I saw Dylan perform at the Santa Monica Civic last night. The last time
he played there was in the late 70's and before that in the mid-60's. The
Civic doesn't even have rock and roll anymore except on very rare
occassions or for awards shows, so it was definitely an "event" like
atmosphere. Fans were camped out from the night before to get the first
spots in line for the general admission festival seating within.
By the time Dylan took the stage every square inch of the floor was filled
with people. I saw a lot of concerts at the Civic back in the day
including Pink Floyd (twice!) but I've never seen it as full as this. It
normally holds about 3,500 but I'd say this was at least twice its normal
capacity.
Dylan opened up with "Rainy Day Women" aka "Everybody Must Get Stoned".
The next song was "It Ain't Me Babe" followed by "Stuck Inside of Mobile
with the Memphis Blues Again". Then he played a string of newer songs I
wasn't familiar with. Then he played the traditional blues "Rollin &
Tumblin". Then "Ballad of a Thin Man" ("Mr. Jones"), a couple more
unfamiliar songs, and then he closed the show with "Like a Rolling Stone"
and "All Along the Watchtower".
Dylan did not pick up a guitar all night. But his band was quite good
with one Strat, one Tele, Fender Bass, Drums, a utility player who
switched between fiddle, mandolin and acoustic guitar, and Dylan himself
on keyboards all night and occassional harmonica.
Dylan's harp playing was absolutely atrocious. I used to kind of like his
playing, but this was bad - really bad! He seemed to be using the harp
more as a percussion instrument than anything else, often playing one note
repeatedly without regard to whether it was even a "right" note.
This was puzzling because, suprisingly enough, Dylan's keyboard playing
was very very good! He was rocking the joint, constantly propelling the
entire band with a relentless forward momentum. I was quite impressed!
Don't even get me started on his singing. Even if you knew every word to
his songbook, you might not have recognized his lyrics until several
choruses into each song. He garbles, mumbles, gargles and moans, sings
behind the beat, indistinctly and mushmoushed until the singing becomes
like an impressionist interpretation of the words you thought you knew.
But it was interesting!
Overall it was a very enjoyable night.
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