April 22, 2012
Review by Eduardo Oliveira
Here we go again. After four years, the monthly sneak at boblinks.com
pays off and we spot some concerts near our home. It's kind of a
ritual: we complain about the prices, take a look at the latest set
lists, get impacient with mainstream media reviews. And then we stand
in line. Around us we see lots of young faces, few of them look like
real fans, dylanlogists, as one recent reviwer so correctly defined us.
We recognize ourselves by the outdated t-shirt, the grey hair and the
superior look we throw at these kids. Don't get us wrong, we can live
with them, sometimes even teach them something, as long as they don't
make silly comments or shout some dumb song request (believe me, pimple
faced history student, he will not sing hurricane!)
So the theater is almost full and, as usual, he arrives on time. Half a
song later, all the little annoying things are far, far away.
"Leopard..." is good, not brilliant, but is enough to remind us we are
in presence of greatness. This guys can really deliver it. On this
specific night the accoustic of the place is great, and we can
understand Bob's vocals clearly (which, let's face it, is not that
common) as he jumps from one great song to another. The first part of
the concert was amazing, a series of favorities and
not-so-favorities-but-beutifully-executed songs.
"It ain't me" were nice and warm, "Things have changed" had great harp
solos, but "Tangled up" was the real deal. Bob recited (shouting) word
by word, breaking the sequences on strange spots, certainly to mess
with our heads and make us look silly in front of the kids. We couldn't
sing along as we dreamt all those years, but the song was perfect. The
band was already on fire, as would remain most of the night. "Beyond
here...", the sublime "Not dark yet", a jazzy "Summer days", then
"Simple twist of faith"' one of the evening highlights, with Bob as a
real crooner. On "High water" the banjo made him dance, "Trying to get
to heaven" gave us our breath again, but "Highway 61" was the usual
frenesi. We can't help notice, every time, how the band loves to play
this bluesy rock, seting fire on the audience. What a incredible
sequence!
Some of us didn't fell in love with "Forgetful heart" on the album, but
Bob really put his heart on this song. "Thunder on the mountain" was
just regular, and we breathe deeper and thought that things were
cooling off. Not quite. "Ballad of a thin man" with a strange echo
effect was a blast, probably the high point of the evening. Bob was on
the loose on stage, doing his weird dance, his vocals really
aggressive, and the audience went crazy. Those "hit-knowing" teens were
blown away by the song. And we, old schoolers, had a hard time
pretending we weren't surprised. Everyone got what they wanted as Bob
and his band presented us with explosive as always "Like a rolling
stone", followed by "All along the watchtower". In the end, "Blowin in
the wind", as everyone gathered near the stage.
As we leave, we start feeling pretty generous towards these well
intended and lucky kids, who could be doing a lot of other dumb things,
but chose to join us in this twice a decade reunion of "aficcionados".
And then we go home, making crazy plans about going to some foreign
country to experience all this without having to wait for another four
years. Is it like this everywhere?
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