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LIVE AT WOODSTOCK
EXPERIENCE HENDRIX
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Woodstock was a shining moment of the 1960s American counterculture, and its creative zenith was Jimi Hendrix’s closing performance. With a percussion-heavy big band he’d assembled for the concert called Gypsy Sun & Rainbows, he roared through 14 songs and improvisations, including his astonishing version of "The Star Spangled Banner" complete with feedback bombs bursting in air. Hearing engineer Eddie Kramer explain how the sound system was assembled "with string and chewing gum" in this double-DVD set, you realize it’s a miracle the show was recorded, let alone filmed as meticulously as it appears here. The first DVD features Hendrix’s set as shot by filmmakers Michael Wadleigh and Bob Maurice, who plucked a few of its songs for the conclusion of their classic rock movie Woodstock. By all accounts, the sound on stage was terrible, the group were under-rehearsed, and, as this film reveals, the percussionists were at times clueless. But Hendrix is on fire, especially when he plays free on "Jam Back at the House," "Woodstock Improvisation," "Villanova Junction," and "The Star Spangled Banner," which still sets the bar for live electric rock guitar. Hendrix looks great, too, in his white fringe leather shirt and bell-bottom jeans with suns and moons sewn on. But what’s really a joy is the second DVD, which is based mostly on footage shot by fan Albert Goodman on stage, providing not only an I’m-in-the-band perspective, so Hendrix’s cues and tics are visible, but the magnificent performance of "Hear My Train a Comin’," which wasn’t filmed by the pro crew, and all of Hendrix’s between-song patter.
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