'The Last Best Waltz': Musicians pay tribute to The Band

The Last Best Waltz, an homage to The Last Waltz, the farewell concert of the Canadian-American rock group The Band, will be held at Montana State University-Northern's Little Theatre Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., featuring six local and state bands.

The show was organized primarily by KNMC Station Manager Dave Martens and Montana Actors' Theatre Artistic Director Grant Olson, the former of whom has been interested in doing a multi-band show for some time now.

Martens said he wanted to see an event where local bands come together around a theme for some time and that desire coalesced around the idea of an homage to The Last Waltz.

He said he and MAT were hoping to stream such an event last year, but it ended up being too complicated to do in the amount of time they had so they tabled it until now.

The Last Waltz was a farewell concert held on Thanksgiving Day, 1976, in San Francisco and was billed as the final concert appearance of the incredibly influential musical group The Band - a concert which featured more than a dozen special guests including Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, Neil Diamond and Neil Young.

The concert was filmed by Martin Scorsese who directed a 1978 documentary on the concert that shared its name, widely regarded as one of the greatest documentary concert films ever made.

Martens said said Friday and Saturday's productions are not meant to be recreations of this famous concert, but a new interpretation by local bands.

He said coordinating all six bands, making sure there isn't too much crossover in what they're all going to play, and deciding how strictly they want to stick to material used in the actual concert was a challenge, but he's excited to see the results.

He said they ultimately decided that including additional songs in the show was all right, as long as they feel at home among those that were actually played there, so fans of the original concert will definitely see some additions.

"(We decided) as long as it's in the spirit of the event and you're playing songs by the artists that preformed there that's okay," he said.

Martens himself will be playing in two of the six bands that will be preforming, Steeds and Music From Big Dirt, which will be playing Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Chris Myers of Big Sandy will also be playing in the latter, which features two keyboards, a saxophone, three guitars, three vocalists and a rhythm section.

Myers said the music they will be playing has been complex and challenging to learn but, "it's been a good challenge for sure."

He said there are so many talented musicians in north-central Montana and so many of them haven't had much of a chance to showcase that talent in the past two years, so this is a great opportunity for them to get back out there.

This sentiment is shared by Olson, who will also be playing in Northern's staff band, The Cover Band, which will be playing Friday.

He said MAT's Little Theatre hosted some live music last year that was streamed instead of having traditional audiences due to the pandemic, said he's looking forward to seeing a more normal concert experience there.

He said the theater's new sound and lighting systems made for some great performances last year and he wants to make more use of it for events like this.

He said getting this particular performance off the ground has been an adventure, as both a member of one of the bands and an organizer.

Olson said his group has a full brass section and harmonicas in addition to more traditional positions, and they're excited to play, though he almost wishes he was going to be in the audience this time.

"I'm so excited to see all of these bands," he said.

One band that he's particularly excited to see is Counting Coup, a Billings-based band that played a free concert at Northern for its Homecoming and Native American Heritage weeks in September.

Olson said he's been a huge fan of theirs since he saw them for the first time at Red Ants Pants Music Festival this summer, playing on a side stage, and was blown away by how good they were.

Counting Coup lead singer and bass player Troy Falcon said the band had a great time earlier this year and plans to be in Havre next year as well.

"We had a great time," Falcon said. "It was a great show, great turnout and a very warm welcome, so we're happy to come back and I'm sure this won't be the last time we're up there."

He said the band has been hard at work learning the songs for their Saturday performance and is looking forward to playing.

He said their versions of these songs will sound fairly similar to the originals but are not, and shouldn't be, exact copies.

Falcon said perfectly replicating the sound of the artists who created this amazing music is ultimately impossible and doing the songs in Counting Coup's own style will no doubt be a rewarding experience.

He said the bands have been coordinating their music and there has been some talk of collaboration, but he doesn't want to give too much away.

"You'll just have to see the night of," he said.

One of the other bands that will be playing Saturday is the Milk River Band, a local group with 15 years-worth of shows under its belt.

Vocalist and guitarist Auddo Flansburg said his band will bring its own country style into the mix, but they have plenty of experience with rock music and are itching to play again.

"Haven't been out to the clubs much because of COVID, and we're looking forward to getting out and doing more shows and playing music again," Flansburg said.

He invited everyone to attend the show and hopes the audience will have a good time.

He also extended his thanks to Martens and Olson for putting all this together.

The Nick Crawford band, another local favorite will also be playing Friday evening.

Olson said he's hoping this is the beginning of more musical performances at MAT, and, if this show goes well, there's sure to be more in the near future.