July 13, 2016
Review by Peter Stone Brown
It was raining all day in Philadelphia, sometimes in torrents – which
was not the original forecast – finally stopping about 90 minutes before
the show. But since people in the City of Brotherly Love have never
learned to drive in the rain and didn’t pay attention to things like
braking distances and hydroplaning when they learned how to drive, there
was a serious crash that closed a key road for getting to the Mann Music
Center, which left us sitting in parking lot traffic and missing the
opening of Mavis Staples’ set.
Now in its 40th year, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts has never
been a great venue. Built on the best sledding hill in the city, the
acoustics are great if you’re in the first 20 rows, but after that, a
lot of the sound can get lost and jumbled depending on various factors
from what kind of band playing to how noisy the crowd is, and how large
the crowd is.
The audience was pretty noisy for Mavis Staples with many people still
arriving and looking for their seats. There an ongoing conversation
happening a few rows behind me for a good deal of her set and people
already seated leaving them for whatever reason. At 77, Mavis Staples has
her vocal skills intact and more energy than a lot of people a third of
her age. Backed by guitar, bass, drums, and two backup singers, one of
whom added percussion, Staples was at her best the deeper she got into
gospel with the high point being “Freedom Highway” which went right
into “For What It’s Worth.” She closed with the hit, “I’ll Take
You There.”
Dylan’s set started with Stu Kimball alone on acoustic while the other
band members and Dylan took the stage, as usual starting with “Things
Have Changed” which had a slightly different arrangement, that was not
quite the rockabilly train beat of the last few years. Dylan seemed in
good spirits and was throwing emphasis on the final word of various lines,
like jitterbug RAG and DRAG. “She Belongs To Me” had similar phrasing
on alternate lines, and there was a cool harp solo while Donnie Herron
played organ licks on the pedal steel. Dylan then went to the piano for
“Beyond Here Lies Nothing,” where Herron’s electric mandolin was
high in the mix.
The first Sinatra song of the night, “Full Moon and Empty Arms”
highlighted by the interplay between Herron’s steel and Tony Garnier’s
string bass, which was followed by the most rocking song of the night,
“Pay In Blood.” Amazingly, following that with “Melancholy Mood”
made sense, as did the next song, “Duquesne Whistle” which featured a
cool twin solo by Charlie Sexton and Herron. Dylan then returned to
center stage for one of the more moving songs of the night, “How Deep Is
The Ocean,” which was followed by “Tangled Up In Blue,” which had a
quickly abandoned false start. Dylan sang it very well though I’m not
thrilled by the lyric changes in the version that he’s been doing for
the past few years. He delivered a fairly wild harp solo before ending the
song at the piano and breaking for intermission.
Returning to the stage for a set where Tony Garnier never touched an
electric bass, Donnie’s banjo dominated “High Water (for Charlie
Patton),” and while what he was playing was great, the arrangement
missed the power chords of previous arrangements that were totally
effective in emphasizing the lyrics. A fine “Why Try To Change Me
Now” was followed by a fairly dramatic “Early Roman Kings” with
Sexton playing a Les Paul Gibson, and Stu Kimball a Stratocaster with
everyone including Bob on piano and Herron on steel taking it out on the
solos. It was easily the funkiest romp of the night.
“I Could Have Told You” came next and at this point the show started
to drag a little. “Scarlet Town” was not as spooky as it could have
been, and while Bob appeared to be having fun on “Spirit On The
Water,” clearly enjoying his quite good piano solo, the best part of the
song was the instrumental work by everyone involved.
The high point of the rest of the set was easily the closer, “Autumn
Leaves.” Returning for the usual encore of “Blowin’ In The Wind,”
Dylan then pulled a surprise ending replacing “Love Sick” with the
always moving “Stay With Me.”
Dylan shows these days are about showing how good his band is, and at this
point they can play pretty much anything, and also about singing. In the
interview in AARP magazine before Shadows In The Night came out, Dylan
said he is not so much “covering the songs as uncovering them.” It is
clear he enjoys the challenge of singing these pop standards, and at times
the way he sings clearly shows his appreciation of the wordplay in that
type of lyric writing.
However, as well planned and performed as these concerts are, there’s
another indefinable thing that only Bob Dylan can deliver that is not
happening on this tour or perhaps it’s being channeled in a different
direction. If there’s one thing that 53 years of listening to Bob Dylan
has taught me, it’s that nothing stays the same for long. He may yet
have a couple of more tricks up his sleeve.
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