Reviews
Paris, France
La Seine Musicale

October 24, 2024

[Serge Bonnery] [Michael Ballstav], [Sergi Fabregat],

Review by Serge Bonnery

,

At La Seine Musicale, Bob Dylan watches the river of time flow 
La Seine Musicale is a place today dedicated to the performing arts, but it 
wasn't always the case. Built on the site of the former Renault factory in 
Boulogne-Billancourt, it would have suited Workingman's Blues #2, which 
rests in the limbo of Modern Times.  

But it's a completely different story that Bob Dylan tells about this Great 
Seine, which he knows well because he inaugurated it during a visit to 
Paris on April 21, 2017, still glowing from the Nobel Prize in Literature 
he received a few months earlier. Today, winding like an uneasy river 
through the songs of his album Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan, always true to 
his path, moves forward with the horizon of Key West in his sights.  

And if there were any doubts, It Ain't Me Babe immediately sets the record 
straight, like a resounding warning from alert guitars: let no one think 
to demand that he close his eyes or his heart, for real life is where no 
one looks except the poet who risks venturing into the alleys of Desolation 
and reminds us that the world is just a vast circus filled with circumstances.  

The set is magnifient in its depth. Everything here is order and beauty, to 
put it in Baudelaire's words. Bob Dylan leans on his piano to speak to us in 
confiences as one would with a friend, leaning at the bar, over a last drink 
as it gets late. Attentive to the slightest sign, the band watches from their 
lookout tower. More focused than ever, he accompanies each song with 
authority without taking away their mystery. He strikes the right notes 
while Dylan's voice transforms the lyrics, making us hear them as if it were 
the first time. The presence of the harmonica adds to the intimacy that  
the poet establishes between himself and the audience, whom he thanks several  
times.  

In the audience this Thursday night, Hugues Aufray came to attend the concert 
as a friend, he who has so beautifully translated and adapted Bob Dylan into 
French and never misses any of his Parisian appearances. Just before Every 
Grain of Sand, which closes the set, Hugues Aufray is invited to join Dylan 
backstage. Watching the scene unfold right before my eyes, I think it is so 
comforting to see that these two still have things to share and that, true 
to what they have always wanted to become, they persist... even in dark days. 

Serge Bonnery 
 

[TOP]

Review by Michael Ballstav

,

What a great concert we saw tonight! The arena had great acoustics but is
located a bit far away outside of Paris city center. Bob has really
developed his RARW show and I think Mr. Keltner is a big part in it. His
drum sound was thunderous behind the bard. Anyway, the show began with an
almost anarchistic Watchtower before everything fell into place at the
third song slot as usual. Weird, but I've seen this before. The RARW songs
sounds much fresher than before and songs like Black Rider, Jimmy Reed and
Multitudes were personal favorites. His older songs, D. Row and Baby Blue
received much appreciation from the Paris audience and people really
seemed happy after the show. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

[TOP]

Review by Sergi Fabregat

,

Best show of this leg for me and surely on par with his best shows in
recent years, which were Spring 24. The truth and depth in his voice,
unbelievable.

It has been clear to me during the Scarface-Pacino verse in 'My Own
Version of You': a kind of exhuberant mid-tone on Bob's voice, perfectly
sustained, truly deep, articulate and commanding. Not upsinging, not
downsinging, just as if a reborn voice within him had taken the place of
his usual singing-performing voice.

He sounded at the same time himself more than ever and another mused
spirit altogether. It has made me think about the "glowed like burnin'
coal" verse in 'Tangled Up In Blue' and also the episode in 'Chronicles'
where he claims to have found, through the mastery of an unnamed jazz
singer, a new way of singing that didn't depend on emotions or will. Maybe
a speaking in tongues sort of?

The whole show has felt quite like that to me, but from 'Version of You'
onwards it has been even more present and powerful, the band with a
tightness that came close with that voice, and a miriad of incredible
nuances that came, line after line, in an unstoppable succession.

I have thought about the perfect tightness and blinding energy of Spring
'24 but this has the rough-rowdiness that is such an important part
post-Outlaw. I was a bit worried, after the non-extension of the tour into
the East Coast, but without gasping into the future, the present Bob Dylan
is living in is shattering, rooted and echoing, full of an impossible hope
that each given night can change a day in the life.

Watch out for 'Ain't Me Babe', 'Version of You', and, in fact, from
'Rubicon' until the end. 'River Flow' and, again, 'Mother of Muses', out
of this f***ing world.

'Watchtower' had a surprising ending a la mid-2000s when it used to end
the shows and Bob went full high pitch ("know what aaaanyyyyy of it iiiiis
wooooorrrthhh!") which was funny as now is the opener. And it has a more
raw approach, crazy how it keeps getting better and better, thanks to J.
Mellencamp maybe!

One song had a similar patter to 'Things Have Changed', not sure if it was
'Version of You' or another one though!

The long pauses between "Louie", "Jimmie" and "Buddy" in 'Key West',
REALLY long pauses, that silence and more so the contrast between name and
silence is what give sense to all this.

Picasso painted with light later in his career, Bob paints with voice.
 

[TOP]

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