Bob Dylan Brisbane
- From: Stephen Calder <calder9@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:29:27 +1000
Bob Dylan Brisbane Entertainment Centre 13 August 2007 7.30 pm
1. Cat's In The Well (Bob on electric guitar) 2. It Ain't Me, Babe (Bob on electric guitar) 3. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (Bob on electric guitar) 4. Lay, Lady, Lay (Bob on electric guitar) 5. Rollin' And Tumblin' (Bob on keyboard) 6. When The Deal Goes Down (Bob on keyboard) 7. High Water (For Charlie Patton) (Bob on keyboard) 8. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll (Bob on keyboard and harp) 9. Honest With Me (Bob on keyboard) 10. Spirit On The Water (Bob on keyboard and harp) 11. Highway 61 Revisited (Bob on keyboard) 12. Tangled Up In Blue (Bob on keyboard and harp) 13. Nettie Moore (Bob on keyboard, Donnie on violin) 14. Summer Days (Bob on keyboard) 15. Ballad Of A Thin Man (Bob on keyboard and harp) (encore) 16. Thunder On The Mountain (Bob on keyboard) 17. All Along The Watchtower (Bob on keyboard)
Band Members
Bob Dylan - electric guitar, keyboard, harp
Tony Garnier - bass
George Recile - drums
Stu Kimball - rhythm guitar
Denny Freeman - lead guitar
Donnie Herron - violin, electric mandolin, pedal steel, lap steel
An electrifying blues riff with a drumbeat big enough to raise a pulse in a rock told us Dylan had followed Taj Mahal’s dictum: get in right in the first few bars. The opening of Cat’s in the Well promised a feast Dylan’s voice wasn’t quite ready to deliver, but his presence was none the less magnetic.
The band was world class, and proved itself over the course of the evening of moving from a sweet country ballad to heavy rock and to country with viola and stand-up bass.
For It Ain’t Me Babe the band switched to straight rock, with a heavy four-beat, every downbeat emphasised (think Lady Madonna), setting up an irresistible rhythm for the lead guitarist to ride. Dylan’s voice, or what we have come to accept as such, still cracked and broke, but the song had so much momentum it didn’t matter.
After this Dylan switched from electric guitar to organ and never went back, beginning his keyboard stint with a laid-back country version of Lay Lady Lay -- the only song in the set that sounded quite like the original recording. By now Bob’s voice had warmed up and was starting to sound more familiar, with more sustain and less growl, as if the switch to organ had signalled that he was in the zone.
Dylan on organ? We’ve been used to seeing him on piano, but it’s as if he said, “you don’t think I can play guitar or piano? Have a listen to this.” Actually, he wasn’t bad, mostly limiting his playing to rhythm stabs and pinches of sustain, and the organ was so far back in the mix he couldn’t get into too much trouble.
Rollin’ and Tumblin’ took us back into rock, with another switch to a carefree rock waltz for When the Deal Goes Down -- one of the best performances of the night, with the band tight and crisp and Dylan stating the lyric directly and with relish.
High Water was another highlight, but The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll suffered from the sound mix, which had the band up too high for the vocals. Even when they cut back for a vocal line, the lyrics would have been unintelligible if I hadn’t know the song well, and in many of those I didn’t know I could not understand any of the lyric. The treatment was a sweet country waltz in stark contrast to the sentiment of the song.
Honest With Me rocked, but also suffered the fate of muddy lyrics. The posted set list told me the name of the song, or else I would not have been able to identify it.
Things changed for the better in this regard with Spirit on the Water, a ballad in which the band backed right off and Dylan’s words suddenly cleared up, transparent and honest as the virtuosity of the musicians.
Highway 61 was also easy to hear, despite its classic rock treatment, and for Tangled up in Blue Bob was throwing away his original phrasing for something completely new, very free, for example holding the first note on “tangled” until well after the best and then ramming the remaining lyric into the time left in the measure.
The darkness of Nettie Moore brought out the passionate Dylan, the vocals launched from the heart, and we heard him loud and clear. Then another switch to 50s rock for Summer Days, a rollicking good time with a 12-bar blues, followed by a sensational, laid-back, sinister Ballad of a Thin Man.
Dylan apparently felt that the audience’s enthusiastic response merited two encores, and a bluesy Thunder on the Mountain was the prelude the finale, a high-octane version of All Along the Watchtower.
The master proved that his musical sense is still as sharp as his songwriting, and found enough favour with the crowd to provoke a standing ovation.
--
Stephen
Ballina, Australia
.
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