Review by Storch
Light down Show time.
No matter how ready you think you are for Dylan the first song is always
a WTF moment.
Eventual , a couple of verses roll by, the fog start to lift and the first song
becomes somewhat clear, and in Denver on a snowy night, the opening
number found us Stuck Inside of Mobile, Again. One thing clear this band
has a whole new energy level, driven by Charlie Sexon. What is Charlie
doing hanging out with these guys? He don't even wear a hat! The first
song out of the gate finds Sexton crouching down and searching his
telecaster for that sound, refusing to let anything be taken for granted.
Charlie, dressed defiantly different from the bob clone band. He should
be hanging with the rat pack, not a cowboy band.
An early highlight, Bob on guitar for It Ain’t Me Babe. Bob and Charlie
trading riffs standing side by Jerry type doodling going on, a really nice
moment. Straight into Beyond Here, which started out as a great
barroom vamp but seem to take a wrong turn and got a bit lost, still
a great song that has a Masked and Anonymous / David Lynch feel.
Then You Go Your Way, made for a nice early double dip of
Blonde on Blonde
But it was on Cold Iron Bound that the show kicked into gear for me.
Bob standing center stage, harp and that old school crazy mic in hand ,
doing deep knee bends and pointing straight at us as with Charlie
couching nearby with the black guitar driving Bob on and raising the
level, melting the ice in this collage hockey rink.
After the roadhouse burn on CIB Bob took it down a notch but stayed
center stage and focus on a tasty Working Man Blues. Bob's voice could
have been clearer in the mix, but his harp playing more than compensated.
this show is such a contrast from the last two Denver gigs which had
very little (1 song?) of Bob stage center. I have a personal theory that
Bob is morphing into a new skin and that skin is Dean Martin! As Bob said
on TTR “Everyone wants to be Dino” Doubt my theory? Witness Bob
center stage crooning Workingman Blues, arms open wide, smiling face
and even breaking a sweat ….Now don’t get me wrong I don’t expect
to see Dylan jumping up the side of a piano to croon any time soon, but
hey don’t forget the Christmas album, it could be pointing that way.
After WMB’s the lights went down ( did I tell ya they had a minor light show
even?) and in the dark I heard the Banjo tuning and yep we are getting
High Water! This song smoked! Sexton guitars dueling with Donnie’s
banjo with Bob keyboards too low in the mix in the middle, a CLEAR vocal by
Bob added to the great blues verse that seems to change into a bluegrass
riff on the chores. This got the ever increasing crowd into it strong.
After that I needed the break that Spirit on the Water provider, The Modern
Times stuff provides a great ebb and flow to the show. Which flowed to
Honest With Me. Tonight this song took on a savage beat with a riff straight
out of Sly Stone’s I want to take you higher, hey, hey hey! Again the vocal
could have been clearer, but Bob's blazing harp work more than made up for
it as he ripped up a solo that would do Charles Musselwhite proud. For me the
highlight of the night!
Man in the Long Black Coat, took me a while to pick up on what this song
was, and by the time I did it was over. The revisit of Highway 61? The only
thing that could of possibly made this song better was if I was sipping a
tall whiskey on the rocks. Truly music to listen to while waiting up for the
end of the world.
After that, cool down again, Bob playing the roller rink organ and telling us that
indeed, he will be with us when the Deal Goes Down, very reassuring, what with
waiting for the end of the world and all. I believe Deal Goes Down can be the
Forever Young for the 21 st century. It make a great wedding song, I owe my
heart to you, and that's sayin' it true And I'll be with you when the deal goes
down. It may not be Our Love Is Here to Stay, but it’s not bad for 2010…
Thunder OTM Sexton‘s silver telecaster brought this song level up to a 11
(that’s higher than 10) and then there is Mister Jones….OMG!
This song alone is worth the 50 bucks! (not counting service fee).
Bob front and center wearing that damm hat calling us all Mister Jones,
ripping the cover off the world, while and Stu and Charlie pounding out
that deadly riff on telecasters until the break, When Bob comes strolling in,
playinghis harp, totally sweet and innocent, strolling, walking in place like
he’s walking away from the scene of the crime ,with this “who me? “
boyish look on his face. It’s truly great.
We are forced to wear earphone, We are Mister Jones !
After this I image Bob took a Biglow decaf green tea break.Which led to the
standard encore. Its a bit reassuring to know what coming after the strain of
trying to ID some songs ,even if it was some what easy tonight as it was a
pretty standard set list.LARS didn’t hit me. Jolene is a Real good blues song .A
song made for BB King. I would love to hear BB sing as he pounds his fist in
his open hand … Jolene, Baby I am the King and you are the Queen. What a great
blues line and riff!Leading us to Watchtower. Bob was great on this song doing a
Joe Strummer type vocal spitting out the cliche classic lines
SOLETUSNOTTALKFALESYNOWTHEHOURISGETTINGLATE!
All and all the best Dylan show I’ve seen in my short history of seeing Dylan.
The fact is the entire band was on like I never seen them before. Special
kudos to George on drums Tony on bass for the director's cut of this review
go to http://rockandrollforgets.blogspot.com/
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