Concert Review: Bob Dylan

Gordon Track, 11/21/04

Music critics often joke that at the end of the world, all that will remain are cockroaches and Keith Richards. But if only one aged talent can sustain music through nuclear holocaust, the world would be safer in the wrinkled, but infallible, hands of Mr. Robert Zimmerman.

Despite his moments of inexplicable staggering across the stage of the Gordon Track, bad jokes, and characteristic lyrical fumbles, Bob Dylan and his Band gave an utterly spellbinding concert at Harvard’s Gordon Track and Tennis Center on Nov. 21. The 63-year-old musical sensation played a two hour set that left a multi-generational audience in awe of his longevity and continued ingenuity.

For a musician known for his capacity to stray from audience expectations, the concert can be called nothing short of an intensely pleasurable retrospective of Dylan’s greatest hits and most captivating recent pieces. The 14 song set, plus unforgettable encores of “All Along the Watchtower” and “Like a Rolling Stone,” combined a perfect balance of old and new Dylan, including five from the most recent album Love and Theft (2001), as well as recognizable classics such as “Forever Young” and “Lay, Lady, Lay.”

Dylan opened, at a punctual starting time of 8:15, with the favorite of many a college-aged fan, “Rainy Day Women #12 &35.” Despite Dylan’s command that “everybody must get stoned,” the audience remained subdued and only under the influence of Dylan’s fantastic band.

The crowd was relatively quiet and composed throughout the entire set; most likely because for Dylan enthusiasts, his concerts are a nearly surreal act of worshipping an icon at the height of his talent. To watch Dylan perform is an experience altogether different from simply listening to or singing along with Blonde on Blonde or Blood on the Tracks, requiring both rapt attention and a nearly Zen attitude towards the unpredictable nature of the artist.

As one of the largest musical figures in America, the current Dylan persona has a less-than-domineering presence on the stage. The 5’5” mysterious man in a cowboy hat stood to the extreme left of the stage, crouching over his piano and harmonica allowing his four-piece band to take focus on the center of the stage. Dylan’s expressionless face and his band’s stoic cool while performing (except for one humorous break in countenance during “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,”) gave the concert an understated intensity and cool intimacy.

The Harvard show was the last of Dylan’s college concert tour, which has extended from coast to coast since mid-October. The sweat that literally poured from Dylan’s face at every pound of the piano and the perfection of the multi-talented Larry Campbell (guitar, cittern and pedal steel), bassist Tony Garnier and lead guitarist Stu Kimbell demonstrated both a well-rehearsed tour and the musicians’ passion for absolute effort in their performance. The band and singer interacted so well on stage, with virtually no eye contact or communication with the audience, it was as if the 3500 ticket holders had been privileged to walk into a jam session of master musicians.

At the Allston show, those familiar with the extensive poetry of Dylan’s ballads were blessed with an occasion to actually understand (the majority of) the lyrical genius’s words. Dylan has done nearly 100 shows a year non-stop for the past 40 years, and it is a true miracle that his voice is even vaguely comprehensible. While “Desolation Row” can lose much of its epic power in performance, Dylan’s stirring political verses “Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum” and “It’s Alright Ma” were thankfully clear and appropriately emphasized for the opinionated Harvard audience.

The acoustic version of “Sugar Baby” (a lesser known but fabulous song from Love and Theft) and the bluesy “Summer Days” (also of Love and Theft) were excellent closing songs for a set that was largely toned by the blues/rock orchestration of Dylan’s band. While it is enjoyable to hear Dylan sing older pieces like “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again,” the extreme differentiation from the recorded versions can be jarring for some Dylanistas. The once-solo folk artist should emphasize his recent blues-influenced songs because their musical arrangement allows his extremely talented band more creativity and a chance to better engage the audience.

The selections from Love and Theft were undeniably the most forceful and most enthusiastic on Dylan’s part, but the final encore of “All Along the Watchtower” truly clinched an exceptional performance. In a song so popular and so-often played, there was not a hint of ennui in the delivery: it was a heart-stopping rendition of one of the greatest imaginative ballads of all time. Bob Dylan and his Band played the song, as they did most of their set, with the energy of a first-performance but the mastery of four decades of experience, proving to audiences of all ages that the music of Dylan is as immortal as the man himself.

—Kristina M. Moore