Recently I read a review of Bob Dylan’s performance at the Byron Bay Blues Fest.
In it the author slammed the world’s greatest songwriter for ignoring the audience.
He criticised Dylan for not playing all his big hits or using big screens or stage gimmicks. This review went out through AAP to be read far and wide.
I know it was a different venue, but I saw Dylan just days later in Auckland NZ.
The reviewer is correct. Bob Dylan didn’t belittle the audience with salutations of how wonderful Auckland is – he let his music do the talking. I abhor entertainers who spend half their valuable on stage time talking about how wonderful they are and how fantastic the audience is. There were no big screens and the backdrop was a grey curtain which occassionally and possibly not intentionally projected a shadow of the great man. And as far as playing his biggest hits – I knew every song. With a songbook as massive as his, the concert would still be going days later to satisfy everyone.
Here’s my take.
After a fantastic warm up by Tim Finn (ex Split Enz) and a couple of mates, a packed Vector Arena awaited the main event. With a pre-recorded introduction Bob Dylan appeared from the darkness behind his keyboard. Flanked by the hottest blues band I have heard in years they launched into a series of songs that turned the bottom tier of the arena into a mosh pit for the aged and out-of-it. Everyone was on their feet for 80 minutes of great rock.
Sure his voice was a little husky and there’s no way he could hit the high notes of decades past, but he was never known as a great singer anyway. He put a blues/rock spin on quite a few of his previously folky tunes. This is nothing new. I can remember (or almost remember) seeing Dylan at the Sydney Sports Stadium in the mid seventies where he rocked up songs like Lay Lady Lay, much to the horror of the folk purists.
I also remember that on both occassions, 35 years apart, he finished with the traditional version of Forever Young for which Iam excedingly greatful. It meant we were able to beat the throngs to the first cab on the rank.
If you want a folk concert featuring the best of 1960’s Bob Dylan, stay home. If you want to see one of the hottest blues/rock bands on the planet, check out the splendidly vintage Bob Dylan.
