BOB DYLAN : KITCHENER 2009

 

Disc One (58:46)

  1. Cat's in the Well
  2. Lay Lady Lay
  3. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
  4. Million Miles
  5. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
  6. Cold Irons Bound
  7. Every Grain of Sand
  8. Spirit on the Water
  9. Ballad of Hollis Brown

Disc Two (57:06)

  1. When the Deal Goes Down
  2. Highway 61 Revisited
  3. Ain't Talkin'
  4. Thunder on the Mountain
  5. Ballad of a Thin Man
  6. Like a Rolling Stone
  7. Jolene
  8. All Along the Watchtower

Label : no label

Venue : Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Recording Date : November 7, 2009

Quality : Audience Recording (A+)

Concert Review (Boblinks) : Following Dylan's recent set lists and noticing a generous peppering of songs from Together Through Life, I was looking forward to hearing my first concert performances of them. Of course it's always best to go to a Dylan show with your expectations in check. The only song we got from the most recent album (I'm excluding the brilliant Christmas In the Heart here) was Jolene and it was locked into the middle of what seems his current standard encore set between Like A Rolling Stone and All Along The Watchtower. Still it was a gorgeous show full of tender treats and raucous jams. The show opened with a solidly grooved Cat's In The Well. Dylan stood to our right, leaning into his keyboard, wide brimmed white hat, beige coat. Donnie Herron sat on a riser behind Dylan, sawing his violin through the first tune and surrounded by his own array of instruments: pedal steel, lap steel, electric mandolin, banjo, and a trumpet lying idle on top of a speaker cabinet (I don't think he picked it up once during the show). At the left of the stage stood Stu Kimball, probably the most understated presence of the night, rhythm guitar, always playing something interesting (acoustic or electric) to contribute to the movement, texture, and flesh of the songs but never bringing much particular attention to it or himself. Next right was Tony Garnier on bass. Above and behind him was George Recile and his drum kit. Can someone tell me if he paints his facial hair on? His eyebrows and mustache are so black and clearly articulated against his face. It looks unnatural to me. Stage make up? Anyway, he's a killer drummer and along with Tony Garnier they're one hell of a rhythm section. Charlie Sexton held the center of the stage. I usually remark how Dylan keeps his band very reigned in, the band rocks out but nobody ever really seems to step forward into a clearly defined soloist role. But Charlie was unleashed! As far as I was concerned, he almost stole the show. Aside from the always elegant phrasing and the soaring, spitting, searing and dive bombing solos he was just so fascinating visually. Tall, hollywood handsome, but very gaunt at the same time. Nothing showy - no rock star antics or posturing. He often crouched, I thought awkwardly, during his solos. I wondered if he was adjusting the settings on his foot pedals, but a friend thinks he was maybe trying to establish some deference to Dylan, trying to relinquish his transfixing domination of the stage center. Dylan has his own baffling and transfixing presence though and came out to stage center to play guitar for Lay Lady Lay. A gorgeous, tender version with pedal steel and Stu Kimball's acoustic guitar finding a perfect textural voice beneath Dylan's singing. Dylan's shows are as luscious visually as they are sonically. The band wore finely tailored matching brown suits laden with sparkles. The stage was backed, floor to ceiling, by a wall of dark solid curtain that was subjected to stunning projections of deep, rich color and bold majestic patterns that sometimes dwarfed the band. For Lay Lady Lay, it was like the stadium fell away and opened up to the firmament - a deep star drenched sky. Other times, there was a nest of bold graphic slashes, like Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock were made to stay after class to write lines on the chalk board but fell into a battle of orgiastic drawing instead. Sometimes it was just Dylan's mystifying jagged eye and crown symbol. I thought we'd get Beyond Here Lies Nothin' in the third or forth slot. Nope. With Bob back at the keyboard the band rocked through Most Likely You Go Your Way and Million Miles. Bob's first tooting on the harmonica in the first of the two. A deep, stirring Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll followed. Tony Garnier pulled out the acoustic bass, Stu Kimball played acoustic guitar, and Donnie Heron played mandolin. Dylan reshaped the song beautifully to suit his gravelly old man baritone - hard to think this is the same kid who wrote the song with his nasally whine. But, if anything, the song bears a more marked disdain towards William Zanzinger and his ilk, a heftier articulation of distrust and indictment of the so-called justice system from Dylan's husky elder witness than his youthful indignation could render. The new version of Cold Irons Bound rocked! This is at least the third distinct reworking of this song that I've witnessed live. Gone is the tangle of feedback and bent guitar strings that has started the song in the past, and gone too is the halting cliff face of chords that the vocal tumbles over in the last versions I've heard. Instead the song just launched unceremoniously and bounded along like a cast iron tumbleweed in a hurricaine. Dylan stood center stage again, harp in hand, arms spread wide like a carnival hawker as he delivered each line. Every Grain of Sand was on my wish list of songs to hear. But I felt unsatisfied with Dylan's vocal phrasing on this version. Sometimes he can take a song to a very unexpected and refreshing place. Sometimes you just pine for the melody. Spirit On The Water followed. Song number eight in the set and the first of the night from what I'd called Dylan's recent albums (which I guess means Modern Times, since there was nothing from Love & Theft in this concert either). Gorgeous. Tony on the upright bass again. And then a haunting acoustic version of Ballad of Hollis Brown. Bob standing stage center again, arms lifting with his vocals. Donnie Herron played banjo on this one & Charlie squeezed behind Bob to go visit Donnie for a little guitar/banjo jam in the corner. He seemed to have a little trouble afterwards finding room behind Bob to get back to center stage and had to wait for a diplomatic moment. When The Deal Goes Down was spot on. And was followed by a wild version of Highway 61 with Charlie Sexton unequivocally taking charge and turning out some breathtaking, jaw-dropping monster solos. My favorite moment though was when he approached Dylan at the keyboard, their instruments spitting staccato musical phrases back and forth, a momentary locking of horns before the song swept up into a maelstrom again. Ain't Talkin was the third Modern Times song of the evening, followed immediately by the fourth, Thunder On The Mountain. These songs are so satisfying to hear, written in Dylan's "current" voice. Both he and the band seem so at home in these songs and deliver them with such clarity, precision and nuance. The main set finished with Ballad of a Thin Man. Dylan brought his harp out to center stage again. A hot mercurial jam. I have a hard time getting a grip on the 68 year old Dylan singing this song though. It just seems so inherently to be written from a youthful point of view and directed at someone older and disapproving. In my imagination, maybe, it's just too bound up in those combative 1966 electric shows. Hard to redress it's meaning in this context, but still a song that rocks out. I was happy to hear my first live rendering of Jolene in the encore. A lot of bark and crunch in that tune. Like a Rolling Stone was a super jam to start the final set, and Dylan's phrasing was spot on. The night finished with All Along the Watchtower - this version started with some hiccuping guitar riffs that pecked around the chord changes before grabbing them full on. A refreshing arrangement that seemed to owe little to either John Wesley Harding or Jimmie Hendrix but was still entirely recognizable. Dylan irreverently played with the phrasing like he sometimes does, restructuring the vocal rhythm and pitch to something that felt like you were trying to plod your way up the down escalator. Hard to say sometimes if there's some expressive purpose or whether he's just fuckin' around to alleviate the boredom. All in all, it was a very satisfying show. A real treat to have Dylan's one Canadian date this year in a small stadium in such a small city as Kitchener. The Memorial Auditorium doesn't have a reputation for great sound, but from my seat in the middle of the floor I found nothing to complain about. It was all good.