In August 1990 I was living in Edmonton. Bob Dylan came to town and performed at the Jubilee Auditorium with opening act Sue Medley. I remember it was very loud, Dylan had no interaction with the crowd, his lyrics were at best unintelligible and my general feeling about the whole thing was disappointment. Like many who are familiar with Dylan's most famous works, we have this picture in our head of what we think the concert should be like. Predominately we like to imagine him, alone on the stage, just a harmonica and an acoustic guitar, singing the songs of protest we have come to love. It is surprising then to realize that most of the Dylan work we are familiar with was written and made famous very early in his career. Blowing in the Wind came out in 1962 and much of his great work had been produced by about 1965, meaning that Dylan was only in his early 20's when fame came to him. With his controversial switch to electric I do not believe he ever really looked back. Those folksy roots were a very small part of his long career.
Flash forward 20 years. My wife had bought me tickets to see Bob Dylan perform in the border city of Lloydminster, Alberta. Of course I was not going to turn them down or raise a fuss. However after my previous experience I was reluctant to get my hopes up too high and decided to attend with an open mind. The first thing I had found out from some recent concert reviews was that Dylan tends to spend most of his performance at the piano. He did perform "Simple Twist of Fate" standing with the electric guitar, but there were no acoustic performances. There was no opening act.
The whole show had an almost carnivalesque feel to it. Dylan seemed to be some type of vaudevillian jester up on the stage dressed in a blue blazer, khaki pants and a white broad brimmed hat that has become his trademark. His curly hair hung below it and he still has that goatee that always appears to be about a week or two old. He genuinely appeared to be having a good time up there on stage. During his performance of "Ballad of a Thin Man" he moved about the stage on the verge of a dance, striking a couple of poses. He finished it off returning to his piano and singing with an echo machine that leant a bizarre ominous tone to the song.
The only time he spoke to the audience was to introduce the members of his band, but throughout he made eye contact and smiled at the audience, which differed greatly from 1990 when he seemed to ignore the fact the audience was even there. After the introductions were through they broke into a rendition of "All Along the Watchtower" that got the crowd hopping. It prompted some drunk guy not far from us to do some head banging. The guitar licks were not Jimi Hendrix by any means but the last line of the song: "Two riders were approaching and the wind began to howl" still resonated even in Dylan's faster paced lyrical style.
The encore performance was a bluesy rendition of "Blowin' In The Wind" which I was about 95% sure they would perform based on the reviews I had read. However even with this in mind, the version he performed was so different from the original and his voice so husky, that he was singing the chorus before I even realized it was the Dylan classic.
Overall the show was a lot better than the one I went to in 1990. His voice still leaves a lot to be desired and it can be a few bars before you know which of his songs he is singing. He puts a lot of different twists to the songs. I think if you were hired to be in his band you need not waste your time listening to the originals to get ready. Best to listen carefully and try keep up!
I liked the fact that it was held outside at the fairgrounds. The sound was perfect and everyone I think had a great seat to see Dylan onstage. We like to see our favorite performers do their thing. The fact that he appeared to be having a good time as well adds to the experience.
It is amazing to think of the things he accomplished in his life and the the things he was a part of. It is not often we can come so close to a true legend.
Bob Dylan kicks off a tour in a couple of weeks with Mark Knoppfler of Dire Straits. I believe Edmonton is on the list.
Here is the set list of the show in Lloydminster:
Showtime: 8:03pm
Location: Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds
Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat, keyboard
Don't Think Twice (It's Alright), piano
Things Have Changed, harmonica
Tangled Up In Blue, harmonica
Rollin and Tumbling, piano
Sugar Baby, piano
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, piano
Trying To Get To Heaven, piano and harmonica
Summer Days, piano
Desolation Row, piano
Highway 61 Revisited, piano
Simple Twist of Fate, electric Guitar
Thunder on the Mountain, piano
Ballad of a Thin Man, piano
Like a Rolling Stone, piano
Band Introductions
All Along the Watchtower, piano
Encore
Blowing in the Wind, piano
very disappointed with this concert! I found it almost embarrasing when Dylan was playing the piano as he was somewhere totally different than what his band was playing or even the song that was being sung.
ReplyDeleteWe left after 90 minutes as it really wasn't worth the money we had paid.
Hi Christine;
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. In my two experiences attending a Dylan concert I guess it comes down to the fact that it's more the chance to see a true legend than to hear the music. I agree that the music left something to be desired!
My wife and I road tripped it from High River and totally enjoyed it. We had a room at the Econo Lodge with the window facing north and could hear the sound check as we had a couple pre show drink and some take out chinese.
ReplyDeleteLooking foward to seeing him again in Calgary!
That's probably a similar trek that we had to do from Grande Prairie. Couldn't get tix to Lethbridge? I think the outdoor setting would be better anyway. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and when we arrived Dylan's tour buses were parked outside our window. Didn't see Bob but we saw the band load up and head to the fairgrounds for the soundcheck. Enjoy the show in Calgary.
ReplyDeleteCaught Bob's show in Lloyd last Fri night and and enjoyed it a lot..A bit draggy and confusing a bit in a couple places but overall great...was the first show on this leg and Bob and the band were fresh, lively and seemed to be havin a real time of it...IMHO this is one of the tightest performing bands you will see anywhere today and the time they spend on the road doing 100+ concerts all over the world every year is evident if you see the nods, smiles and cues that they pass among themselves. Not my first Bob show so I wasn't expecting the harsh arrogance of the 60's and 70's. His songs have evolved over the years and a couple seemed to have drifted back toward their origins...Highlights for me were Tangled, Hiway 61 and Thin Man...Guess that makes me old school but his recent music spends a lot of time in my deck as well...Will try to catch them with Knofler in Oct if I can...
ReplyDeletePS: I love the punch he puts into Watchtower...a fave of mine but it's always at the end and means it's over...TC
Lethbridge would have been a much closer destination for us but we bought tickets for Lloydminster in the hope that the outdoor venue would add a little romance and atmosphere - besides being the first night of the tour. I was not disappointed. We were standing perhaps ten feet from the stage barrier - close enough to see the detailing on Dylan's cream-colored cowboy boots (which he seemed to frequently lift in the air). To be that close to feel the energy of the band and see their interaction and comraderie ... it made the show.
ReplyDeleteI've seen Dylan perhaps half a dozen times in the past: he's been great, he's been awful - sometimes in the same night and maybe even the same song.
I get the critiques: the voice is shot, his musicianship can be a little sloppy, he's not what he once was. But after all that it is still plain the Bob Dylan loves music and performing.
He's passionate about it the way a 71 year-old man is, not the way a 30 year-old is and that's disappointing for some people. We cannot say that he has aged gracefully but he has aged honestly. In his youth he sounded like Woody Guthrie; now he sounds like Howlin' Wolf - and I think he's good with that. In fact the raw, ravaged voice may be what he aspired to way back when the music fever first gripped him. I love that he is still out there bringing his music to the people, heading from town to town wherever he is called - whether it's Paris, Rio, Lloydminster or Montana. Not many legends are willing to put their status to the test by getting in front of an audience every night. Dylan does.
Yes, Christine, Dylan can be off-kilter musically but I'll defend his approach this way: he's always looking to live in the song, to be in the moment, to inspire his band. I think it's one of the ways he maintains interest. Most Dylan shows I have seen have their moments of chaos, but their moments of inspiration as well. I think it was Tom Petty who observed that Dylan thrived on chaos. There's something to that. As a bandleader he seems to know how to 'stir the pot' and get the most out of the people he is playing with.
Great band. Great energy. However, I thought the stage was erected needlessly far from the bleachers. I don't know what the sound was like from there but I can imagine from that distance the concert would have been far less satisfying.
My one regret in not attending the Lethbridge concert was missing an opportunity to hear him perform "Hollis Brown", a personal favourite.
The sound from the bleachers was good. We had some binoculars too, but you're right, the stage could have been closer. There was quite a gap between the fence and the standing room section.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment!
Thanks for the vivid and thorough account of the event. Since we weren’t supposed to take photos or videos it’s good to have a written record of what we experienced, and you (and those commenting on your post) have done a fine job of bringing it all back.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I drove up from Medicine Hat because driving for hours through the prairie to see Bob Dylan performing at the Lloydminster fair grounds was the sort of experience that one shouldn’t pass up. Pitched a tent in at Vermilion Provincial Park (great park; nice little town). We arrived near the venue early, and heard the sound check while sitting in a school yard a couple of blocks away – it sounded really good. For me the high point of the show was when he first came out, and there he was – BOB Effing DYLAN (like Peter, we were standing fairly close to the stage). Also, we really enjoyed the last few songs. For the rest of the concert it was mostly the audience around us that kept us entertained – it’s hard to be critical when everyone around you is so into it. I’d have to say, though, that for much of the concert his musical choices didn’t do it for me. I wasn’t expecting, nor wanting, to hear “Bob’s Greatest Hits”, but I would have been thrilled if he could have mixed in the odd semi-recognizable Dylan song. He did seem to be enjoying himself, and he certainly wasn’t holding back or phoning it in, and his band was really good, and his voice wasn’t lacking but …. but nothing -- it was Dylan, doing what Dylan does. Glad we went.
Traveling a long distance to see a concert seems almost Dylanesque in itself. I felt that way too as we came the 700 or so kilometers from Grande Prairie. We hit the road with a Highway 61 Revisited and took the time to visit a couple of towns along the way.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the experience!
I was in Lloydminster as well, making the trip from Prince Albert SK, though we took the scenic route through Banff and Edmonton to meet up with Bob at the border.
ReplyDeleteThis was my 6th time seeing Dylan, having seen him first in Edmonton in 1988, and off and on through the years. Knowing what to expect, he did not disappoint. I can dig the folks who don't appreciate his shows, as they are not your garden variety rehashes of albums, but I love what he does with these old songs. I imagine it would be hard to get excited about the same songs for fifty years, so putting a new slant of some of them seems like a cool way to stay interested in what you are doing.
We were leaning on the partition so were about three paces from the man himself. He grinned like a kid through a lot of the show, especially when he was standing before the mic holding nothing but a harmonica. That was new for me...both the smiling and the lack of instrument. He was reminding me of a cross between Frank Sinatra and Tom Waits as he belted out Ballad of a Thin Man.
I like that he leans on the old stuff but does not rely on it. Lots of newer material to enjoy in this show. I think the highlight of the show was that great romp on Summer Days. Most of the crowd likely did not even know the song, but the band was cooking so well it got everyone going.
Money well spent, and I will say hi to Bob again in Saskatoon in October.
I was very impressed with your write up on Bob's show in Lloyd. When my sister informed me Dylan was coming to Lloyd, I thought she was putting me on. Being an avid Dylan fan I definitely wanted to see the show. So my wife, Sister,Brother in law, Nephew & Myself went to see the show.
ReplyDeleteIn the late eighties I saw Dylan twice as well in Calgary W/Tracy Chapman (Saddle dome) & W/Sue Medley (Jubilee). Both shows definitly had their high & low points from my point of view. While it was great to see a legendary performer, I couldn't help but feel it came up on the short side.
Like you I came into Lloyd with an open mind, not sure exactly what to expect of the show. In all honesty this was definitely by far the best of the 3 shows I have seen so far. Being outdoors added to the energy of the night & Dylan playing mostly on Piano was far more entertaining. Truthfully, I felt like I got my money's worth except of the distance from the Bleachers to the Stage.
Overall performance for me was top notch & his band was great. As some of your readers suggested, it is hard to understand the songs he is singing. My party had suggested this as well but were overall otherwise impressed by the show. He played close to 2 solid hours of some great variety from his never ending vault of music. All this in a small border city! YOU ROCK BOB!