Sunday, July 23, 2023

The Band at Casino Arena

Last week was the anniversary of a concert the Band performed at Casino Arena on 20 July 1976.  I watched the concert via this official YouTube playlist, although as of this writing, there are four private videos that are unavailable.  In any case, Richard Manuel is playing a Hohner keyboard on some of the songs.  The set up (with a Mu-Tron Bi-Phase and an ARP Pro-Soloist) seems to be the same as what's shown in this picture from June 1976:

[source]

Because the audio and video quality of the concert isn't the best and because Manuel seems to use the phaser on some songs, it's difficult to tell whether the keyboard is a Cembalet or a Pianet, but based on the above photo (which definitely shows a Pianet; the high end of the F-F key range is visible) and the close time frame, I'm assuming it's a Pianet.  The legs clearly distinguish it as an N model.

I'm more familiar with the earlier Band albums, but as far as I know, none of the studio versions of these songs features Pianet.





Garth Hudson seems to be playing Clavinet on "Up on Cripple Creek," but it's not visible at all:


In previous posts about the Band, I noted that Hudson had a Clavinet II, but in this picture from the Last Waltz (in November 1976), a Clavinet C is visible:


I don't know which model he plays at this concert in July.