Bob Dylan

[low_delta]

Cindy, her daughter Heather, and I went to see Bob Dylan on Sunday evening. Great show. I've seen him four times now, and every time is better than the previous.

Some shows I've seen him more animated than others. This one was less so. He moved about a little bit, and did his Bob poses. I didn't see him smile much, but I was back a ways.

He does so many different styles of music. Bluegrass, folk, country folk, country, swing, good old fashioned rock and roll, rock, and a few less describable things. And of course he sings them in his own inimitable voice. I didn't care for how he changed the tune on many of the songs. He sings different melodies on many of his classics. Not only that but many of them sound like the same tune.

The musicians he had with him were good. They could back him up on al those different styles. Charlie Sexton on guitar, Tony Garnier on stand up and bass guitars, David Kemper on drums (the guy with the really big cowboy hat) and Larry Campbell on mandolin, banjo, fiddle, acoustic guitar, electric guitar (and bottleneck), and dobro.

The highlights for me were "Summer Days" (that song is pure swing and I couldn't believe how many people were standing still), "Highway 61 Revisited" (of course), and "All along the Watchtower" (not normally one of my favorites, but at this show it was awesome).

Set list:
Wait For The Light To Shine (acoustic) (Larry on mandolin) (song by Fred Rose)
My Back Pages (acoustic) (Larry on fiddle and Bob on harp)
Desolation Row (acoustic)
Searching For A Soldier's Grave (acoustic) (Larry on mandolin)
(song by Johnnie Wright, Jim Anglin and Jack Anglin)
Lonesome Day Blues
Lay, Lady, Lay (Larry on pedal steel)
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (Larry on pedal steel)
High Water (Larry on banjo)
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll (acoustic)
Mama, You Been On My Mind (acoustic) (Bob on harp)
Masters Of War (acoustic)
Summer Days (Tony on standup bass)
Moonlight (Bob on harp)
Drifter's Escape (Bob on harp)
Highway 61 Revisited

(1st encore)
Things Have Changed
Like A Rolling Stone
I Shall Be Released (acoustic)
Honest With Me
Blowin' In The Wind (acoustic)

(2nd encore)
All Along The Watchtower

Comments

[serendipity.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the concert review! I saw Dylan for my first time in Madison, about 1976 or so. It was the only concert that found me camping out overnight for a ticket. In the morning, before the ticket gates opened, we were in a pretty good spot for getting decent seats. However, the *surge* caused me to fall back in the line, with resultingly worse seats. For a minute there I wasn't moving on my own volition - it was momentarily scary. Fortunately there were no injuries or anything, just disappointment for many like me. The night of the show, Dylan looked *really* tiny so far away on stage. But the performance was wonderful.

How was Masters of War? When I saw Eddy Vedder perform that at the televised concert celebrating Dylan's anniversay - 30th, was it? - I nearly fell off my chair. Vedder really did Dylan justice with his performance, WOW!

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I was looking forward to that song, because I had seen that it was one of the songs that he played every night (he varied about half of his set every night), but I wasn't real impressed with it. It lost much of that menacing feel that both the original version and Vedder's version had.

One of the complaints I heard about the concert was that Bob was rather stand-offish and didn't really involve the audience in the show. I read one review which said that you could tell he had something to say, given that he played "Masters of War" and "Blowin' in the Wind," but he never spoke. Um, dude? You're right. He did have something to say. He said it.

Re:

[serendipity.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Um, I don't recall Dylan as ever being chatty during performances. Isn't he known for his silence between songs? And aren't the songs his statements? Some people are just never satisfied.