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Rarely does a train car trump a concert stage, musically speaking. It apparently did in Festival Express, the event. It frustratingly doesn't in Festival Express, the movie.
The documentary recounts the summer of '70 tour in which a trainload of rock demigods—Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Buddy Guy, The Band—traveled the Canadian countryside, ridin' the rails and rockin' the towns.
The concert footage, often sharing a split screen with archival and updated interviews, is fabulous. But recollections from those aboard tell us how fan-damn-tastic the journey was while filmmaker Bob Smeaton lets us glimpse them only fleetingly.
On stage are rollicking reminders of an era's greatness and Festival Express stirs hunger pangs for a super-sized serving of what everyone swears was a "magical" musical feast.
Or so they tell us. But infrequently show us.