July 8, 2009
Review by Francis King
On Wednesday, my wife and I drove up from Nashville to the city of
baseball bats for my 48th Bob Dylan concert since 1974. My expectations
these days are tempered by the fact that the man is now 68 years old, has
been doing this for almost 50 years and, accordingly, it is astonishing
that he can still pull it off at all.
The show in Louisville was a mixed bag. Dylan played electric guitar on
the first three songs, Watching the River Flow, Man in the Long Black Coat
and Just Like Tom Thumb?s Blues. Aside from the pleasure in hearing Coat
done live (a rarity for me), these first three were somewhere between
pedestrian and weak. The current arrangement of Tom Thumb was boring. I
usually delight in Dylan?s experimentation and rearrangement of his tunes;
it has always been one of his great strengths as a performer. This
arrangement of Tom Thumb, however, was just dull. Dylan?s attempts to
play leads on his electric guitar have always annoyed me somewhat. He?s
really terrible at it. I have always thought he was a passable electric
rhythm player, and that he was a much better acoustic player than he was
given credit for (will we ever see him play acoustic again?). But,
electric lead? Forget about it. Bob should leave the leads to Denny
Freeman. (Speaking of which, I think Bob would do well to let Freeman and
Stu Kimball have more guitar playing range a la Larry Campbell and Charlie
Sexton. That band was looser, gutsier and just plain better. But, I?ll
bet Freeman and Kimball could get a lot closer if unleashed.)
Dylan moved to the organ for an alternative rendition of Rollin? &
Tumblin?, which did not hold up to the Modern Times version, although it
was o.K. The same could be said of the next number, Spirit On The Water.
Things Have Changed, missing its defining melodic theme, was
disappointing.
The show then picked up considerably. Bob did a solid performance of Did
You Ever Go to Houston, followed by a heart-felt revival of A Hard Rain?s
A Gonna Fall. Highway 61 Revisited was well done (as usual) with Dylan
playing some very cool organ licks. (His organ playing is actually
getting increasingly good, although I liked the honky tonk, almost
jazz-like doodling of his electric piano tours better.) Po? Boy was
reasonably well done, and Thunder On The Mountain and Like A Rolling Stone
were quite strong (Rolling Stone better than I?d seen him do it for quite
some time, in part because Dylan?s organ was very good on that one.) The
encore performances of Jolene and the overdone All Along The Watchtower
(as predictable as the sunrise) were very solid.
Overall, while a number of the individual songs were somewhere between
just o.k. and disappointing, the performance was enjoyable. Dylan?s voice
was strong, his organ playing interesting and improved and the band ?
despite not being quite in the Campbell/Sexton league ? is very good.
Dylan is still well in command on stage and, as I said up front, at this
point, it just amazes me that he can still do it at all!
Comments by David A. Friedman
I reacted differently from Francis. I thought the show was lively, Bob
and the band were engaged and playful, there were some terrific
back-and-forth jams while Bob was on the keyboards, and the songs were
very solid. Hard Rain, If You Ever Go to Houston and Tom Thumb's Blues
were particularly strong.
David A. Friedman
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