Bob Dylan In Concert

Back in 2015, Marilyn and I began, although we didn't realize it at the time, what we have come to call the "Geezer Rock Concert Tour".  It began when we went to see Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band, and it has gone on to include Tom Jones, Brian Wilson, and Huey Lewis and the News.  Last night, the Tour expanded to include perhaps the greatest American musical icon of the last fifty years, Bob Dylan.

Dylan has been touring and performing for going on sixty years, and in fact, he calls his performances the "Never Ending World Tour", but we had never seen him live, and when this concert at Heinz Hall was announced, I figured that I was going to jump on the chance to see him perform, because, hey, this is BOB DYLAN we are talking about here, and how many more chances am I going to get to see him?

From reading about Dylan's concerts in recent years, you have to know what you are going to get going in....you are not going to get a "greatest hits" show, he'll sing what he wants to sing, and he will "rework" some of those classics to the point where they will sound different, and in some cases, a lot different from the recorded versions with which you are familiar.  You also know that you will get no snappy banter or interaction with the audience.  Finally, we've all heard Bob Dylan in recent years, and the voice is now raspy from 76 years worth of cigarettes and God knows what else.

So, how was it at Heinz Hall last night?

Dylan performed with a five piece band and no back up singers.  He did all the singing himself.  In some instances, I was surprised at how well his voice did sound, but in many cases, the often imitated Dylan voice was rough and raspy to the point that it was hard to understand.  He performed a number of his Dylan standards, but all of them were reworked in a way that they were almost unrecognizable, and he was almost halfway through the song before you realized what song it was (examples: Tangled Up In Blue, Desolation Row).  Others, while they may not have been just like the originals, were more recognizable (It Ain't Me, Babe, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blown' In The Wind).  

He also performed a five Sinatra-type, Great American Songbook numbers, which he has been recording in recent years.  Kudos to him for trying something different, and while Bob Dylan is many things, one thing he is not is a Frank Sinatra/Tony Bennett style crooner.

Over his lifetime as a performer, it has been the WORDS of Bob Dylan that have won him acclaim, and, incidentally, a Nobel Prize for Literature, but I also love the MUSIC of Bob Dylan.  The beats and rhythms of his songs are wonderful, and to that end, his five piece band last night was terrific.  Even when it was hard to understand Dylan's voice, the music that the band (with Dylan on piano; he never touched a guitar or a harmonica last night) was producing was wonderful.

I am not sure what I expected last night.  For sure, Dylan is not a young man, and he was never one to give bombastic Springsteen-style concerts.  In some respects, the performance last night was somewhat workmanlike - sing a song, change the lighting, sing another song, punch the clock and get out of there.  As Scott Mervis said in his Post-Gazette review this morning "Dylan does what Dylan does - he has earned that right - and God knows he loves to mess with us."

It certainly was not the greatest concert I ever attended, but it wasn't like watching Willie Mays With The Mets either.  From a personal point of view, my biggest thrill of the night was hearing Bob Dylan sing It Ain't Me, Babe and Blowin' In The Wind.  No matter how it sounded, watching an honest-to-God icon performing two of his most iconic songs was worth the price of admission.

Much of our Geezer Rock Tour has been in the company of friends Dan and Susan Bonk, and that was the case last night as well.  Back in the days of our youth, none of us probably ever imagined that a Bob Dylan concert would be preceded by dinner at a linen tablecloth downtown restaurant, and take place in a posh place like Heinz Hall.  

The times, they have indeed a-changed.