Traffic: Live at Santa Monica (1972)

"The rock group Traffic performs in a concert staged in Santa Monica, California."

Traffic left behind precious few concert videos in any form, so this show, from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, is an intrinsically valuable document of the band, even though it does feature a later lineup: Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood, Rebop Kwakubaah, Roger Hawkins, and David Hood. Chronologically, the show comes roughly a year later than the Welcome to the Canteen album. There are some many wonderful shots of the band members from varied angles and all kinds of different lighting, even within the same song, courtesy of video producer Taylor Hackford (White Nights, Against All Odds) but, in fact, this wasn't the ideal version of the group to capture on stage: Winwood had suffered a serious illness the year before, the group was always in a state of flux as far as its line-up was concerned, and they were entering the period of decline that would coincide with the recording of Shootout at the Fantasy Factory.

Allan MuirDirector