Watch the Band Play a ‘Last Waltz’ Warm-Up Show in 1976

By most any reasonable standard, The Last Waltz is one of the greatest concert films of all time. Not only did filmmaker Martin Scorsese forever capture the last time all five founding members of the Band performed a full set together, but they were joined by one of the most impressive lineups of guest artists in rock history, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, the Staple Singers, and Dr. John.

The movie was shot in beautiful 35mm celluloid, Scorsese and his team decorated the stage at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom with six crystal chandeliers used during the Gone with the Wind shoot 37 years earlier, and it’s so beloved that there are tribute bands today who do nothing but stage recreations of it all across the country, year after year.

That doesn’t mean the movie is without fault. The Band’s drummer Levon Helm was famously dismissive of it in his 1993 memoir, This Wheel’s on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band. “As far as I was concerned, the movie was a disaster,” he wrote. “Today people tell me all the time how much they loved The Last Waltz. I try to thank them politely and usually refrain from mentioning that for me it was a real scandal.”

His problems with it were numerous, starting with his belief that Robertson and Scorsese edited it to seem like “Robbie was conducting the band with expansive waves of his guitar neck,” and the others were his mere support musicians. He was especially enraged that singer-keyboardist Richard Manuel is largely invisible on the stage, even during his big spotlight moment where he sings “I Shall Be Released,” and that Scorsese neglected to film the rehearsals, the action in the audience, or the Thanksgiving feast everyone enjoyed that night.

In his book, Helm quotes Band producer John Simon saying that most of the music in The Last Waltz was re-recorded months after the show took place. “I’m pretty sure that Levon is the only honest, live element in The Last Waltz,” Simon says, “with the exception of Muddy Waters’ vocal. Everything else was overdubbed and redone…Richard wasn’t singing well. Rick’s bass was out of tune, and Robbie wanted to improve his guitar solos. Also, the horns were recorded completely out of balance and had to be redone in New York with arrangements Henry Glover and I put together. The great thing was that Levon didn’t need to do it over. He got it right the first time, and those were the drum tracks used in the final mix.”

Fortunately, a single black-and-white camera was running in the venue all night, and the footage has leaked onto YouTube. It’s fascinating to compare it to the finished movie, especially since there are so many performances, including Bob Dylan’s full set, that didn’t make the cut.

But even the raw, unaltered Last Waltz footage doesn’t capture anything like a typical Band concert since there were so many guests, and the entire thing was constructed for a movie. Sadly, the countless shows they played during their original run are largely lost to history, since few people had the foresight to shoot them.

But on July 20, 1976, four months before the Last Waltz, the Band played a show at the Casino Arena in Asbury Park, New Jersey, that was captured for all time by multiple cameras near the stage. That’s because the event was promoted by John Scher, who set up a groundbreaking video system at all his venues, including the Capitol Theater in Passaic, New Jersey, and the tapes were somehow preserved. They don’t look anything like The Last Waltz, and many are in black and white, but they’re still priceless artifacts of shows by Rush, Prince, Talking Heads, and many other iconic acts from the late Seventies and early Eighties. Crucially, none of them had any idea this footage would ever get out, so we get to see them in a relaxed state, playing only to the crowd that night.

The Band’s Casino Arena show doesn’t feature a single guest artist. There’s no crystal chandelier from Gone with the Wind or any other Golden Age of Hollywood epic. It’s not lit for a movie, meaning it often looks like they’re playing in a dark basement, and their faces are sometimes totally blacked out. (It’s also possible this has been copied many times, and we’re seeing something far degraded from the original footage.)

With all that out of the way, this is an extraordinary document, and a very important corrective to The Last Waltz. The camera doesn’t linger on Robertson longer than any of the other members. Manuel is stationed in his proper place near the center of the action, and he’s often in the frame when he takes a lead vocal or piano solo. Also, not a single note of music was dubbed later. This is a genuine Band concert without any post-production shenanigans.

We still don’t see much of Garth Hudson, which is the biggest flaw in this video, but the camera zooms tightly onto Helm whenever he takes a lead. (Has any drummer in rock history sung even remotely this well while behind the kit?) Danko’s angelic voice sweetens every song, and the organ/piano fusion of Manuel and Hudson ties it all together.

It’s impossible to tell from the video, but multiple reports in the Asbury Park Press say the sound was abysmal throughout the venue. “If you happened to sit in the wrong place at the Casino, you still wouldn’t hear much from the Band,” wrote staff writer Marty Parkin. “It almost borders on the sacrilegious to have the Band play under such conditions… Betty Lyon, Southside Johnny’s wife, and Asbury Jukes keyboards man Kevin Kavanaugh stood in the rear of the balcony, complaining about the acoustics, and they left after a few numbers… But the music was soothing and it could almost make you forget the monstrous crowd, heat, and sound distortions.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, concerts were no longer booked at the Casino Arena after 1976, and the experiment only started in 1974. Sound issues aside, they simply didn’t go over very well. “It’s been a very strange summer for Boardwalk rock and roll,” Parkin noted in an August 16, 1976, review of a poorly-attended Kris Kristofferson show at the Casino Arena. “So far, there have only been two sellout concerts this summer and both were at the Casino — the Marshall Tucker Band and the Band. Southern Fried Boogie and cracklin’ Canadian rock and roll, respectively. People like Patti Smith, Sly and the Family Stone, and Janis Ian have been cancelled for lack of ticket sales. The rock and roll heavies play to half-empty halls while the local phenomena — the Asbury Jukes, Bruce Springsteen — could probably sell out Egypt.”

Today, the Casino (immortalized in Springsteen’s 1973 classic “Sandy”) is a sad, dilapidated shell of its former self. The walls are somehow still standing, but it’s so close to collapse that rumors spread this year the remains of it were going to be demolished, after being deemed an “unsafe structure.” The Band, meanwhile, is in an even sorrier state. The death of Hudson last year means that every single classic-era member of the Band is now gone. Robertson died in 2023.

But contrary to widespread belief, the Band didn’t end after The Last Waltz. They reconvened in 1983 without Robertson, and carried on even after the tragic death of Manuel in 1986. They cut three albums and toured relentlessly, until Danko’s death in 1999 finally ended the saga. For much of that time, guitarist Jim Weider filled Robertson’s role. He now fronts the Weight Band. They straddle an unusual line between tribute band and a continuation of the genuine article, since Weider is joined by other musicians who worked extensively with Helm over the years.

If you want to experience the Band’s music live in person, your best bet is to buy a ticket to the Weight Band. They have dates throughout August and into the fall. But if you want to take a trip back to 1976 and watch the original group, fire up the Casino Arena show. It’s not The Last Waltz, but it’s glorious in its own way.