Crzay Day in the Bob Dylan world. Fabulous new record "Tempest" being streamed free on iTunes as I write this. First listen to the 45 verse/no chorus epic song about the sinking of the "Titanic". Tribute song "Roll on John" about John Lennon. It doesn't get much better than this. AND I SAW HIM LIVE Sunday night! Wow! Here's my review of the show...
It couldn’t have been a more perfect end of summer September
night in Bethel NY. Full moon rising over the hills as Bob Dylan and his band
took the stage shortly around 9:15. Talk around the Bethel Woods site had been
about what tracks from Tempest anyone had already heard, and whether he was
going to open with Leopard Skin or River Flow, which he’d changed up the night
before, and whether he was going to play guitar much. But really it was a very,
almost too very laid back crowd. Lot of wandering tie-die types. Some were
mathematicians and some were carpenters wives to be sure, but there seemed to
be no real sense of urgency to this crowd. Well hey I hadn’t seen Dylan since
that outdoor Brooklyn show a few years ago. Hadn’t seen the current state of
this touring band in a while, so I guess I can offer a fresh perspective. Bob was about to come onstage and I was ready
for a lethal dose.
First things first, the sound at Bethel Woods was
impeccable. Ben Harper had gone on for an hour with just an acoustic guitar and
you could hear each string perfectly.
These people had their sound system installed like a charm,
even from where I was sitting up on the hill. So when Bob came out and began
with – River Flow – yes! - I could pick right through any gruffness in his
voice and hear every word. The main thing I can say about this performance is
that he was “spot on” all the way through the show. No flubs, no slow spots, no
lazy verses. He got every word of every song near as I could tell (yes I heard
the improvised Tangled verse). And he wasn’t rushing anything (maybe because he
had the next night off before Portchester). It was a great long set with a lot of my “wish for” songs on the set list.
Right away we got an excellent “Baby Blue” in the # 2 slot.
My 19 year old daughter nodded & smiled to me when she recognized it. I’d
been following the live set lists and boblinks, so I knew where the changes would
be, and tonight they were almost all pleasant surprises. I hadn’t heard these
new versions of “Things Have Changed” or the decidedly non-acoustic “Tangled”,
or Dylan’s grand piano style, so it was all fun & new. And then came the #5
slot – “Levee”. My daughter said “from Modern Times” and she & my wife
boogied in their seats.
But the real killer moment was upon us – “Blind Willie
McTell”. Bob center stage with harmonica doesn’t really describe it, because
this was the moment you come to these shows for. Stepped up a notch, singing
every verse in the moment, and topping it off with great harmonica. Literally reaching
out to the audience. Took my breath away. Talk about “arrow on the doorpost”.
At this point the train was out of the station. “Tweedle
Dee” was one that I was hoping for,
having listened to Love & Theft all summer. Lots of that grand piano with
Bob jumping out of his seat as the song ended. “Trying to Get to Heaven” was
unexpected and had more harp. I don’t know, but there was a lot of harmonica
tonight straight thru and all of it good. As he slipped into “Highwater” my
daughter remarked on the “hurricane season” set list, and yes more harmonica.
And then as we approached the 10 slot I sat silently hoping for “Visions” to
stay in the set list one more night. And yes! He did one of the clearest
versions I’ve heard him do live – all the verses except “little boy lost” and
all the words of all those verses, as I said earlier “spot on”. Right down to
the “fish truck that loads as my conscience explodes”.
Now with “Highway 61” we were in the final stretch. This
band tends to be a bit layered and jazzy and I was ready for a bit more rock
& roll. So I was ready for the Highway
– Thunder – Rolling Stone - Watchtower part of the set. And here let me just
say that my only disappointment with the show was the audience. Did they not
get that they were listening to Bob Dylan playing his most amazing songs? The
three of us sat there wondering if we were watching the same show as everyone
else. People even seemed to have a hard time even putting their hands together
to clap. At least the geriatric mosh pit, as my wife called it, was standing.
But I gotta say, Dylan was in his own world on that stage and drove the whole
enterprise ahead without a care.
Now I haven’t seen him do “Thin Man” in a while and I don’t
know how long he’s been doing that with echo, but boy was that a fantastic
version. Bob singing with his own echo was an astounding live performance trick
and he was surely enjoying it. “Something happening…something
happening…something happening.” He was
Howling at the Moon.! And more harmonica there too as he headed from “center
stage” to the piano. He was moving around the stage all night like that.
Restless hungry feeling.
And then came “Rolling Stone” – all four verses. Has he been
doing that too lately? Last few times I saw him he was leaving oui the “jugglers
& the clowns” verse and only doing “miss lonely”. But all four were there
tonight. And let me just say this about the chorus – my kid looked at me after
the first chorus and said asked if he just said “How Does it Feel to be Without a Phone?” I can’t attest to anything there, but it sure
sounded funny and not out of the realm of possibility at the moment. Ha!
Oh I left out my one disappointment – “Spirit on the Water’
is not my favorite track and I was hoping for “Simple Twist of Fate”. But I gotta say this was a credible, not
lazy, version and we got more harmonica.
So I’ll let that slip. This is why we keep coming back, because you can’t
always get what you want. It’s Bobs show and he’s the phantom engineer on this train.
Well if you watch these set lists you know how it all ends.
“Watchtower” and “Blowin in the Wind”. And again, I’ll say this was not a
rushed show. I imagine Dylan coulda been heading for the tour bus while the
band played the song off. I’ve seen that before. But nope. There he was
again, jumping up from the piano and
heading upstage to play us some more splendid harmonica right up to the bitter
end, taking in the applause.. And then, just like that, it was time to get outa
this all night café. We found our car, and I played the original “Willie Mc
Tell” for my daughter – “wow that sounds so different” – and we bugged outa
there.
