July 10, 2007
Review by Condon
I attended my 16th Bob Dylan concert in Interlochen, MI on Tuesday
night. Interlochen is a leafy music camp for students 2nd grade
through high school. My wife and I made an interesting 4-day road
trip out of the concert, traveling from Northern Iowa through
Wisconsin and the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan, across the
great Mackinaw Bridge, then to Interlochen, about 100 scenic miles
south of the bridge. We camped at a Michigan State Park directly
across the road from the venue.
Tickets to this show were exceedingly hard to get. The amphitheater
seats only 3000, and the students and donors to Interlochen get
first chance at any concert tickets, and they scooped up 9/10ths
immediately, leaving very few available when on-line sales began. I
tried to buy them on-line, but a glitch in Interlochens' computer
prevented a sale in the short time that I had set aside that day. A
few weeks later I purchased two very expensive front-row-center
tickets on ebay which were being sold by the local United Way as a
fund raiser.
Jimmy Vaughan opened the show, and from my stage-side seat I was
able to really enjoy his blues picking. I had seen Jimmy Vaughan (an
Bob, of course) on last year's minor-league stadium shows in
Columbus, Ohio, and Rochester, Minnesota, and it was great to hear him
again.
Bob and the band made their entrance to the usual announcement and
tore into Cat's in the Well. Bob's microphone was distorted and at
times feeding back. He didn't look happy about that. The sound
cleaned up a bit for Don't Think Twice, but something was definitely
not gelling on stage . Bob seemed irritated and unhappy and the band
played very tentatively all evening. Bob's dissatisfaction
produced careless singing and haphazard organ playing. Bob and the
band usually perform much better than this concert. I am well aware
of the potential power of this band, having heard 7 prior
performances over the past 3 years, and this performance was the low
point of these recent concerts. Dare I say that the Interlochen
concert veered uncomfortably close to the live performances of the
late 1980's that Bob's consistently excellent recent performances
have helped us all to forget. I think ( and hope and pray) that this
concert was an aberration.
The concert had highlights (and power) at times. Hard Rain, Nettie
Moore, To Romona, and Blowin in the Wind were thoughtfully rendered.
The other songs were not so lucky.
I write these lines with a tinge of pain because Bob Dylan concerts
and records have made my life far better and richer. I am a big fan,
but I am an honest fan, as I try to be an honest man.
Peace to All
Condon
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