filmed by Martin Scorsese, and subsequently was released as the concert film The Last Waltz. It is probably the greatest rock film of all time, and subsequent controversy makes it even better.
On November 17, 2017, Columbus put on its fourth annual tribute to the Last Waltz at the Newport Music Hall. As was the case with the original, a core group performed the role of The Band itself, playing 15 or so tunes featured in the movie and/or the soundtrack. In addition to these duties, they backed up a series of individuals impersonating the guest stars from Winterland. They were troopers for sure – I would think they were on stage for at least three and a half hours.