Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Mavis Staples and others pay tribute to Robbie Robertson

Life’s a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson

Kia Forum, Los Angeles, October 17, 2024

“We had four days to learn these songs,” guitarist Mike Campbell announces on stage at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, “and we’re going to play every single one of them tonight.” This is not an empty threat. It’s the first indication of what the night has in store for attendees of this approximately five-hour concert, officially dubbed “Life is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson.” It’s big, it’s ambitious, it’s star-studded, it’s being filmed by director Martin Scorsese and it’s got a lot of Robbie Robertson – who died last year aged 80 and is unlikely to be forgotten any time soon.

Scorsese’s involvement will certainly ensure that. His highly regarded 1978 film The Last Waltz captured The Band’s official farewell concert with Robertson at the helm, and tonight’s long event will likely provide a fitting bookend to the musician’s colorful career.

Full of stars? You bet. Among those celebrating Robertson’s work on stage tonight are Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Bob Weir, Eric Church, Jim James, Bruce Hornsby, Trey Anastasio, Lucinda Williams, Taj Mahal, Margo Price, Ryan Bingham and an impressive array of top notch guitarists. instrumentalists/vocalists including Jamey Johnson, Warren Haynes, Robert Randolph, Mavis Staples and many more. You will definitely see them all in the film and you will like what you see.

There are four sets in all, interspersed with clips from old films of Robertson and others telling his story, some of which we’ve heard before, but in this enlightening and sometimes entertaining celebratory context. Robertson talking about the impact early rock/n’ roll had on him, from being captivated by Elvis Presley’s My Baby Left Me, to joining Ronnie Hawkins’ band in the ’60s: “You won’t make a lot of money,” Hawkins told him, “but you’ll get more pussy than Frank Sinatra.”

What is evident from the evening’s lineup was the impact that Robbie Robertson had on music – both in North America and beyond. In the video, a younger Eric Clapton appears, talking about how he admired the band so much at that time that he came to visit them at Woodstock and gave hints about how much he would like to join the group. But Robertson told him, “We don’t jam.” And sure enough, there he was on stage in Los Angeles, half a century later, playing the band’s songs and playing Chest Fever.

And there are some surprises: Van Morrison, a longtime friend of Robertson, appearing with his own Wonderful Remark, a great track produced by Robertson and included on the soundtrack to Scorsese’s 1983 King Of Comedy. Looking dapper and wearing sunglasses, Morrison also offers Tupelo Honey and Days Like This; although it would have been wonderful to hear Robertson/Morrison co-write 4% Pantomime Collusions on stage, the absence of the late Richard Manuel of The Band, his duet partner on the record, may have been jarring.

Furthermore, Morrison’s Caravan – which for many was the highlight of The Last Waltz performance – this time came to the fore through a surprisingly rousing performance from guitarist Warren Haynes, the versatile musician who worked with Gov’t Mule, the (post -Jerry Garcia) Grateful Dead, and both the Dickey Betts Band and the Allman Brothers reunited. Perhaps as expected, his warm reception on stage included shouted requests from the audience, including One Way Out and Whipping Post.

Haynes’s extreme skill illustrated the concert’s central triumph: Robertson’s entire body of work, performed by a host of great musical talents – some more commercially famous than others, but so what? – still sounds as timeless today as it ever did, an ambition the man has had since his earliest days as a composer. So Jamey Johnson’s performance of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down can still leave your eyes moist, the new renditions of It Makes No Difference and Unfaithful Servant (by Jim James and Trey Anastasio respectively) sound fresh and wonderful, and the stunning The variety of guitarists, who could have included an infinite number of guitar solos on each track heard, play with a level of respect and subtlety that all of Robertson’s work deserved.

How does a five-hour tribute to Robbie Robertson end? Some might say it’s surrealist: a mesmerizing trio of Mavis Staples, Bob Weir and Trey Anastasio sing The Weight, the 1968 hit that also served as the first single to be released under The Band’s name, and later a full-length star ending of I Shall Be Released, written by Bob Dylan, closer Big Pink Music and as miraculous as popular music can be. Hugging each other, stretched out in a long line from left to right on the stage, the night’s participants bow, say goodbye and the film ends.

It went really well.

Song list:

SET 1

Up at Cripple Creek (with Eric Church)

Ophelia (with Ryan Bingham)

Best of Everything (with Mike Campbell)

Evangeline (with Margo Price)

Acadian Driftwood (with Alison Russell)

Straight on the Line (with Robert Randolph)

Who do you love? (with Taj Mahal and Robert Randolph)

Down South in New Orleans (with Dave Malone and Cyril Neville)

Go Back to Your Forest (with Bruce Hornsby)

King Harvest (Certainly Arrived) (with Bruce Hornsby)

The Night They Took Old Dixie Down (with Jamey Johnson)

SET 2

Broken Arrow (with Daniel Lanois)

Life’s a Carnival (with Warren Haynes and Taj Mahal)

Whispering Pines (with Lucinda Williams)

Twilight (with Nathaniel Rateliff)

Across the Great Divide (with Nathaniel Rateliff)

Rag Mama Rag (with Jamey Johnson and Bruce Hornsby)

Honey, Don’t Do That (with Nathaniel Rateliff)

Mel Tupelo (with Van Morrison)

Days Like This (with Van Morrison)

Wonderful Observation (with Van Morrison)

SET 3

The Shape I’m In (with Eric Clapton)

Out of Nowhere (with Eric Clapton)

Forbidden Fruit (with Eric Clapton)

Chest Fever (with Eric Clapton)

Further Down the Road (with Eric Clapton)

SET 4

Forever Young (with Nathaniel Rateliff, Ryan Bingham and Margo Price)

It Makes No Difference (with Jim James)

Stage Fright (with Warren Haynes)

Caravan (with Warren Haynes)

When I Paint My Masterpiece (with Bob Weir)

The Unfaithful Servant (with Trey Anastasio)

Watch Out, Cleveland (with Trey Anastasio)

The Weight (Mavis Staples, Trey Anastasio and Bob Weir)

I Shall Be Released (with all-star ensemble)

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