June 23, 2008
Review by Ant Walker
We crossed the desert to see Dylan play a car park, my wife Ester and me...
Zaragoza, Spain lies just on the edge of the Monegros Desert. Dylan was
booked to play as part of the Expo, 'Hard Rain' being the official theme song
of the event. The venue, according to the tickets was 'la feria de muestras',
a trade-fair. I had something like the Birmingham NEC in mind, but no: the
stage was set up outside -in the car park!
June 23 is an important date in the Spanish calendar: Sant Juan, the
commencement of summer. Coincidentally, it was the first anniversary of
seeing the Stones in San Sebastian, but that's another story…
It had been nigh on two decades since my last live encounter with His
Bobness, and I confess to being more than a little nervous. He'd been
lookin' so frail in recent photos, just didn't know what to expect. You
never do with Dylan at the best of times! He took to the stage at round
9.30, resplendant in black, a silver stripe down his pants -and a bigger,
whiter hat than even the Desire model (often in danger of blowing in the
wind). His two literary honour medals, Spanish and French, proudly dangled
either side of his equally shiny buttons. Th five piece Modern Times band,
predominantly in black, with a variety of headgear:
George Recile: drums and kangol cap
Tony Garnier: bass, double bass, cowboy
Donnie Herron: steel guitars, banjo, violin, electric mandolin, silver suit, no hat
Denny Freeman: lead guitar, cowboy
Stu Kimball: rhythm guitars and pork-pie
As tight'n'loose as you'd expect after more than two years as a unit, and
havin' a real good time one'n'all!
El Señor treated us to a trip upon the magic swirling ship of his career (just
over 2 hours with the encores), with many super-radical reworkings. They
played a bit of everything: from country-blues to blues-country, a touch of
jazz to boot, but the key feel was some of the kickingest rock'n'roll boogie I've
ever witnessed live. Hadn't known what to expect, but didn't expect that!
Smack-on sound system --and no matter how hard the band pumped, Bob's
perfectly phrased croakin'+growlin' never got lost in the mix. Despite my calling
"Play us some geetar, Bob!" a coupla times, he remained firmly planted behind
his electric piano the whole night.
With the big desert sky as their backcurtain, the band kicked in with an
elaborate country intro. Took me a while to work out what it was: 'I'll be your
baby tonight'; an arrangement as intricate as the original is simple. Bob havin' a
lot of fun with the lyric: "Why dontcha just bring that bottle over here?" A sign
of things to come…
'Don't think twice'The rib rattling stand-up bass makes its debut, and a mighty
cheer when Bob's harp does too. Great poppin' vocal to keep up with the
pickin' -and a masterful tempo change to finish Vegas Cabaret style!
Another one that you couldn't really suss till the first vocal. 'Tom Thumb's Blues',
remodelled as a full-on funky blues, with enormous drums and no less than three
blistering guitar solos.
'Levee's gonna break' Bringing us up to more Modern Times, (thanks Wook!)
with an absolutely mental swamp-stop rendition: all the players -Boppin' Bob
most of all- were well off it! Electric mandolins are cool things, man…
It was just getting dark enough to lift the lighters for a mellowed-down ballad
version of 'Shelter from the storm' (Spanish punters love doing that!) Very lovely,
bit more harmonica too: came across something like 'Lay Lady Lay'. Clouds were
gathering on the desert-sky backdrop, the air getting stickier by the minute.
'Cry a while' Considerably beefed-up from Love and Theft, almost encroaching
upon leopardskin pillbox territory at times. Some truly excellent near-straight
blues harp from The Man for good measure. Banjos are cool things too…
Lapsteel and cymbals, joined by acoustic guitar provide a long rolling intro which
dropped sweetly into 'Just like a woman'. A heartfelt creaky talk-through, with
the audience more than happy to help out with the refrain. And more butane.
'Things have changed' The Oscar winner got taken apart and put back together
like some kind of surreal Tom Waits/Beefheart construction. Electric fiddle in the
cocktail this time. Got Bob's ass movin' and it sure as hell got ours, but there
was 'mucha gente' not quite sure what to make of it…
'Beyond the horizon' A country waltz to calm things down a little, the double
bass and drums not being able to resist some incongruous twangs and snaps,
however. Bob's cheesy organ and husky Harry Nilsson phrasing worked a treat!
A ripping intro into 'Honest with me'. Full-tilt get-down boogie, open savagery
on the drumkit in particular. Even raised a smile from Don Zimmerman: there
were just a few, and -aside from introducing his "friends" a little later- not a
spoken word. Par for the course!
The double bass got bowed for 'When the deal goes down', perfectly
complementing the lapsteel and a genuinely warm and mellow delivery
from Dylan.
Now almost too dark to even see my notebook, wamm! 'Highway 61',
reconstructed over a mental jungle rhythm, with a creamy lick of 'Crossroads'
thrown in for good measure ¡Enorme! We came to dance, and dance we did.
'Hard rain'Inevitable outing for the Expo Anthem. Much more faithful to last
year's country re-make than the feisty folk of the original, electric mandolin
included. Beguiling backing, hypnotic vocal -a different way to address the
"blue-eyed son" each time.
Back to the boogie: the appropriate 'Summer days' had Bob bobbin' round
again. One of those smiles between drummer and bass that says "Look: The
Man's enjoyin' himself!" And lo: he too flashed a smirk while snappin' out the
vocal. At times I was convinced they were gonna medley into 'Shake, Rattle
an' Roll' or somesuchlike: wild!
'All along the watchtower' Acoustic levels owing more to JMH than JWH: an
immense, loping, menacing vision! Dylan in great voice: actually singing, albeit
with a wildcat growl. Shimmery tremolo guitar solo before repeating 1st verse
at the end. And off they walked…
A goodly wait for the encores: Bob in particuar looking suitably 'relaxed and
refreshed' as they slammed into 'Thunder on the mountain'. A last-ditch
attempt to call down the rain. The heavens fortunately remained intact,
though not for lack of effort on the band's part (an almost Who-like intensity),
nor for Bob's -thundering the keyboard like Jerry-Lee!
'Like a rolling stone' You can imagine how it felt! That snare crack, His Bobness
Himself actually laughing as he re-kooperated the classic organ refrain and
continued to 'wiggle wiggle'. Amazing vocal: he hit every note he went for,
and twisted a different inflection into each "How does it feel?" while the
audience carried the original cascading melody. A gleamingly clean guitar solo
brought to mind Randy and Frisky. There's a good quality float on Youtube,
probably from the guy stood next to us. Big finish, wordless gestures of
thanks, and away…
Showing no signs of gathering moss at 67, we saw his bus roll out less than
10 mins later. Next stop Pamplona: same show very probably, but no repeat
performances fer sure.The paltry 5,000 who were there witessed, without a
doubt, a legendary performance from the legend. Many of them didn't seem
to've entirely appreciated the fact, but hell man, Bob's used to that! (I didn't
hear any 'Judassing', at least…)
Me? I got my €25-worth. Thanks Bob: may you stay forever young!
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