Bob Dylan Brings It All Back Home at Stabler Arena

From Lehigh Valley Music Blog

Review: Bob Dylan brings it all back home at Stabler

Posted by John J. Moser at 12:51:54 PM on November 13, 2010

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.

The question is what made Bob Dylan, at 69 years old and having muddled through a mediocre show last summer at Allentown's Coca-Cola Park, put on a performance Friday at Bethlehem's Stabler Arena that was vital and exciting - a near masterpiece far better than anyone had a right to expect?

For 103 minutes, Dylan became an animated performer, broadly and intently gesturing as he stood at a microphone in front of the stage and sang - really sang, infusing his vocals with texture and emotion.

Or dancing as he stood adding inspired flourishes at his keyboard. Or playing rich, inviting harmonica.

Dylan's five-piece backing band, again being led by guitar wiz Charlie Sexton, was just as good - crackling and tight, urgent and intuitive.

It wasn't that Dylan - who was playing his sixth headlining show at Stabler; a record for the venue -- changed his set list that much from last year's show. Eight of Friday's 16 songs also were played at Coca-Cola Park (though the show was one song longer). He simply played them so much better.

Such was the case on the opening "Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat," with which he also opened last year. In a wide-brimmed white hat, he twisted his shoulders and kicked his legs as he played keys; his singing and phrasing were animated.

And he only got better as he went. He strapped on his guitar for a jaunty "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and croaked and growled the lyrics, sometimes spitting out the words as he and Sexton - playing his guitar like a gunslinger or playing from his knees - dueled to a hootchie-kootchie finish. On "Things Have Changed," Dylan's singing was sly, raspy, fun and at the end forceful; the band both chugging and sinewy.

The band was wonderfully expressive on "Just Like a Woman," and Dylan was at his playful best, pausing during each chorus to let the audience sing "just like a woman" before he did. He played his keyboard like a carousel calliope as Donnie Herron accompanied him on lap steel guitar.

Dylan played lead guitar - surprisingly touching - on "Simple Twist of Fate" and sang gently - so good the audience spontaneously broke into applause mid-song. He was at stage front with just a microphone on a thundering and rocking "Cold Iron Bound" that was so searing that Dylan high-stepped as he sang, did deep knee bends as he wailed on two harmonica solos and brushed off his shoulders at the end.

And his singing was exceptional - that's a compliment you don't hear much these days - on "Summer Days." His voice reached high - also something you don't hear these days - to compliment his keyboard playing, during which he shook his shoulders for emphasis on a long solo.

But the highlight was "Tangled Up in Blue." In a spotlight at the front of the stage, backed by a stunningly sympathetic band, Dylan performed his mid-career masterpiece as well as he ever has. He transformed it from a young man's searching to the studying, understanding and regret that comes with age.

"I'm still on the road/Trying to stay out of the joint!" he sang in the voice of a grizzled veteran, slightly changing the words and adding wonderfully warm harmonica. The audience cheered every time he sang the title.

But that was simply the mid-point of the show. He followed it with a nine-minute churning, burning, steamrolling "Highway 61 Revisited," yelling the lyrics and duck-walking at the piano. He traded keyboard riffs with Sexton's guitar while drummer George Receli laid down an incessant gunshot beat.

And Dylan's voice was again wonderful on a shuffling, tender "Working Man Blues #2." As he sang, he pointed to the audience, reached out his hand like a carnival barker, or sang open-armed. "Ballad of a Thin Man" found him again in the spotlight, gesturing as he snarled out the words, singing with disgust and using his harmonica to drive home his point.

And the requisite closer, "Like a Rolling Stone," was, of course, wonderful - both beat-heavy and chiming; Sexton's guitar swirling amid Dylan playing the familiar keyboard riff. It, too, became less a tale of spite and revenge than Dylan imparting knowledge: more knowing, less hurt, acceptance replacing bitterness.

Dylan went nearly the entire night without speaking to the mixed-age crowd of something more than 3,000 people, finally saying, "Well, thank you," before the encore and playfully introducing his band members.

But throughout the night, his music spoke volumes to the crowd. And they clearly understood - not just the songs' meanings, but that they were seeing something special at Stabler.

During yet another wonderfully voiced song, "Spirit on the Water," in mid-show, Dylan sang, "You think I'm over the hill."

"No!" the crowd roared back.

"Think I'm past my prime/Let me see what you got/"We can have a whoppin' good time."

Friday was, indeed, a whopping good time. As good as you'll ever see Bob Dylan.

Jason Moser contributed to this report