Dylan rolls out rocking show in rarely used venue

Friday, Sep 05, 2008

By Darryl Morden

SANTA MONICA, California (Hollywood Reporter) - Leave it to an enigmatic-after-all-these-years rock legend to play a 50-year-old creaky venue that hasn't been a concert hotspot for quite some time. Back in the 1970s and '80s, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium played host to shows from the Kinks to Queen to the Clash. The sound was never very good.

These days, the sound remains dicey, though one got used to it as Bob Dylan rolled out a two-hour show Wednesday (September 3) of the old and the recent. At 67, he can rest on his laurels, but instead he keeps touring and recording.

As always, it all comes down to what he's going to play, how he's going to arrange it and how he'll phrase it. Anyone expecting album re-creations hasn't been following the man these many decades. He's never been an oldies act.

Dressed in a black suit and wide-brim hat and still sporting that pencil-thin moustache, Dylan looked like a Western saloon gambler (the Jack of Hearts, anyone?), his backing quintet in matching light brown suits. He stood behind his keyboard, drawing roars whenever he blew a bit of harmonica.

The carnival parading of "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" with its crowd-pleasing refrain of "everybody must get stoned" kicked off the show for the SRO crowd of about 3,500, followed by a raw "It Ain't Me, Babe" and the galloping "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again."

That's the way it went all night, Dylan mining his vast catalogue from the '60s, then mixing in songs from 2006's "Modern Times." He skipped a lot of eras, but that's the way the set list rolls.

Dylan's current band -- guitarists Stu Kimball and Denny Freeman, drummer George Recile, bassist Tony Garnier and multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron on viola, banjo, electric mandolin, pedal steel and lap steel -- have been with him for several years, adept at the changes that come with each performance. The boss lets them cut loose at times, though they never stray from the core of his songs, even in new guises.

The grooves were steady and jumping, too. There was the tale-spinning of "Mississippi," the Oscar-winning, caustic "Things Have Changed" from "The Wonder Boys" soundtrack and more classics, such as a ramshackle "I Don't Believe You" and the ever-biting "Ballad of a Thin Man."

A boogie-pumped "Highway 61 Revisited," channelling the spirit of John Lee Hooker, revved up the crowd, while the more recent "Thunder on the Mountain" closed out the main set. Dylan returned with the signature "Like a Rolling Stone" and a revamped yet still ominous "All Along the Watchtower."

The audience ranged from those old enough to collect Social Security to fans in their '20s, obviously thrilled to experience an American icon.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter