Review by Christof Graf
,
"Another Masterpiece in Frankfurt". - When Dylan arrived in Frankfurt
a.M. / Germany, he had already completed the tour kick-off in Prague on
October 4 with three concerts: This was followed by the German tour
kick-off in Erfurt, three concerts in Berlin and a concert in Nuremberg.
At the first two Prague concerts, he still experimented with the setlist.
He played "Dignity" instead of "Watching The River Flow". By the
third Prague performance at the latest, he had determined his concert
format. There have been no changes in the setlist since then. But you
never really know beforehand whether that would change. After the first of
three concerts of the Frankfurt Concert Marathon from October 16 to 18,
2024, it was known. "Things have not changed". The setlist remained
unchanged.
The venerable Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt-Hochst is located
in the middle of a residential and commercial area in the west of
Frankfurt, 15 kilometers from "Main-City". With about 2000 seats, it
was almost sold out. The atmosphere before the concert was almost
unusually relaxed. Body checks announced by the tour organizer via e-mail
failed to materialize. Only the smartphones had to be locked in the Yondr
pockets, which have been known since the beginning of the "Rough And
Rowdy Ways" tour. Admission to the hall was at 6.30 p.m. Everyone who
has a name in the rock and pop scene has performed there since 1963. Bob
Dylan's "role model" Frank Sinatra also played there in 1975.
With two gongs, the punctual start at 8:00 p.m. was heralded. Then the
hall lights went out and in fact not a single smartphone screen flickered.
Welcome again to the phone-free-experience of Bob Dylan 2024.
Since his first Berlin concert, it was said that Dylan would play guitar
on the first two songs. I was curious. But the picture did not meet
expectations. Dylan came out of the darkness onto the stage, stepped up to
his baby grand piano, sat down and sang the first song. For the first two
minutes of the game, he was not yet recognizable as who he would become.
An unobtrusive, yet driving rhythm introduces the song and Dylan turns his
back to his audience while sitting. He reaches for an electric guitar
lying next to the piano. Looking at his drummer and bassist, he actually
plays the guitar while sitting. Then he quickly puts the instrument away
again and concentrates on his piano keys. The words "there must be some
kind of way out of here/ said the joker to the thief", spoken into the
microphone more than sung, finally reveal that it is the opener "All
Along The Watchtower". A first scene applause from the audience is the
result. Dylan takes a similar approach to the second song, "It Ain't
Me, Babe". The scene seems a bit like a kind of rehearsal, as if the
band around Tony Garnier (electric and standup bass), Jim Keltner (drums),
Bob Britt and Doug Lancio on electric and acoustic guitars) wanted to get
used to songs from the 60s and 80s.
After that, "I Contain Multidudes" introduced Dylan’s mood and the
song lines of the sixth verse "I'm a man of contradictions/ I'm a
man of many moods/ I contain multitudes"" stand for what Dylan celebrates
on this three-year tour: The presentation of his album "Rough And Rowdy
Ways", released in 2020 during the pandemic.
Only the almost 17-minute long "Murder Most Foul" is missing from the
live performance. Instead, there is an almost ten-minute "Key West"
(Philosopher Pirate), in which the band strains to do what they do all
evening, taking a professional step back to leave room for the "master
of words". "Key West" is quiet. It is only accompanied by delicate
sounds so as not to distract from Dylan's story, which he recites more
than sings. Instead, the song, which was initially not recognizable as
"Desolation Row", was played louder again.
At first, Dylan seems a bit insecure when he rises from the piano and
strides a little to the middle of the stage. He never takes quick steps.
He never strays too far from the piano, which acts like a support. Dylan
seems more fragile than at the concerts of the Outlaw Festival Tour in the
USA this summer. But from song to song he and his band become more
confident in playing. The five musicians live the slow and fast blues. At
first you can still hear small detunings, here and there a wrongly played
note or a failed entry, but very quickly the concerto condenses into a
true "masterpiece". Dylan plays nine songs from the "Rough And Rowdy
Ways" album. At the end, "Watching The River Flow" (1971) and the
final "Every Grain Of Sand" embed the songs "Mother Of Muses" and
"Goodbye Jimmy Reed". After a good 90 minutes, it's over. There is
no intermission or a "band introduction", nor did Dylan say a single
word to his audience. The four accompanying musicians were introduced
individually at various points during the gig. Bob Britt after "I
Contain Multidudes", Doug Lancio after "When I Paint My
Masterpiece", Jim Keltner after "My Own Version Of You" and Tony
Garnier after "Black Rider". The audience on this evening consisted
mainly of baby boomers, some of whom were accompanied by the next
generation and all witnessed a very special concert experience. They had a
cell-phone-free experience that was more like a visit to a jazz or blues
club than a visit to an artistic personality whose concert tours seem to
be "rough and rowdy" due to their age, but are probably also numbered
due to this circumstance. Thank you, Bob, for allowing us to be part of the
creation of one of your "masterpieces" again. Rarely have I heard such
a successful melange of Dylan's songs from four decades live. A melange
that has managed not to meet the already unfulfilled expectation of having
to play classics and still offer material from the back catalogue. "The
Times They Are-A-Changin" was the former battle anthem for the protest
scene from the third studio album of the same name from 1964. 60 years
later, it is no longer necessary to be sung, the content has long been
anchored in the collective memory. "Things Have Changed" (2000), a
song for which Bob Dylan once won an Oscar and in which he shares an aging
man's thoughts about the state of the world, is also no longer played.
In 2024, it's "Things Aren’t What They Were", as it says in his
thirteenth song (of seventeen in total) "I've Made Up My Mind To Give
Myself To You". Conclusion: In 2024, Bob Dylan will no longer spread
messages (if he ever did). In 2024, Bob Dylan tells stories and states: I
traveled the long road of despair/ I met no other traveler there/ A lot of
people gone, a lot of people I knew/ I've made up my mind to give myself
to you. It was nice to have been part of a stop on Bob Dylan's "Rough
And Rowdy Ways" journey and to have been told his stories in Frankfurt.
Review by Christof Graf
(More Infos and photos from the Frankfurt-Gig (in English andGerman
language) you find in my blog.leonardcohen.de:
http://blog.leonardcohen.de/?p=31596
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