November 20, 2017
Review by Barry Gloffke
Welcome back to New York City Bob.
In town for five nights (I will see four) at the legendary Beacon Theatre,
he and the Cowboys lit up the arena with another stellar performance. They
are winding down an incredible tour with a string of fabulous shows. The
Beacon Theatre is a beautifully renovated Art-Deco building erected in
1929. Great sight lines and great sound (unless you are in the back of
orchestra under the balcony). A wonderful venue for Bob, but
unfortunately, not such an enthusiastic crowd to greet him. I was about 20
rows back in the orchestra, and I could swear that barely half the people
around me found it important to stand and greet the band when they arrived
on stage. Unreal!! When the banded charged into the opener of THINGS HAVE
CHANGED almost the entire audience sat down. The band is firing from the
first and I am up and loving it, but not 1 minute into the song a lady
taps me on the shoulder and asks me to sit down… pardon me ma’am, but
you’re in the wrong place, you have to leave. Come on!!… the show just
started 1 minute ago and you are already complaining about people
dancing!!! These listless Dylan crowds are becoming tiresome. I feel that
a good percentage of people actually want to dance, but they don’t want
the hassle of a confrontation with moaning and groaning fans. The woman
eventually went to get an usher who asked me to sit during HIGHWAY 61
REVISITED. I grudgingly obliged. While I am ranting about annoying fans…
it’s not only the dancing police, but certain (so called) Dylan fans
show up late (very late) to shows and ruin the continuity of the
performance… they are probably the ones who leave the show early.
Grrrrrrr!
Okay, enough digressing. Onto Bob. I cannot stress enough how good his
voice sounds on this tour. Better than it has in years. And because of
that he is reaching for lows, grasping for highs and stretching out his
vocal delivery in fascinating ways. Powerful, commanding vocals. And, to
add to the glory, his piano playing has been superb lately (except the
occasional strange treatment of DESOLATION ROW). Instead of harp or guitar
we have a reinvented Bob Dylan fronting a piano based, string accompanied,
thumpin’, bumpin’, rock n’ rollin’ band. It is an astonishing
transformation he has pulled off the last few years. It seems to have
reinvigorated him and that transmutes into great show after great show.
As usual the Band excelled in all they were tasked with. Smooth for the
American songbook songs, powerful for the blues-rockers, and hot, hot, hot
on the burners. So many highlights it was hard to have a favorite. It is
easier to point out what I was not so thrilled with… DESOLATION ROW. He
did an acceptable version this song in NASSAU COLISEUM and he nailed it in
TOWER THEATER, but last nights version got way too sing-songy for me. On
this song he also has a habit of stringing together two lines into one…
he did that last night and it did not really work for me. Other than that,
I was exceedingly happy with 19 out the of 20 songs. Bob was teasing out
lyrics last night, especially noticeable on TANGLED UP IN BLUE, where we
got ‘bluuuuuuuuuuuuu’ from Bob.
Again just too many highlights to bore you with details, but the Band was
fantastic on (everything) HONEST WITH ME and also seemed to stretch things
a bit on EARLY ROMAN KINGS, THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAIN (the burner highlight
of the night for me) and BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND which was given a proper
treatment. We also got a damned good BALLAD OF A THIN MAN. The surprise of
the night was when Bob opted for, and did a great rendition of, FULL MOON
AND EMPTY ARMS (which I believe was a first for this tour) instead of
SCARLET TOWN (which I can take or leave). Always nice to have a surprise
in the static set. Bellissimo!
Thanks Bob. Look forward to another great show Tuesday and hopefully a
more engaged audience.
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