ICFS presents Gimme Shelter (1970)

Though the Rolling Stones performed “Brown Sugar,” “Satisfaction,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” and other hits, this concert is tragically remembered for something other than its music. Four months after Woodstock, the Stones and Jefferson Airplane staged this free concert in California, with Ike & Tina Turner as openers. 300,000 people came, and — as had been done without issue several times before — the Hells Angels were hired to provide security. But this time was different, and the famed Maysles Brothers (“Grey Gardens;” “Salesmen”) were there – not only to capture the music – but also the drunken brutality of the Angels, and the killing of a concert goer who had brandished a gun. Musical performances are intercut with “Sticky Fingers” rehearsals, event planning sessions, close-ups of young people dancing, drugged, and suffering abuse, attempts to cool things down by Grace Slick and a totally out of his element, Mick Jagger, and — at some later date — the Stones in the studio watching and reflecting on the footage.
Rated PG-13. 91 minutes.
Part of our summer series: Rock Schenectady!