I Was There When: The Band Fell Flat At Saratoga Performing Arts Center (well, sort of…)

The Band’s appearance at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center had the potential to be triumphant, if for no other reason than the venerable open-air venue, summer home of the Philadephia Symphony Orchestra, represented something of a hometown show: it is situated within two hours  Woodstock, the quintet’s upstate New York home at the time.  

But the detached and enigmatic collective image the Band chose to cultivate when embarking upon their own career undermined their efforts otherwise this mid-summer night. After initially coalescing around Canadian Ronnie Hawkins for riotous tours of the Great White North and America’s South less than ten years prior, then embarking on a tumultuous global jaunt with Bob Dylan in 1966, these musicians had, on their own, become diffident in terms of stage presence. Their concerts were completely bereft of showmanship except for the natural theater arising from great musicians in action. 

The Band instead chose to emphasize the musical skills they’d honed over those years. It was a particularly admirable approach during the waning of psychedelic era in 1968 when they debuted with the magnificently mysterious Music From Big Pink, but it was an attitude that didn’t stand them in particularly good stead with the less-discerning in this particular audience. Doubtlessly, it didn’t help to repeatedly hear yelling for “Rag Mama Rag.” And while the Band offered no direct response to the borderline heckling., in keeping with the quintet’s circumspect demeanor, a couple muffled ‘Thank You”s were the only between-song repartee offered to the audience. 

But some glances around the semi-circle in which the quintet aligned themselves certainly gave the impression they were put off. Perhaps that less-than-positive reaction is exactly why they deliberately did not do that already famous selection from their second eponymous studio album released the prior autumn. It may also explain why guitarist Robbie Robertson didn’t quite nail the solo on “Unfaithful Servant; ” he didn’t look particularly nervous as he assumed the spotlight, but it was hardly so relaxed and pleasurable an interval as when he smiled broadly at drummer Levon Helm’s suggestive hand motions during “Strawberry Wine.” 

Such relaxed moments were more in line with the infectious relish the Band brought to what was often an encore for them, the Four Top’ “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever.”  The Motown number found the fivesome more deeply engaged since the beginning of the hour-plus set and while it’s not fair to say the Band simply went through the motions when playing selections from ‘The Brown Album,’ like “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” or even previewing tracks like “Time to Kill” from the Stage Fright album, to be released in the fall to come, these veteran musicians did not deeply connect with their audience. On the contrary, reactions apart from the obstreperous took the form of polite applause that was altogether proportionate to the stoicism of the performers.

Yet it’s worth stating such a large venue as SPAC may not have been the ideal tour stop for The Band. The expanse of the amphitheater, combined with that of the broad and deep lawn, simply didn’t lend itself to the nuances of their playing and singing, except perhaps for the drama inherent in keyboardist Garth Hudson’s intro to “Chest Fever;” at this time, there were no giant video screens inside or outside the shed to bring the experience home, so an observer had to concentrate. And even then, on this night, the satisfaction therefrom was fleeting at best.

That is, unless the experience of being in the same room with modern-day legends proved to be sufficient. Having witnessed a comparable sense of dislocation when seeing the Band at Woodstock in 1969, I wasn’t all that surprised with what I saw and heard in Saratoga Springs. Yet the subdued and slightly uncomfortable atmosphere I encountered all around me this July was almost the complete opposite of the uproarious means by which they all but stole the Montreal show in January of 1974 during their reunion with Dylan.

*****
Setlist (from setlist.fm)

(Note: Incomplete and not in order)

The Band
Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY,

July 20, 1970

Chest Fever

Up on Cripple Creek

Long Black Veil

Baby Don’t You Do It

This Wheel’s on Fire

I Shall Be Released

Stage Fright

Time to Kill

The Shape I’m In

Strawberry Wine

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down