How Does It Feel (To See Bob Dylan Live in Concert)?

By Micah Mintz

"Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the poet laureate of rock 'n' roll. The voice of the promise of the '60s counterculture. The guy who forced folk into bed with rock. Who donned makeup in the '70s and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse. Who emerged to find Jesus. Who was written off as a has-been by the end of the '80s, and who suddenly shifted gears releasing some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late '90s. Ladies and gentlemen — Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan!"

That is how Bob Dylan is introduced at his concerts. Last night, the never-ending tour made a stop at the Mullins Center on the UMass Amherst campus. Bob Dylan has been touring with his band since 1988, giving his legion of fans a myriad of opportunities to see him. Consequently, there are a number of clichés surrounding Dylan concerts. Namely, his voice is gone, he can be almost impossible to understand, and that he reinvents songs however pleases him and is there to play his music, not please his fans. These stories are largely true. This does not render the concert unenjoyable, however.  Far from it!

Bob Dylan's voice has always been unconventional. He's perhaps best remembered for his dry, nasal vocals on "Blowin' in the Wind" and other protest songs from the early 1960s. But he left that behind pretty early. His enunciation was always idiosyncratic, but he was a tremendously expressive vocalist in his prime. Nowadays, however, Zimmy's voice has deteriorated. There's no way around it. He's reduced to talking on pitch, resembling—in an odd way—Rex Harrison. This does make him difficult to understand. Dylan's concerts necessitate an encyclopedic knowledge of his catalog and ability to recall song lyrics verbatim. Fortunately, there were few songs with which I wasn't familiar, and a great many classics included in the evening's set. Dylan is no longer a great vocalist. He is still a great artist. Though his vocal range was limited, his use phrasing and intonation was superb.

Dylan played his way through 16 songs without any patter, any introduction for the songs, just playing them. The concert was very much in the rollicking, bluesy rock vein that has characterized Dylan's recent albums, and most of the songs were transposed to that style, whether or not they were originally written that way. This was Dylan doing his thing, and he did it well. He spent most of his time playing the keyboard over to one side of the stage, but would periodically wander over to center stage, sometimes with a guitar. His black suit had gold piping on the jacket and a gold strip down the trousers, and his broad-brimmed white hat was hard to miss.

Dylan at the keyboard for "Highway 61 Revisited"

Bob Dylan was clearly energized, bobbing behind the keyboard as he played. His harmonica solos were nothing short of inspired. His vocals were limited, but delivered with great gusto. Actually, he would have been a great deal easier to understand if the band wasn't amped up quite so loud. But that is beyond the point. That's how Dylan likes it, that's how it is. The band provided some cracking accompaniments. They were led by virtuosic guitarist Charlie Sexton, who ended up in center stage most of the time that Dylan wasn't. Sexton clearly enjoyed the attention, but was a bit distracting. Bob is a legend and can do as he pleases. Charlie, you aren't.

The set list was extraordinary. With a catalog as vast as Dylan's, there is so much to choose from, but he delivered a well-rounded set on Friday. I was hoping to hear something from Slow Train Coming. Dylan did not disappoint, starting off with "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking." I had actually never heard "Shooting Star" before last night, but Dylan made it a touching ballad. There was plenty from his recent, bluesier albums like Love and Theft, Modern Times and Together Through Life. But there were also plenty of classics.

Dylan thrilling the crowd with a harmonica solo during "Shooting Star"

"Tangled Up in Blue" was a crowd-pleaser. It was a substantially different melody at times, but it's a song that any halfway-credible Dylan fan can follow along. "Ballad of a Thin Man" was exceptional (see below), perhaps better than his original recording of it. The stage was lit severely as Dylan barked and growled ominously at the fictional Mr. Jones. This was not a young man who was peeved, this was a reckoning. Each time the chorus rolled around and Dylan asked Mr. Jones if he knew what was happening, it was as if the subject of the song was being interrogated by the jaws of Hell itself. "Like a Rolling Stone" ended the concert on a high note. Bob Dylan couldn't hold the notes like he had in decades gone by, but age hadn't withered his spirit at all. Miss Lonely still got raked over the coals with every "How does it feel?"

Some will complain that Dylan isn't what he was. Obviously, he sounds different now than on most of his records, or on the legendary Rolling Thunder Revue. Some people are not just glad to see a living legend; they want to say the emperor has no clothes. Bob Dylan is not what he was? Hogwash, Bob Dylan is exactly what he's always been: Bob Dylan. And I now have a 16-song playlist that is an excellent synopsis of his career. Not an exhaustive one, certainly; no concert could do that. But I heard protest music, folk-rock, gospel, blues and more, accompanied by bravura harmonica solos. All interpreted by a living legend. Good enough for me.

Your humble correspondent after the concert

Friday evening's set list:

Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking
Shooting Star
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Spirit On The Water
Rollin' And Tumblin'
Tangled Up In Blue
Honest With Me
Can't Wait
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Highway 61 Revisited
Workingman's Blues #2
Thunder On The Mountain
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Jolene
Like A Rolling Stone