[Harp-L] Re: Dylan at the Santa Monica Civic

["jazmaan@xxxxxxxxxxx" <dmf273@xxxxxxxxx>]

It was indeed an excellent show overall with a very high level of musicality.
 
Every song he played was musically interesting, even when I was completely unfamiliar with the tune and couldn't understand a word he was saying.   

The band rocked hard with Dylan himself providing the instrumental impetus on keyboards.  A good example was their rendition of "Rollin' & Tumblin", nothing fancy, no exceptional solos, but rhythmically intense with lots of feeling and dynamic shifts that raised it way above the level of any ordinary blues band.

I learned today that Dylan hasn't played live guitar in years because of carpal tunnel syndrome.  That's why he played keys all night.

On harmonica he had a few good moments but many more that just left me scratching my head wondering "what was he thinking?"   But the crowd loved every second of it.

By the way, I forgot to include "Highway 61 Revisited" in the setlist.  That was a good example of a song where even though I knew the lyric by heart I still couldn't understand what he was saying!