Dylan. Mellencamp & Willie somewhere in VT

[TonyNYC]

Back home from visiting my ex girlfriend and my step son.

Went out to see these three guys on Friday night and the fairgrounds was full despite an intermittent rain. I was a little to the right of the stage about 15 rows away and surprised how good it all sounded.

Willie opened and did a whole bunch of short songs. I don't own anything by him, but recognized more than half of them and enjoyed him more than I expected to. I preferred the slower songs like Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground, Moonlight In Vermont, Still Is Still Moving To Me and-oh no, cringe-You Were Always On My Mind and it would be okay with me if I never heard On The Road Again, Whiskey River or Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys ever again. He put his classic Crazy in the middle of a three song medley that did not do it justice and did a couple of energy-less Hank Williams songs, but no Poncho & Lefty. I especially appreciated the mix which kept the instruments lower and the drummer who mostly used brushes to keep the beat so I could hear Willie's singing and acoustic guitar playing. Now, I don't know enough about guitar playing to say how good he is, but I found his playing different, quirky, interesting and extraordinarily good.

Mellencamp was up next and him and his band hit the floor running at full speed with a pounding Pink Hoses and a blistering Paper In Fire which started out as a terse blues and kept building until it sizzled. They slowed it down then with a touching Deep Blue Heart that showed off Mellencamp's voice. Then they went into one from his most recent album, If I Die Sudden, that came out as a straight thumping blues. Next was a great sing along Check It Out that brought the fiddler to the forefront and sounded real fine.

The band stepped off and left Mellenacmp there with his guitar and he did this brand new song that had an easy melody and words about dying (clearly his new favorite subject) and what to leave behind which was a bit corny, but still moving. Small Town was next. Him and his guitar made it feel fresh as he sang it strong as the fiddler and one of the guitarists on accordian closed it out with him and then went into this beautiful duet as the rest of the band made their way across the stage for a 'Keep On Tryin' like sing along for another new one, Don't Need This Body.

Back to electric, they roared into a thundering Scarecrow that was the show's highlight for me. He closed with loud and proud versions of Crumblin' Down and Authority Song which hasn't lost a bit of its bite or fight.

Mellencamp left me wishing for another half hour or forty minutes so he could delve into some of his middle period. I was hoping for Just Another day, Jackie Brown, Big Daddy, Dance Naked, I Saw Her First, Cuttin Heads, Your Life Is Now and how about Cherry Bomb, I Need A Lover, Hard Times For An Honest Time, R O C K In The U S A. The man just knows how to throw a concert: a rock solid band, polished and a bit rough around the edges, with a few new songs and a bunch of songs that we all wanted to hear and a whole mess of energy.

Dylan and his band, all wearing hats, walked across the dark stage as a tongue in cheek voice over introduced him as the poet of his time, the conscience of his generation, all washed up in the eighties when he found religion only to have the critics rave about his recent nineties work, Columbia recording artist, BOB DYLAN.

A Dylan show is never a sure thing and you never know exactly what you will be getting. But this one was solid and good and predictable in that he did maybe six songs written before '95 and most of them sounded nothing like the way you remember them from the record. He started out on guitar and opened with a revved up Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat (With all of his great cuts why would he bother to play this throwaway?) and went into a fairly faithful to the original Senor. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight was turned into a Texas swing song and Dylan did a good job of playing with his limited voice.

Bob moved to keyboard and stayed there for the rest of the night. Other oldies were Highway Sixty One Revisited (played in a hurried rocky way and damn am I sick of this song) and the two encores of Like A Rolling Stone with one less verse and a raunchy All Along The Watchtower.

But what I liked best about this show was the newer songs, the ones he chose to play were mostly ones I like and the way he played them and how he was singing better-still not great-than usual and wasn't rushing through the lyrics and I could actually make them out this time. A great High Water punctuated by a tasty banjo, a driving Things Have Changed, a bluesy If You Ever Go To Houston, an absolutely beautiful Nettie Moore, a touching Spirit On The Water (which I don't like on record at all), my favorite cut from the new album I Feel A Change Comin' On with its infectious melody and rocking versions of both Summer Days and Rollin' and Tumblin'.

I don't think this band is as good as his recent ones. They leaned too much on Dylan's keyboard to keep and hold the rhythm and melody and all the guitars sounded as if they were a mushy blend instead of sounding separate and I could of used a lot more harmonica though he used it wonderfully on Nettie Moore. And yes, he should always a few on acoustic guitar.

A good, solid, interesting show, but not a great one and I'm still hoping that before either one of us dies, he plays an acoustic show and plays the songs the way he recorded them. Just once.

But all in all a great way to spend an evening.

Check it out, Jim.

[wini]

Back to electric, they roared into a thundering Scarecrow that was the show's highlight for me.

I still think Scarecrow is Mellencamp's best album. It did what Springsteen could have done with Born In The USA if he hadn't tried to be a pop star so hard. Production-wise it is the right level between Nebraska and BitUSA to be a perfect rock'n' roll statement about the reagan era. Almost as fitting as Little Steven's work at the time.

[TonyNYC]

Agree completely with everything you said Wini except I don't go for any of Little Steven's stuff besides Men Without Women