Review by Anders Tidström
Dylan had the good taste to start the 2009 tour in Stockholm. Two hours
drive from my home is a good deal. Last year he skipped Sweden for
unknown reasons which forced me and a friend to spend several days to
go back and forth to the Finnish arena he visited. Monday night it
looked like sold out inside the enormous eggshell of Globen (the
Globe). As usual you expect nothing but a genuine concert of a genuine
kind by a genuine man and his band. And of course to that end there
were ten thousand satisfied minds during two hours musical show. And
for sure for hours after that too. As a Dylan oldtimer I can´t help but
looking back just a little. Nostalgia isn´t my cup of tea but history
is. I was a teenager when I first saw Dylan, Stockholm, April 1966. I
wrote my first newspaper article ever about Dylan´s first concert in
Sweden. Now looking at that and other stuff I wrote about Dylan at that
time it´s funny how certain elements of this song and dance man
characterized still remain strongly today. Dylan still is a musician,
poet and clown. "If you love Chaplin you can´t resist Dylan", could be
a good parole. And what about this specific Globe show? The arena is
first of all better out for ice-hockey as the sound waves tend to swirl
around like free swallows inside this spheric dome. Echo effects of
that kind are actually not at all qualifying for a concert venue.
Secondly, the show went on other qualifications - state of mind, poetic
splendor and musical thrill. So much heartfeld music. Dylan doing all
wellknown stuff in an expected less weelknown way. A tremnedous version
of Chimes of Freedom, Love Sick and Like a Rolling Stone, to mention
some real highlights. Rock, blues and ballads - maybe a swinging
calypso sound when Desolation Row was waving free before a disciplined
harmonica closure. And there a glimpse of the roots. No matter what new
versions in the air, you feel the roots. And Desolation Row was on the
set list also April -66. Dylan obviously feeling fine when his
companion musicians (though delivering good music) acting stiff and
dull all dressed in grey without a smile in sight - expecting rain?
George Recile was the exception: a wild dynamic propeller of Highway 61
- absolutely breath-taking (did he break less than ten sticks?) and
very close to the Globe take off for space. Add Dylan´s song and harp
mixture and we break through the earth´s atmosphere. Dylan did phrasing
some songs - like Desolation Row - in a staccato rythmic way I never
heard before. He was shooting the words like Alan Ladd once duelled way
west. One More Cup Of Coffee was more of a warm caretaker with roots
down south. Does the new cd, released next month, arrive from north or
east. Not a hint in concert yet. When finally Blowin´ In The Wind tuned
out in a 2009 version probably nobody ever heard anything like that.
Things have changed once more. No surprise. Dylan - now a citizen of
Obamaland.
Anders Tidström
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