On Wednesday, November 22, Such a Night: The Last Waltz Live returns to Dayton. For the first time, the annual tribute to The Band’s 1976 farewell concert will be held at the historic Victoria Theatre. This week on Kaleidoscope, WYSO music director Juliet Fromholt spoke with musician Rich Reuter about the upcoming concert. Reuter coordinates the nearly 30 musicians who play in the Last Waltz band, and has performed in the show since its inception ten years ago. He played several songs from the upcoming concert live on WYSO, and spoke about what listeners can expect from this year's show.
The Last Waltz: Live In Dayton was conceived a decade ago by organizer Jeff Opt, who convinced a team of top Dayton musicians to recreate the music from The Band’s 1976 Last Waltz concert, song for song, for a live audience. The Last Waltz was The Band’s farewell performance, immortalized in a 1978 concert film by the same name directed by Martin Scorsese.
“It’s one of the high points of musical cinema, in terms of how it was shot, the people who are involved, the catalog of songs, the events—all of it,” Reuter said about the film. The concert featured performances from superstars like Neil Young, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, and others.
Rich Reuter remembers performing in the first Last Waltz show in Dayton in 2013 at Gilly's. That first year, he was playing the role of Eric Clapton. He recalled meeting the other musicians who would be performing in the show, many of whom have since become long-time friends and collaborators. “It was the first time we played together, the first time a lot of us met each other,” He told Juliet. He was nervous about the show— until he saw the line of people waiting to get in. “The show itself is memorable. I’ll just never forget peeking my head out the front doors and there was a line out the door to get in.”
After seeing the success of the first show, Jeff Opt and the Last Waltz band never looked back. Now, a decade later, Reuter is part of the core band for the Last Waltz, and coordinates the more than two dozen performers who take part in the annual production. He says that his band is still striving to play songs from the 1976 performance as well as they can. “We’re not going for a reinvention; we’re trying to play these songs as best we can,” he told Juliet, “And I think in the course of that, the performers’ own personalities and styles come out.” Like Band’s original Thanksgiving Day concert, The Last Waltz Live in Dayton is held in late November each year. Reuter said that for many audience members, attending the show has become a thanksgiving tradition. “It’s a thing to revisit every year, and a really good sense of community happens,” he said.
Such A Night: The Last Waltz, Live In Dayton is Wednesday, November 22, at the Victoria Theatre. More information about the show, including a full list of musicians, is available at suchanight.org.
