July 30, 2009
Review by Brian Jordan
We had great seats right down front for a good solid 5 hours of a graduate
level class on great American music.
Much has already been written about Willie's ability to connect with the
crowd with his smiles and pointing, and it held true this night, everyone
around us had either gotten a smile and wave or a hat or headband from
Willie. He's a pro and knows how to make you love him.
I was not expecting to enjoy John Mellencamp's show as much as I did. Very
solid rock and roll from a tight band. Dylan came out just after dark after it
had started to rain a little. He played the first two songs, Watching the River
Flow, and Don't Think Twice on guitar and his Dylan/mathematical formula
ltriplet thing eads actually worked well for these. He took his place behind the
keyboard for the rest of the show. Lonesome Day Blues was next, followed by Hard
Rain. It was on Hard Rain that the new formulation of the band seemed to have
some trouble following his arrangement of this song. Stu and Denny kept their
eyes locked on Bob for any sort of clues, while Don Herron used his vantage to
study his hands on the keyboards. The band seemed very stiff and careful on
several songs, it was later, when they got to some of the more frequently played
songs on this tour that they seemed to loosen up a little and play. When they
found the groove, or felt comfortable enough that Bob would approve, they let
their considerable abilities shine. Bob's vocals were largely intelligible.
Some of the blame could probably fall on the mix, but I would imagine it's hard
to find a good mix for a growling rusty baritone sax. It works in the studio,
as evidenced on his last few albums. High Water was a high water mark, band and
Bob sounded great, Po Boy was nice to hear and Bob seemed to have a lot of fun
with this playful song. Tweedle Dee seemed to go on forever, and it's hard to
imagine that our greatest repository of amazing songs would chose to perform
this one, but the band played it well. Workingman's Blues worked. Highway 61
got the crowd on it's feet once they recognized what it was. It was a far cry
from the more blistering versions I heard with Charlie and Larry playing, but
maybe I should just give the new lineup time to figure our how to play with Bob.
Ain't Talkin' and Thunder on the Mountain were the last songs before the
encore, and the latter rocked, the guitarists seemed more comfortable with their
roles for this song and let loose. Rolling Stone and Jolene followed by
Watchtower of course for the big finish. Watchtower was strange, Bob was
evidently feeling playful as he did this strange sing-song thing to the lyrics.
He was obviously amusing himself as he was smiling broadly, and actually broke
into a laugh between verses. I guess if I played the same song for as many years
I would do what I could to have some fun with it to. All in all, a very
enjoyable night. Great to see Bob after a 3 or 4 year dry spell. Look forward
to seeing them again after the band has had time to coalesce.
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page by Bill Pagel
billp61@execpc.com
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