About 4 years ago I got to see Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson in Cedar Rapids and it was an experience that I thought I would never ever experience again. Part of me wondered if wasn’t Dylan’s last go round on tour and part of me didn’t think I’d ever be able to see that kind of musicianship on stage ever again. I’m used to sloppy, heavy and loud and when I do get to see a performer of Dylan’s caliber I’m always moved by the experience. Last night was no exception to the rule.
Four years ago I was enthralled by the way the band watched Dylan for changes in the songs. These guys have been playing these songs with Dylan for a long time and yet they still watched him as if they were playing with him for the first time. Amazing. Four years ago, Dylan didn’t interact with the crowd. He kept his head down low and rarely looked at the crowd. He didn’t smile, he didn’t laugh, he went through the motions. The Dylan I saw last night was not the Dylan of four years ago.
Dylan was energized and on fire last night. Laughing and giggling at lyrics and the crowd. Smiling at people and staring at the crowd. He even danced. I saw some posters where it said Bob Dylan in Concert and Show and they weren’t kidding this was a show. I recognized some of the musicians with him from the last time but one addition that was new and welcome was Charlie Sexton. Sexton had played with Dylan for awhile in the late 90′s up until 2002 and I’ve know Sexton’s name for session work and work with other Austin musicians, but Charile brought a sex to the music. He’s kind of like a Nick Cave meets Bilxa Bargeld on stage. Dark, tall, lanky with some fabulous hair. But his guitar playing was AMAZING. I could hardly take my eyes off of his fingers last night. He brought almost a Punk Rock energy to the show.
Not only was Dylan firing on all cylinders last night but so was the crowd and his band. This is easily one of the top five shows I’ve ever seen in my life. I was simply amazed by the performance and the experience last night. I’d like to give a shout out to my Aunt Paula and my cousin Brandon Lash who hooked me up with a fifth row ticket for the night! I was so close I could see the wrinkles on Dylan’s face!
So if you get a chance to see Dylan live this year, do it, no matter what the cost. You won’t be disappointed!
October 24th Set List: Cedar Falls Iowa
Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Just Like A Woman
Rollin’ And Tumblin’
Tryin’ To Get To Heaven
High Water (for Charlie Patton)
Blind Willie McTell
Summer Days
Tangled Up In Blue
Highway 61 Revisited
Workingman’s Blues #2
Thunder On The Mountain
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Jolene
Like A Rolling Stone
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This post was written by Gabe Wilkinson on October 25, 2010
Hey Gabe, you are so busted man. You could not have attended the same concert I did and write that review. People go to concerts to see performers not to acquire permanent hearing loss. That was just crazy!! My husband and I walked out early. When we left, we were almost to the street when we could begin to hear the words Dylan was singing. That’s where the audience should have been sitting for that volume of noise. The audience looked like they were in shock. Nobody was rocking out. It was more like a physical assault that they had to endure than a concert they were enjoying. Dylan is all about the words…imagine going to a Dylan concert where you couldn’t understand a single word he sang or even recognize which song he was playing. He could have been singing the words to the Star Spangled Banner for all we know. At the beginning of one song, the audience was totally non responsive till Dylan got to the phrase “Zangled zup zin Zluuuuue” and then they applauded as if they had all suddenly recognized what in the heck the dang song was that he was singing. And what was up with Dylan not singing the melody to any of his songs? Does he not own the rights to his own melodies? We’ve been to a lot of concerts in the last 40 years. This goes down as the absolute worst we’ve ever attended. Not Dylan’s fault the sound was too loud. Whoever is in charge of the McCloud Center concerts needs some schooling on proper decibel levels and damage to hearing…and should perhaps attend a concert there themselves.
- Jill Lockey
Hey Jill!
And remember Jill, the McLeod Center doesn’t have anything to do with the PA or the mix, that is what Dylan brings in both the PA system and the audio engineers that run the sound.
I guess I am busted, but not for the same reasons you laid out here, but for the reason that I wear Ear plugs to every concert I go to and have for nearly 20 years. Being a musician myself I learned from Pete Townsend that it’s important to protect your hearing at all times. So I wear ear plugs to every concert no matter how big or small. And you have to admit, can you really understand all the words that Dylan sings on record? I can’t. I will agree with you that the first two songs of the concert were terrible sound wise, the mix was muddy and I couldn’t figure out which instruments where what, BUT after those two songs the mix got figured out and everything was in it’s place. I’ve seen A LOT of concerts since I was 8 years old (the first concert I ever went to was Willie Nelson at the Cattle Congress) and rarely if ever can I understand everything that the singer is singing. Usually their vocals are overpowered in the mix by something else or they just can’t sing it live and bring the energy they need to. No biggie, I go to concerts to see the PERFORMANCE of those songs. If I want to hear the songs as they are performed on the record, I’ll stay home and listen to the record. I’m sorry you didn’t have the same enjoyable experience I did at the show, but honestly for me it was one of the top 10 concerts I’ve ever seen. I also must admit that I was in the fifth row of the show, so a lot of the PA sound was flying right over the top of me and I had a lot of bodies in front of me blocking the full blast of the speakers on the floor. But I can honestly say that the people in front of me and around me were rocking out BIG TIME, so much so that the dude next to me was smoking a doobie
And while I’m offering a counter opinion here, I do appreciate you chiming in with your opinion! It’s awesome to hear (er read) some feedback on what I’m writing about. So thank you for taking the time to make your voice heard!
Gabe.
We were going back through concerts and performers we have seen…Mason Proffit, John Prine, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Buffet, Linda Ronstadt, Norman and Nancy Blake, It’s a Beautiful Day, Grateful Dead, David Bromberg, John Hartford, Jerry Jeff Walker, Emmy Lou Harris, Jackson Browne, Arlo Guthrie,…like Dylan, all known for their music and words and every one of those concerts we were able to hear all the words as well as the music and didn’t walk away with hearing loss. And yes, we too have heard of ear plugs. What was coming from the stage at those great performances was not an indecipherable buzz. We remember those as being very enjoyable evenings. Each and every one a full and satisfying experience. Kudos on snagging that great 5th row seat. We had front row seats for Fleatwood Mac. Their words were audible. When Mason Proffit sang “Two Hangman” and “Eugene Pratt”, (Arnolds Park, 1970, upstairs ballroom, SRO, packed in shoulder to shoulder like sardines), it was audible. When Jimmy Buffet sang “Come Monday” at Hancher Auditorium, audible…etc, etc. Seeing all those artists in concert was great because the music was better live than recorded…possibly because it was performed in places designed with music in mind. There is something magic about hearing music being performed live. It enters your body, fills you with that artist’s spirit and you come away feeling as if you have been graced with a piece of the artists’ soul.
If live music was always as fuzzy and words as indistinguishable as the Dylan concert, no one would pay to see any performer live…and if Bob Dylan’s recorded music sounded as mushy as it did in the McCleod center, with the exception of South Park fans, who would listen to it or buy it? Go to the Internet and check out Tom Waits singing through a megaphone into an old microphone to distort his voice doing “Chocolate Jesus”. That is more like what it sounded like to everyone who wasn’t in your fifth row seat. However Mr. Dylan’s words were not nearly as clear Mr. Waits’. I have never walked away from a concert feeling like I had not actually attended the concert, but with words and music distorted in that manner, that’s what it feels like. We have yet to find someone who attended that was not disappointed and still angry.
I have to say that I can not rule out a contact high from “medical marijuana” as a perfectly plausible explanation for your euphoric experience, but aside from that I’m thinking we need to know the number of your seat. It is quite possible that you, Gabe Wilkinson, have unwittingly stumbled onto the “sweet spot” in that all-concrete-echo-chamber-of-a-sports-arena and as such, the McCleod center should be auctioning off a golden ticket for that seat to one very lucky attendee for every concert.
Bob Dylan, his band, his sound equipment and his audio engineers aside, this is not the first concert at the McCleod Center where we have heard from people grumbling that they could not understand a single word. The response my husband is getting from his coworkers, who are frequent concert goers, has been “Hey, we warned you.” He was indeed warned about the sound at the McCleod Center and the list of those who have had equally bad experiences is growing.
I guess in today’s world the old “Grapevine” adage should be changed to “Believe only half of what you read” and if I might add one last fractured foreboding remark…”Let the concert attendee beware.”
-Jill Lockey
Fair enough Jill. It appears that both of us had very very different experiences at the show and I don’t think either one of us can convince the other that our experience was the correct one for the other person.
I think we might have a generational thing going on here too.
I’m used to extremely loud shows in small venues with unaudiable lyrics most of the time, and in a moment of complete honesty, I often times could care less about what is being said in the words. For me music is a more a visual experience in a live setting. It’s about the performance, what the musicians are doing, the interaction on the stage. Even on record I tend to care more about the music than the lyrics, in fact a strong vocal performance tonally can make an album for me likewise a weak vocal performance tonally can ruin an album despite what the lyrical content is. A perfect example of that is Sigur Ros who don’t even sing in a real language but the vocals create the mood and lift the the music up. I hope you click on that link too, the music is truly original and completely awe inspiring.
So it looks like an instance of “we will just have to agree to disagree”.
I do hope you keep reading the blog though and perhaps you’ll discover something new that you’ll like!
Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist
Enjoyed reading through this…. I’m seeing Dylan next week… it will be my 3rd time (1981 and 2007). But Jill … I’m still trying to get over the fact that you’ve seen Mason Profitt live! I have some of their old vinyl and really also enjoy the early Christian recordings of the brothers John and Terry Talbot. In fact, John Michael Talbot is one of my Facebook friends. Small world.
i took my son to see bob dylan at western ct. u. in danbury ct. about 1992 wow that was really a long time ago. a beautiful late spring afternoon it was great he talked non stop between songs made jokes and seemed to be having a good time. we were up front and you could understand the songs .we went to get soda and found his voice sounded better farther away so we stayed where we were. it was the best dylan concert i ever saw. but i have to admit the best ever concert was the next year. i took my daughter to see peter, paul and mary at the same place. this time they offered reserved seats and we were 5 rows back they always put on great shows and this being outdoors and mary living about 5 miles from the concert knew a lot of people. during breaks where one of the 3 sang a couple of solo songs the other 2 would walk around the crowd sit on the grass and watch the show. when mary’s turn to take a break she too walked around, stopped at our row and said ” diane it’s so nice that you came and after a few words she walked around again. when all 3 were back on stage she said hello to some friends , then said i’d like to thank the young lady who sells me my dresses at the danbury mall, she knows what i like and gives her opinions on what i try on. diane please stand up so people know to look for you in such and such store. her face was almost purple she was so thrilled. and dear old dad almost fell off my chair. i think the audience sang more parts of songs than peter paul and mary didit was the best show i ever attended even if my daughter had not been recognized