I was really pumped to see this one, but as I sat through one hour and 45 minutes of "The Bill Graham Show", my mood slowly deflated. If you have a Bill Graham fetish or you love Bill Graham, you will love this movie. If not, well...
The problems include way, way, way too much Bill Graham. Over 50% of this movie is him. More music and less Bill, please. Also, shot selection of the band's performances is horrendous. I don't know if they were intentionally trying to be artsy, or they were covering up terrible camera work. For example, during It's a Beautiful Day, we see unrelated cover shots instead of the gorgeous female lead singer. During Jefferson Airplane, we see exterior shots from an outdoor festival. During Santana, we see Carlos for about 1 minute out of 15 because they're too busy showing the keyboard player's hands for 5 minutes. Last, but not least, the two songs they chose for the Dead were the lamest two songs they did during this era - Casey Jones & Johnny Be Good. I love the Dead, but that just killed it for me.
Bright spots include Hot Tuna (with Papa John Creach), Quicksilver, Elvin Bishop, and especially Santana. If you're a Santana fan, you should definitely watch this movie.
The problems include way, way, way too much Bill Graham. Over 50% of this movie is him. More music and less Bill, please. Also, shot selection of the band's performances is horrendous. I don't know if they were intentionally trying to be artsy, or they were covering up terrible camera work. For example, during It's a Beautiful Day, we see unrelated cover shots instead of the gorgeous female lead singer. During Jefferson Airplane, we see exterior shots from an outdoor festival. During Santana, we see Carlos for about 1 minute out of 15 because they're too busy showing the keyboard player's hands for 5 minutes. Last, but not least, the two songs they chose for the Dead were the lamest two songs they did during this era - Casey Jones & Johnny Be Good. I love the Dead, but that just killed it for me.
Bright spots include Hot Tuna (with Papa John Creach), Quicksilver, Elvin Bishop, and especially Santana. If you're a Santana fan, you should definitely watch this movie.