There aren’t many 77-year-old chameleons in the world (they rarely live past 10 years in captivity) but one took the stage on Tuesday night November 27th at the sold-out Beacon Theatre, and he was wearing a purple spangled suit with silver boots. Bob Dylan can never sit still and anyone who has caught his Never Ending Tour will know that his musical arraignments are the same way, songs are radically altered from their recorded forms when performed live and this trend continued for the fourth of his seven-show NYC residency.
Perhaps it was the slightly scaled down band of Tony Garnier on bass, George Recelli drums, Donnie Herron pedal steel/fiddle/banjo/mandolin and Charlie Sexton on guitar (longtime rhythm guitarist Stu Kimball has not been playing with the band the last two months) but Dylan was in strong frontman mode from the literal curtain rise behind his baby grand piano. Openers “Things Have Changed” and “It Ain’t Me, Babe” were both noticeable for how Dylan’s highly energetic, unique and loud piano playing dominated the sonic landscape, along those lines, the sound at the Beacon was impeccable.
Garnier’s bass fronted the way during an early “Highway 61 Revisited” and it became evident throughout the set that both Sexton and Herron were augmenting the sound rather than leading it; there were minimal solos from either. Dylan was completely engaged even inserting full new lyrical stanzas into the slow-moving “Simple Twist Of Fate” and the upbeat “When I Paint My Masterpiece”.
The bard stepped out from behind the piano for only one full song as he flashed some moves and threw some shapes for “Scarlett Town”, one of four songs from Tempest played; it was the newest album Dylan performed songs from, skipping the standards from his last three studio albums.
One of the most impressive revampings on the night was of “Like A Rolling Stone” which (after Recelli’s patented snare hit to start) brought the band on a journey which saw them fade into nothing during the chorus and slowly rise again during verses. Very impressive, but not quite as show-stopping as Dylan’s almost piano solo take “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” which was simply stunning. Oddly, the one song Dylan played the most straight ahead was an average mid-set version of “Make You Feel My Love” but as the older crowd was assembled on Broadway that seemed fitting.
Sexton did excitingly take over for a musical insertion of Link Wray’s “Rumble” into “Cry A While” and the whole band put on a motoring strut for both the swinging “Thunder On The Mountain” which bounced along on Garnier’s four strings and the set-closing “Gotta Serve Somebody” where Sexton delivered excellent southern fried phrasing. This night was clearly Dylan’s though as his piano playing was robust along with being vocally engaged, playful and full of vigor.
The encore had radically reworked versions of “All Along The Watchtower” which was restrained and stripped down (no soaring six strings on Jimi Hendrix’s birthday) and an easy rolling fiddle-laden “Blowin’ In the Wind” to close. The mercurial Dylan has been on these last few years, adding even more high-level music to the gratefully Never Ending Tour and tonight was just one more impressive example.
2 Responses
Yes, good review. We saw Bob on Nov. 27th and he was playing the keyboard, not the piano. Otherwise, perfect review of Bob and his Band.
Why doesn’t Dylan play the guitar anymore?