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The W - Music - SLCR #287: Bob Dylan (July 15, 2017)
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KJames199
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Since: 10.12.01
From: #yqr

Since last post: 226 days
Last activity: 7 days
#1 Posted on | Instant Rating: 8.69
This was a show that almost didn't happen. I mean, for me. Which is essentially the same as it not happening at all, right? I mean, you likely weren't there either. I didn't see you there, anyway. If Bob Dylan performs a concert and several thousand people see it but they aren't you or me, did it really happen?

This review also nearly didn't happen because I've spent all of my computer time downloading wrestlers for Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, but that's an understandable thing. You all know what it's like when people are waiting for you to talk about concert-adjacent nonsense and you're torn, trying to decide which Brutus Beefcake is the right Brutus Beefcake for you.

But yeah. I saw Dylan once before, back in 2002. While I enjoyed that show, I wasn't sure that I needed to see him again. I've passed up his concerts here in town before, in fact. But Bob's getting up there - coincidentally, we're both 15 years older now - and I do like the guy, so as this show drew closer, it started to feel more and more like something I'd like to see. A week out, I checked tickets and I was able to get fifth row, dead centre. I don't know if I just got lucky or if they repriced some unsold tickets from premium tiers. Either way, good deal for me.

Before I bought my ticket, I texted Mika to see if she wanted to come along. She said she didn't but would go if I wanted the company. And I love her company, but I didn't feel like paying an extra $100 to drag her to something that she wouldn't enjoy. I told her this and she sent me the saddest gif of a crying cartoon rabbit.

Fun fact: you can tell how work is going by how many concert tickets I buy. When work is dead, I get bored and browse the internet and buy concert tickets. When work is crazy, I decide I need to treat myself. There's a sweet spot in between where I'm busy but not TOO busy where I shop a lot less. That's as stupid as it is true.

After Mika and I had dinner, I headed out to Moose Jaw, bravely battling my own dumb tendency to show up several hours early. I timed things well and got there with ten minutes to spare. Fine work, me. I picked up my ticket at the Will Call window and walked in past dozens of signs warning us to not record anything or take pictures of anything or use our phones at all. I had to show my ticket to get to my floor seat and got this spiel directly from one of the ushers, who asked me to just turn my phone all the way off entirely. I did not do this. But I also didn't record anything or take any pictures; it's 2017 and all but if someone cares that much, whatever. Instagram will survive without my blurry snaps and we all know what Bob Dylan looks like anyway.

My seat was great, apart from its proximity to the rest of them. Whoever laid out the floor seats at Mosaic Place once sat in the middle seat on an airplane, loved it, and wanted to share his joy with others. I'd like him to contract dick cancer.

A nice thing about Dylan's obsessive fan base is that within minutes of the show ending, a complete setlist was up on the internet:

Things Have Changed
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Highway 61 Revisited
Why Try to Change Me Now (Cy Coleman cover)
Summer Days
Make You Feel My Love
Duquesne Whistle
Melancholy Mood (Frank Sinatra cover)
Stormy Weather (Harold Arlen cover)
Pay in Blood
Once Upon a Time (Tony Bennett cover)
Tangled Up in Blue
Early Roman Kings
Desolation Row
Soon After Midnight
That Old Black Magic (Johnny Mercer cover)
Long and Wasted Years
Autumn Leaves (Yves Montand cover)
---the-dashes-mean-that-this-was-where-we-clapped-before-the-encore---
Blowin' in the Wind
Ballad of a Thin Man

A solid lineup of tunes, though a relatively short night - done in just over 90 minutes - and from looking online, it looks like he's playing mostly the same show every night. I can see where this would be disappointing to some people; part of the appeal of going to multiple shows on the same tour was that you never knew how he'd mix things up, or when he'd play some song for the first time since 1974 because he felt like it.

So I said earlier that "I wasn't sure that I needed to see him again." And this show got a bad review in the local paper, much to the delight of my Dylan-hating father. And the two people sitting to my left took off about five songs in, with one person (who didn't seem to care much in the first place) saying to the other, "yeah, I can see why you'd be disappointed if it wasn't what you were expecting." I'm sorry they had a bad time but I enjoyed their shoulder room and butt room.

The thing is, Bob Dylan is Bob Dylan and a Bob Dylan concert is its own thing. The ticket said the show was going to start at 8:00 and it did, right down to the second. Last time I saw Dylan, the only words he said to the audience all night were "Ladies and gentlemen, here's my band!" This time, not even that. He sang and we may as well have not been there. Bob Dylan isn't real interested in you and you're okay with that or you're not. Some of the arrangements were very different from the recordings, to the point that it took quite a while to recognize some songs, even familiar ones. And his voice - you might love it, you might hate it (this seems to be much more likely, outside of a small but vocal group of my internet pals), but it is what it is. It may have become rougher over the years, but I can't see where you'd have liked it 20 years ago and hated it now.

I guess I'm saying it all comes down to your expectations. I got pretty much exactly the show I thought I'd get and I liked it a lot. I can see why someone else might not, though. Which makes them wrong. But that's okay.

Can we at least all agree that the band was really good? And Dylan spent much of the time playing piano and he seemed really into that. I even saw him smiling a few times, which was weird and didn't fit with my mental image of him. No wonder we weren't allowed to take pictures.

UPCOMING CONCERTS:
• July Talk (August 3)
• I Mother Earth and The Watchmen (August 4)
• Crash Test Dummies & the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (August 7)
• Beck (August 20)
• kd lang w/Kacy & Clayton (August 26)
• Guns N' Roses w/Our Lady Peace (August 27)
• The Sadies (September 14)
• Steve Earle & The Dukes (September 27)
• The New Pornographers w/Born Ruffians (October 6)
• Whitehorse w/Terra Lightfoot (October 13)
• Sarah Slean (October 14)
• Martha Wainwright (October 22)
• David Myles (October 24)
• Tanya Tagaq & the Regina Symphony Orchestra (November 25)



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A co-worker sent me this, pretty much sinking my productivity between 11:30am and noon. In any case, I think it's pretty frickin' funny... Yacht Rock Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, etc...
- Leroy, Yacht Rock (2006)
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