Anyone seen Dylan live recently?

I saw him about two years ago. I’ve been a fan forever, and I had heard that his performances had deteriorated. I went pretty much for the reason mentioned by pprgrl, to fill in a gap in my life list of live performances by legends. A big surprise for me was that he played electric piano for the entire concert, didn’t touch a guitar. He is not a good keyboard player, and his entry-level chording detracted from the sound of what I thought was a pretty good band. His voice was horrible. I’m with astorian here; I have enjoyed Dylan’s singing for a long time. I’m not talking about his technical shortcomings circa 1965. Everything he sang was hoarse, guttural, tuneless and incomprehensible. I mean as rough as Tom Waits, but without Waits’ musicality. It was nearly impossible to identify the songs, and I know the songs. He spoke once, before the encore, to introduce the band. I couldn’t understand much of that, either. It was the worst live performance I have ever paid money to attend.

I wonder if he’ll play My Humps?

Nailed it. I saw him live in 2002 with free tickets. I really just wanted to go to say I saw Dylan. You should see as many legends as you can in your lifetime.

But suck, he did. To make matters worse, he was playing the Houston Rodeo, which is in a 72,000 seat arena. I imagine Dylan is better (but not good) at a more intimate venue.

I’ve never seen him live myself, but had a math teacher in high school that went to every show he within reach. He said the secret was to see him in a small, intimate setting with a couple hundred or fewer people–that he was barely watchable in an arena setting, but that seeing him in a tiny venue was an amazing experience.

Sounds like if you’re going to see the Zim, you need to see him close up. The one time I saw him wasn’t very recent–it was nine years ago–and it was in a huge arena, but I was sitting fourth row center, close enough to really see Zimmy’s face, and the vibe was awesome. A few notes I posted in another forum at the time:

I’m obviously in the minority here, but I’ve seen Dylan eight times between 1974 and 2004. Five of those shows have been since 1999. I’ve only been disapponted once - when I saw him at the Illinois State Fair in 1989. Most of the shows I’ve seen he’s completely blown me away.

I don’t get this at all. Here are the set lists of the shows I’ve seen since '99:

10/27/1999

I Am The Man, Thomas
The Times They Are A-Changin’
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
One Too Many Mornings
Tangled Up In Blue
All Along The Watchtower
This Wheel’s On Fire
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Not Dark Yet
Highway 61 Revisited
Love Sick
Like A Rolling Stone
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Not Fade Away

5/4/2001

Duncan And Brady
Mr. Tambourine Man
Desolation Row
Tangled Up In Blue
This World Can’t Stand Long
Down In The Flood
Just Like A Woman
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Where Teardrops Fall
Drifter’s Escape
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Things Have Changed
Like A Rolling Stone
If Dogs Run Free
All Along The Watchtower
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Highway 61 Revisited
Blowin’ In The Wind
2/9/2002

I Am The Man, Thomas
My Back Pages
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Searching For A Soldier’s Grave
Lonesome Day Blues
Lay, Lady, Lay
Floater
High Water (For Charley Patton)
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Masters Of War
Tangled Up In Blue
Summer Days
Sugar Baby
Drifter’s Escape
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Things Have Changed
Like A Rolling Stone
Forever Young
Honest With Me
Blowin’ In The Wind
All Along The Watchtower

5/2/2003

Duncan And Brady
Mr. Tambourine Man
Desolation Row
Tangled Up In Blue
This World Can’t Stand Long
Down In The Flood
Just Like A Woman
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Where Teardrops Fall
Drifter’s Escape
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Things Have Changed
Like A Rolling Stone
If Dogs Run Free
All Along The Watchtower
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Highway 61 Revisited
Blowin’ In The Wind

4/13/2004

Cold Irons Bound
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
Lonesome Day Blues
Under The Red Sky
Things Have Changed
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Positively 4th Street
Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)
Masters Of War
Floater (Too Much To Ask)
This Wheel’s On Fire
Honest With Me
Not Dark Yet
Summer Days
Cat’s In The Well
Like A Rolling Stone
All Along The Watchtower

I’m not sure you could ask for a more varied mix, given that the man has a catalogue that spans 40 years and several hundred songs. Granted, his voice isn’t so hot, but I’ve known the lyrics to just about every song I’ve heard him perform, so that wasn’t a big deal to me. And I’ve always loved the way he reworks tunes so that they sound completely different from the way they were recorded on the albums.

So, you pays your (not insubstantial) money and you takes your chance. I’m a 55 year old geezer who has been enthralled by Dylan for 40 years, and I’d probably pay $50 to see him read from the phone book.

One thing you can count on: he’ll have a top-notch band with him. He’s ALWAYS been able to put together a great band!

Ditto. COMPLETELY BLOWN ME AWAY.

Especially fifteen years ago in a bullring in northern Spain. During the second set I wandered straight up – I mean STRAIGHT UP – to the stage, and the bastard sang a solo acoustic “Mister Tambourine Man” RIGHT TO ME.

Also heard him in New Haven back in '78 (awful) and at Madison Square Garden in 2001, when he followed Joni Mitchell and completely destroyed her. Encored with “Blowing in the Wind,” which was extremely nice of him.

Define ‘recently’. The man’s about a hundred years old. So I count the Slow Train Coming tour (1980) as recent. He was pretty good, but let’s face it, he’s unpredictable, and has been for about sixty years. He really doesn’t care too much if you have a good time, and on any given night/tour, he specifically won’t play the songs you want to hear. When I saw him he laughed at calls for Lay Lady Lay, Like A Rolling Stone, etc. “Shoulda been here fifteen years ago,” he mumbled as he launched into another unknown Christian rock number.

It’s a crap shoot. Catch him on a good night, and it’s magic. Other nights, it’ll be the worst show of your life. Buyer beware.

I saw him a few years back at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. He melted the place. It was a great show.

I hope I am not transgressing here but, as a courtesy to those people who replied to my plea for guidance, i thought I should let them know how the whole thing worked out.

Everyone was right:

He didn’t say one word to the audience during the set. After the last song they simply walked off stage. After the first encore Thunder On The Mountain Bob says. “Thank you friends,” and introduces the band.

Many of the songs do sound similar because he chooses, this time, to present half of them as straight blues songs. He could have Bo Diddley playing guitar. But the band he has is just about the best blues band I have ever heard.

Sometimes it is hard to understand the lyrics, but only on the songs I know by heart.

Nothing sounded like the original version - he did blues, he did pop, he did country, he did gospel - I was waiting for death metal but he skipped that.

His set list was heavily weighted in favour of more modern stuff that I didn’t know.

But the truth is in the post before this one he was …FUCKING FANTASTIC.

The arrangements were so clever. He would pick elements of songs and weave them into a totally different musical framework so that you had a constant sense of familiarity and novelty within the same song. He sang superbly - more deep and sonorous than I expected but with lovely changes of phrasing and pisstakes of “Bob Dylan.” And as you would expect the band was uniformly excellent.

Here is what he played:

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Watching The River Flow
Tangled Up In Blue
John Brown
The Levee’s Gonna Break
When The Deal Goes Down
Things Have Changed
Desolation Row
Honest With Me
Spirit On The Water
Highway 61 Revisited
Nettie Moore
Summer Days
Ballad Of A Thin Man
(encore)
Thunder On The Mountain
Like A Rolling Stone

More concert set lists and reviews at Bob Dylan - Bob Links - 2013-2014Tour Guide

Thanks for the update, don’t ask. Glad it worked out well for you. As you saw in this thread people either fall into the love him/hate him in concert camp. I’m happy you ended up in the former!