Bob Dylan in Adelaide

[Dogwatcher]

Here's my thoughts on last night's show at the AEC.
I should preface my comments by saying that I was given free tickets - pretty good ones, too.


It's hard to go to a Dylan concert, with all of the baggage of his iconic position in the music world. I recognise the man's place in music history (the first punk?) but, we all know the type of performer Dylan is.
You want the show to be positive, you want to say, it was awesome and he's amazing for a 73-year-old. At this stage of his life, and with his characteristics, that's a fair challenge to meet.

The band was awesome - tight. They had a sweet blues sound and there was some theramin action going on.
The people around us were fanatics and were swaying, clapping and cheering in a muted kind of way.
I knew few of the songs, except for Tangled Up in Blue in the first set, and Watchtower and Times, in the encore. But I did find some songs to like - ones where he was telling a story, rather than sending a bitter message to someone (I just couldn't tell you what they were called!).
Everything was reworked (and his well-known vocal style makes it hard to discern lyrics sometimes), so it's possible I knew some of the songs, just didn't recognise this iteration.
It was an okay show.

But there was a cold clinical feel that the warmth of the band's (note, I'm talking about the band, not The Band) music couldn't over ride.
The lights were low (intimate), I felt so you couldn't really see him. There was a barrier separating the audience from the stage (like you'd see at the front of a mosh pit) and his mic was a further 6 metres back - so he was 10 metres back from the audience. The only words he spoke through the entire set were something along the lines of "we're going to have a break" at the end of the first set. There was no announcement the interval was over, the band just started playing. And...there were ushers patrolling to shine torches at people who were taking photos (normally, I'd be annoyed at the flash of cams, but people were respectful and weren't going overboard with it). It seems Dylan wants to control his image and have as little to do with the audience as possible, which led me to wonder why, at 73, he's still touring. It's a God complex.

I think a Dylan fan can embrace these eccentricities, so would have enjoyed it.
Me? I walked away thinking, "well, at least I can say I saw Dylan".
I didn't buy a t-shirt.

[Booney]

Well you saw Dylan, but was it close enough to the Dylan to be a memory to hold onto?