After I got my ticket for the Sept. 27 Bob Dylan concert at John Paul Jones Arena, I studied. I played all my Dylan albums. I looked over lyrics. I memorized opening chords to my favorite songs. I studied set lists of shows he had already played on his tour. And, when my friends decided to have a drink before the show, I abstained; I wanted to be as clear-headed as possible when Dylan took the stage.
Even with all this preparation, I still couldn't understand half of what Dylan was singing.
For the last 20 years, Dylan fans have scrunched their brows and listened extra hard to try to figure out just what Dylan was playing when he performed. Last Thursday's show was no different. Performing with a group known as "his band", Dylan's set list ranges from songs on classic albums such as Blood on the Tracks and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan to more recent (and lesser-known) songs from Modern Times and Love and Theft. And with a range like Dylan's, which includes songs from the 1960s to the present, it's tough to predict what he'll pull out for the night. What makes it even more difficult, however, is Dylan's voice, which has lost all range whatsoever. Forty-plus years of performing and recording have left Dylan virtually unintelligible, and it doesn't help that Dylan has a frustrating habit of changing the speed and tempo of songs. I once saw a video of him playing "Like a Rolling Stone" solo on the piano, but I had no idea that's what the song was until it was over.
But, despite the indecipherability of his voice, and the tendency to play well-known songs in completely different, unrecognizable ways, last Thursday's show was, like Dylan himself, unexpectedly great. For one, he played guitar (something he rarely does nowadays) for a whole three songs before retiring to the keyboard for the night. Entering the stage in matching suits, Dylan and his band opened with the unexpected "Leopard-Print Pill-Box Hat" (from the playful but often overlooked 1966 Blonde on Blonde) that left many of the younger crowd-goers scratching their heads. But classic Dylan fans found gratification in his hits like "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" (both off the 1963 The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan).
Dylan dotted his set list with several tracks from his most recent (and fantastic) 2006 Modern Times, which won him a 2007 Grammy for "Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album." The reception of this at the concert was mixed -- only a few of the younger concert-goers recognized many of the songs, while older Dylan fans seemed less concerned with singing along to every lyric than finding a unique experience from the concert.
Unfortunately, this is typical of many Dylan concerts today. There is a real dichotomy in Dylan concert crowds, which is split between baby boomers who still buy tickets to see just what Dylan will play, how it will differ from the last time they saw him, and what "Just Like a Woman" will sound like 40 years later, and the post-generation Xers, who only know Dylan's voice from early albums, who find political and social parallels in Dylan's music, and who were raised listening to Highway 61 Revisited.
As a post-generation Xer, I definitely found myself wondering at times just what the hell Dylan was playing, but like my peers, I also kept thinking "I'm seeing Bob Dylan right now." The sheer experience of seeing Bob Dylan is what keeps both older and younger fans coming back.
And, of course, Dylan knows it. At the end of every concert, after the encore, he and his band line up on stage and just stand there while the crowd applauds. No bowing, no "Thank you, Charlottesville!" No second encores, either. Although JPJ got a bit of a treat when Dylan raised his arms (no crucifix/Christ-like theories, please) and waved us all on a bit. Like us, he was probably thinking, "You're seeing Bob Dylan right now."
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