The Martin Scorsese-led Robbie Robertson tribute, The Life Is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson, took place at Los Angeles' Kia Forum on October 17 – and it was a veritable who's who of the music industry paying tribute to The Band legend.
The roughly five-hour concert, which included performances by the likes of Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Trey Anastasio, Mike Campbell, Lucinda Williams, Bob Weir, and Warren Haynes, was clearly meant to evoke Scorsese's 1978 classic The Last Waltz, which documented The Band's farewell concert appearance at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom on Thanksgiving Day 1976.
Fast forward to 2024, and the all-star blowout paying homage to Robertson, also set to be released as a concert movie, made its mark on music history.
“We’ve had four days to learn these songs,” announced Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Mike Campbell, setting the tone for the event, “and we’re gonna play every single one of them tonight.”
Heavyweights Van Morrison and Eric Clapton, who both appeared in The Last Waltz, put their own spin on some bona fide classics, with the former delivering back-to-back performances of Tupelo Honey (from his 1971 album Tupelo Honey), Days Like This (from his 1995 album of the same name), and Wonderful Remark – which has a clear Robertson link in that it was part of Scorsese’s 1983 film The King of Comedy, whose soundtrack The Band guitarist oversaw.
Clapton, who recently revealed why he’s not particularly proud of his Last Waltz performance, gave a Strat-laden performance of The Band's The Shape I'm In (from the 1970 album Stage Fright), Chest Fever (from 1968's Music from Big Pink), Forbidden Fruit (from 1975's Northern Lights – Southern Cross), and Out of the Blue (from 1978's The Last Waltz), plus Bobby Bland's Further On Up The Road, which he also performed in The Last Waltz.
Anastasio, who, together with Mavis Staples and Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, gave a heartfelt rendition of The Weight, the Robertson-penned 1968 hit that served as the first single under the moniker The Band, told Rolling Stone right before the show, “In the style of music that I play, the Band is the foundation – I grew up listening to this music and it’s the high water mark. So being able to take part in a couple of the songs from this huge legacy of masterpieces that were left behind by Robbie and the Band it just means so much.”
Brandishing one of his trusty Languedoc guitars, he also performed The Unfaithful Servant (from the 1969 album The Band) and Look Out Cleveland (from that same album).
While the setlist was unabashedly The Band-heavy, pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph and record producer Daniel Lanois – who produced Robertson’s first solo album – chose songs from Robertson's post-Band career, delivering Straight Down The Line (from 2011's How to Become Clairvoyant) and Broken Arrow (from 1987's Robbie Robertson) respectively.
“It’s a song that’s very dear to me,” Lanois told Variety, “and brings up a lot of memories of us huddled up in the little studio at the Village, working up these arrangements. It was a great honor for a Canadian kid, because as a guitar player, Robbie was always a hero for me. And so there I was working with one of my heroes, and we had a nice exchange because he loves imaginative thinking. The wildest idea, he would really accept.”
The evening’s full setlist is below [as reported by Variety]:
Set 1
Peyote Healing – Verdell Primeaux
Up on Cripple Creek – Eric Church
Ophelia – Ryan Bingham
The Best of Everything – Mike Campbell
Evangeline – Margo Price
Acadian Driftwood – Allison Russell, Julian Taylor, and Logan Staats
Straight Down the Line – Robert Randolph
Who Do You Love – Taj Mahal
Down South in New Orleans – Dave Malone and Cyril Neville
Go Back to Your Woods – Bruce Hornsby
King Harvest – Bruce Hornsby
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down – Jamey Johnson
Set 2
Broken Arrow – Daniel Lanois
Life Is a Carnival – Warren Haynes
Whispering Pines – Lucinda Williams
Twilight – Nathaniel Rateliff
Across the Great Divide – Nathaniel Rateliff
Rag Mama Rag – Jamey Johnson
Don’t Do It – Nathaniel Rateliff with Margo Price
Tupelo Honey – Van Morrison
Days Like This – Van Morrison
Wonderful Remark – Van Morrison
Set 3
The Shape I’m In – Eric Clapton
Out of the Blue – Eric Clapton
Forbidden Fruit – Eric Clapton
Chest Fever – Eric Clapton
Further on Up the Road – Eric Clapton
Set 4
Forever Young – Ryan Bingham
It Makes No Difference – Jim James
Stage Fright – Warren Haynes
Caravan – Warren Haynes
When I Paint My Masterpiece – Bob Weir
The Unfaithful Servant – Trey Anastasio
Look Out Cleveland – Trey Anastasio
The Weight – Mavis Staples with Trey Anastasio and Bob Weir
I Shall Be Released – Jamey Johnson, Jim James, Allison Russell, and full company
