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:

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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.

"Twilight"

"Ophelia"

"Forbidden Fruit"

"Life Is a Carnival"

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:

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

---&---

UPDATE (20 July 2026)

Because to-day's the fiftieth anniversary of this concert, I watched it again.  Since I wrote the above, the YouTube channel has been rebranded (I think it had been "The Band on MV" [MV for Music Vault], but now it's "Cruise Control," with a wider focus than just the Band), and the four previously unavailable videos are available.  Of these, two feature the Hohner keyboard.

"The Shape I'm In"

"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)"

If I'm not mistaken, the studio version of "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" doesn't have any Hohner keyboard, but the studio version of "The Shape I'm In" features both Cembalet and Clavinet.

The Band's Pianet N

Recently, an-other picture of Richard Manuel and his Pianet N was posted on The Band's Instagram accout:

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The Band's "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)"

To-morrow (15 August) marks the fiftieth anniversary of the release of The Band's Rock of Ages album.  A couple videos from the live performance have been uploaded to The Band's YouTube channel.  Here's "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)."  Richard Manuel is playing a Pianet N, although there are only a few brief shots of it.

More of The Band's Hohner Keyboards

On Instagram, I found a few more pictures of the Band's Hohner keyboards.

Garth Hudson leaning against his Clavinet (apparently the Clavinet II model), 21 June 1969:

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Richard Manuel playing his Cembalet N, 1 August 1973:
 

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Richard Manuel with his Pianet N in the foreground, July 1974:

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The Band's "Up on Cripple Creek"

The Ed Sullivan Show's YouTube channel recently uploaded a video of the Band performing "Up on Cripple Creek" (dated 2 November 1969), and since there's a fairly clear albeit brief shot of Garth Hudson's Clavinet, I thought I would post it here.

The instrument is clearly an early model, either a Clavinet I or a Clavinet II.  Normally, the name would be displayed on the panel beneath the keys (as seen with the Clavinet I here), but this has been removed, apparently for tuning purposes.  According to this site, however, Hudson had a Clavinet II.  As far as I can tell, the only difference between the Clavinet I and the Clavinet II is that the Clavinet I had built-in speakers but the Clavinet II didn't.

The Band's Hohner Pianet

Earlier this year, I saw this picture the Band posted where Richard Manuel is playing a Hohner Pianet:

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I found the same picture on Getty Images (with better resolution but also with a watermark).  The accompanying information says it was taken at Madison Square Garden on 29 January 1974.

[source]

Here's an-other picture of Manuel with the same Pianet (the chips in the finish match), taken at Wembley Stadium on 14 September 1974:

[source]

On tumblr, I found an-other picture from the same appearance:

[source]

I also found a few from June 1976:

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The Pianet's keys are pretty much all that's visible of it in the picture above (a Mu-Tron Bi-phase and what I believe is an ARP Pro-Soloist are stacked on top of it).  Here's a wider shot:

[source]

I can't tell for sure if the Pianet here is the same as the one above (it seems to be), but all of these pictures show the N model.  The identifying features are the scissor-style legs and the connections' location on the back panel.

I think that, of the albums I have (Music from Big Pink, The Band, Stage Fright, Cahoots, Rock of Ages, Moondog Matinee, Northern Lights-Southern Cross, and The Last Waltz), the Pianet appears in only four songs:  "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)," "Caledonia Mission," "Get Up Jake," and "The Shape I'm In" on Rock of Ages.  (The Pianet has an effect applied to it for "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" and "The Shape I'm In," ostensibly the Mu-Tron.)

I had thought that the Pianet appeared in the studio version of "The Shape I'm In" and the live versions of "The Shape I'm In" and "Ophelia" on The Last Waltz, but then I lookt more closely at this picture of Manuel's keyboards from The Last Waltz performance:

[source]

Unlike the instrument seen above, where the keys range from F to F (although, really, only the top end can be seen), the keys here range from C to C, indicating that this is a Cembalet.  While the picture is a bit dark, it's also possible to see that the right cheek block is narrower than it is on the Pianet N.  Here are the pictures from the user manuals for comparison:

Cembalet N

Pianet N

The N models of Pianet and Cembalet both had scissor-style legs, visible here on the Cembalet as it waits at the side of the stage:

[source]

The Cembalet pluckt the reeds in a more direct manner than the Pianet, and this explains the punchier sound heard in these live versions of "The Shape I'm In" and "Ophelia."  (It's worth noting that the studio version of "The Shape I'm In" features both Cembalet and Clavinet.)

At one point, I had thought that the Pianet appeared in "In a Station" and "Long Black Veil" on Music from Big Pink.  Apparently, the electric piano in "Long Black Veil" is a Wurlitzer, so it's likely that the electric piano in "In a Station" is the same instrument.  I'm pretty sure, though, that the "plinky toytown keyboard" in "In a Station" is also Cembalet.