October 24, 2013
Review by Sascha Krieger
One must assume that the pool has gone dry. The “Dylan Pool” that is, a favorite
pastime of Bob Dylan fans from all over the world, competing with each other on
who can best predict his set list throughout a tour as well as for individual concerts.
Playing it these days must be a rather boring affair: Bob Dylan, the master of the
unpredictable, the moody troubadour with whom you never knew what you were
going to get on any given night, seems to have joined the ranks of those well-oiled
musical machines who play exactly the same songs in exactly the same order night
after night, well-rehearsed but without any surprised. Currently touring Europe,
Dylan has now extended his stretch of consecutive identical shows to six – and an
end is not in sight. Has Dylan’s live act therefore been stifled in pure routine,
become another mechanical touring act aimed at pleasing audiences with minimal
effort and even less artistic ambition? Far from it, in fact, Dylan’s latest incarnation –
or should one say re-invention? – as a live performer my well be producing his best
and musically most exciting performances in a long time.
For the price of more predictability and less to no surprises has been paid to achieve
something Dylan’s live shows have often lacked: musical intensity and consistency.
Unlike the somewhat eclectic and often uneven efforts of the 1990s and 2000s,
Bob Dylan’s music today has a clearly definable character: a strong symbiosis of
country and blues rock, with elements of rockabilly, jazz and folk merging with it in
an effortless and logical way. So when he takes the stage for the first of three
straight shows in Berlin’s comparably intimate Tempodrom, it soon becomes clear,
that the heartbeat of this music is set by drummer George Recile: his stomping drum
work lays the foundation and defines the pulse of this dense, earthy, pounding
music that has a strong blues core from the first to the very last note. Recile has
been Dylan’s drummer since 2002, the entire band has spend a minimum of eight
years on the road with Dylan – bassist Tony Garnier has been there since 1989 – in
this precise lineup they have almost 300 concerts under their belts.
Now provided with a stable set list, this familiarity finally shows. The arrangement
have become much more complex, there is more musical consistency and density,
indeed more substance, in them, the sloppiness of earlier days is gone. Whereas in
the past, Dylan seemed to have made them up as he went – and fairly often actually
did so – his renditions are now well considered, almost definitive interpretations of his
songs. This is quite obvious for the more familiar songs in his set list: She Belongs to
Me is now a tight, soulful blues ballad, Tangled Up in Blue a hard-nosed folk rock
ballad that rambles still but meanders no more, Simple Twist of Fate has a hard and
edgy earthiness it has never possessed, Love Sick has been reduced to pre, bluesy
staccato while his Oscar winning Things Have Changed is now a lively country rock
number, as is the ever-changing All Along the Watchtower.
Another thing is characteristic of Dylan’s current performances: Whereas, in the past,
he has mixed material from different periods of his career, the focus now is clearly on
recent material: six songs are from his 2012 album Tempest, overall twelve of the 19
songs on the set list have been released since 2000, only a single song on the regular
set list – plus the two encores – is from the famed 1960s. Bob Dylan is very much
still a creating – and creative artist – a musician who lives and works here and now.
So it is no surprised that the newer material is among the strongest: this goes
especially for the rougher, rockier tunes such as the almost violent Pay in Blood or
the pure blues rock of Early Roman Kings. Duquesne Whistle has an almost effortless
drive, while the dreamily floating ballads Forgetful Heart and Soon after Midnight, but
also the starkly balladesque Scarlet Town provide several highly poetic and at times
even haunting moments.
And Dylan? He moves back and forth between singing center stage and performing
behind the grand piano, his current – and surprisingly ably played – instrument of
choice. No more is his playing on the edge of funny or even embarrassing, as an
instrumentalist, he has become a key element of the band’s sound. His singing has
improved again: his raspy voice is at its most expressive, he uses it to practically sculpt
songs, his monotonous bark has given way to a surprisingly versatile voice full of
nuances that show particularly on the newer material. Far from just shouting out the
lyrics, he fills the words with meaning, has returned to being the story teller he used
to be – although with a very different feel, he has almost turned into his own version
of one of those old-time blues man he admires so much. He still doesn’t smile or show
emotion in his face, but it’s all there: in the singing, the playing, the music. And who
knows: during the next two shows, he might surprise us after all?
Comment by Tommy Kerr
The review by Sascha Krieger is the most eloquent, insightful, and accurate
reflection of this concert and of this entire 2013 tour. Krieger nailed it without
veering into bias or hysteria while explaining exactly why this tour is exquisitely
superb.
Tommy Kerr
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