Bob Dylan

Having played a few festivals leading up to the Brooklyn pseudo-homecoming (he will always be a Manhattan man to me), Bob Dylan decided it was time to stretch out both literally (knee bending between songs, his pants may have been too tight or his 67 year old bones just ached) and figuratively (a seventeen song set) on a gorgeous night in the park.  Dressed as a flamboyant bandolero with an eye catching spangled kerchief, and backed by what looked like the cowboy band of the apocalypse, Dylan perched himself on his keyboard and belted out (almost angrily) “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” getting it out of the way so the baby boomers could toke their cheap smelling weed and he could get on with the show. 

Immediately he hit a highlight of the night with a jazzed out version of “Lay Lady Lay” the band went in five different directions and Dylan sang the lyrics in a sultry (for him) style multiple times over as they meandered in the sunset.  Then the band fell into what would be a recurring theme throughout the night, the boogie-woogie 12-bar blues of “Lonesome Day Blues.”  This is where the group sounded most comfortable, cooking simply straight ahead, letting Bob do his vocal phrasing any way he pleased, then coming together for multiple choruses.  They returned to this pattern successfully, if not a bit repetitively throughout the night with “The Levee’s Gonna Break,” set-closing “Summer Days,” and “Thunder on the Mountain.” 

Dylan, who has stalked his keys in the past with varying degrees of success, sounded fantastic tonight, adding color and texture to “Girl of the North Country” and “Beyond the Horizon.”  Known to never keep songs in the same arrangements for long, some new styles of classics worked well, as “It’s Alright Ma’ (I’m Only Bleeding) achieved new heights; and others, like “Honest With Me” and “Highway 61,” both clattered and stalled. 

Tonight he took the sting out of two of his most powerful numbers “John Brown” and “Nettie Moore” by conducting his vocals in a goofy sing-song style, but returned to stern sincerity in “Masters of War” and “Blowin’ in the Wind”.   The night winningly ended as a banner unfolded and “Like A Rolling Stone” kicked off a satisfying encore, the crystal clear sound could propel the question halfway across Brooklyn, “How Does it Feeeeel?”  Tonight Bob?  Pretty damn good, Thanks

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