The sound old too, @slaw. Old as in adult---they made most of their contemporaries sound like little boys who had just started their first, uh, band. All but organist Garth Hudson were about the same age as The Beatles, Stones, Kinks, etc., but whereas those bands stopped playing every night on small stages around 1962---ending their progress and evolution as ensembles, The Band (then known as Levon & The Hawks) were a working band, playing all over Canada, the Midwest, the South, and the East Coast (where Dylan heard them and hired them as his band). By the time of their 1968 debut album Music From Big Pink, they had become the best Rock 'n' Roll band in the world, and The Beatles were just about over. George and his best friend Eric Clapton were two of their biggest fans. Nick Lowe has said his band Brinsley Schwartz were trying to be as much like The Band as possible, and falling far short.
