Re: PUPPET ON A STRING - NEWCASTLE 12th APRIL 2007 REVIEW
- From: "bobette" <bobette67@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 15 Apr 2007 00:24:55 -0700
On Apr 14, 2:51�am, "frinjdwelr" <frinjdw...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"really real" <reallyr...@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:n8UTh.68849$DE1.66837@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Has anyone noticed that Jinx is not only composing very well balanced,
informative reviews, he's also taken on a bit of that Peter Stone Brown
tone in his writing?
I don't think this kind of thing is going to get you a rise out of Peter
quite as easily as with Barbara or Rose.
But I will say I find Jinx's reviews depressing, like school creative
writing exercises. They give me a sorry for him, feeling that he's never
actually been lucky enough to witness Bob at his best, so he blows up every
little thing to the extreme.
This old marionette saw is getting pulled out a bit early in his trip
though. Too bad he didn't think of the New Orleans theme that someone else
here pointed out. It would have worked better for this show and opened up
all sorts of different superlatives he could have used.
You might want to read this that Mr. Jinx wrote in November 2005:
BRIXTON 23rd NOVEMBER 2005
'BLACKNESS WAS A VIRTUE'
"I love blackjack, but I'm not addicted to gambling. I'm
addicted to sitting in a semi-circle."
(Mitch Hedberg)
The hat turned from black to white tonight and Bob Dylan - gambler,
loving thief and conjurer - stood squarely beneath it doing the
(double) shuffle with his mighty musical deck.
The addicted - many of whom looked suspiciously like me - came
to
sit in that metaphorical semi-circle once more but how did the dealer
cut the pack this time? The answer is with a steady hand and much
aplomb.
Tears ... rain ... water. The songs spoke eloquently to each
other as
well as to us. The effect was positively oceanic. We were asked to
Cry A While for poor Hattie Carroll, commanded to weep like a Hard
Rain
until the High Water rose to six inches above our heads and we
frantically sought Shelter From The Storm. So many tears for this
world: a world where a white man walks a black dog, Dylan's hat
changes from black (in all of the previous show's I'd seen) to
white, and the artist from She Belongs To Me paints the daytime
black,
too.
Positively 4th Street, played for the second night in
succession, was
odd in as much as its tone was conciliatory rather than stern. Odd
because the general pitch of the evening was of darkest anger and
vengeance and Positively 4th Street appears to be the ideal vehicle
for
carrying that mood. Bob, though, does not deal in the obvious
(unless
he happens to have five believers to hand). I counted nearly 3,000
tonight.
He emphasised the beginning of each line of Positively 4th
Street.
'YOU'VE got a lot of nerve ...' and 'YOU see me on the street
....' This emphasis felt like a very deliberate move. Bob seemed to
be extending a hand to us amidst all of the blackness. 'A helping
hand to lend,' perhaps?
High Water terrified me. With the lights rendering Bob's
white hat
black in shadow across the backdrop and Donnie's mesmeric banjo
a-pluckin' black Southern-style, the coffins dropped, the word of God
was preached and our eyes were duly put out. I couldn't help but
think of New Orleans. I stared at the white hat and its black shadow
as
everything turned monochrome, even the 'rag' or newspaper we were
told to take away from our faces in Hattie Carroll (song of a black
maid in a white man's kitchen) was black and white and - as the
joke would have it - read / red all over: poor Hattie's blood.
Hard Rain was marred by a little 'down-singing' but it
built ...
and built ... and built ... and BUILT until it simply engulfed us
all.
'Black is the colour!' yelled Bob. Grown men around me decided
that now was the time for their tears - although to be fair that
could have had something to do with the price of the tour program!
I don't normally like 'You Go Your Way' much but it was
transcendent tonight. The judge held his grudge as he would later
pound his gavel. He walked on stilts, too. Presumably to help him
reach the ladder of law.
At the encores Bob the gambler drew a wildcard. Fats Domino's
Blue
Monday was an inspired choice. After all, hadn't everything just
turned blue in High Water? It was a total gas and obviously a huge
surprise for the crowd.
This really was a great show. I know it was great because I
still
feel shaken and unsure how to define what I have just witnessed. All
I
know is that it was an extremely high order. Bob Dylan was emanating
some kind of kinetic energy throughout the performance. It went
right
through me like radiation. I had goose-bumps on six different
occasions and at the line-up after the encores I felt so elevated I
wanted to explode. Instead I just stood and clapped until my hands
hurt.
Tomorrow is my last show. I have been to six in quick
succession. I
don't want this to end. Every minute seems to energise and change me
in some mysterious way. It feels magical. I look for
explanations ...
Maybe it was the white hat. Perhaps it had something to do with
that.
Yes, that's it! That's as good as any other explanation. It was
sort of like a conjuror's hat, really. A universe beneath its brim.
Oh, and before I forget, the line from Hard Rain 'Ten
thousand
whisperin' and nobody listenin' echoed beautifully the line
'Voices in the night, trying to be heard' from the stupendous
rendition of Million Miles. Talking, talking, talking: those damn
songs. Those damn, damned, damnably beautiful songs. Ah, let them
talk. Let them speak to and for us FOREVER.
Thank you, Bobby. Thank you for the etchings and the light.
Mr Jinx
.
- References:
- PUPPET ON A STRING - NEWCASTLE 12th APRIL 2007 REVIEW
- From: Mr Jinx
- Re: PUPPET ON A STRING - NEWCASTLE 12th APRIL 2007 REVIEW
- From: really real
- Re: PUPPET ON A STRING - NEWCASTLE 12th APRIL 2007 REVIEW
- From: frinjdwelr
- PUPPET ON A STRING - NEWCASTLE 12th APRIL 2007 REVIEW
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