Geriatric Lee Lewis

Bob Dylan, Glasgow SECC 11th April 2007. Live Review.

I was at the dentist this morning and I can’t make up my mind which was more painful – being told I need a filling or being forced to listen to the guitarist in Bob Dylan’s band mangle out another elastic band guitar solo.

Dylan last night was on top form. His voice sounded fantastic, his hat/suit combo was inspired and his choice of songs was just about as expected, with the odd curve-ball thrown in. No-one would’ve had their money on hearing ‘John Brown’, and in all my times at Dylan concerts, I think last night was the first time I’d heard him play ‘Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues’. He started great. The first 4 songs he played guitar and I was thinking ‘This is brilliant’. Then the first of many fumbled guitar breaks came in, and it all went a bit pear shaped. Honestly, Denny Freeman is no better a guitarist than me. And that’s not good enough for Bob Dylan. Bob must know this. Perhaps he’s told the rest of them (with the exception of cooler-than-cool Tony Garnier) that they’re all sacked after this tour, cos most of his band plodded through the night with no fire or passion and little musical inventiveness. The ‘Modern Times’ stuff sounded OK. In fact ‘Aint Talkin” was pretty amazing, but when let loose on the 60’s stuff, this band is way out of its depth. No Bob set has room for both ‘Stuck Inside of Mobile…’ and ‘Most Likely You Go Your Way..’, especially with a band as inept as this one. Christ, they even managed to mess up the start of ‘Like A Rolling Stone’. Instead of the pistol crack drum intro, it sort of limped along to the first line. Tony didn’t even have his bass strapped on until Bob began singing. At one point Donald beside me said ‘This band sound like Peter Kay’s in Phoenix Nights’. And he was right.

I also spent most of the night looking at Bob’s arse. I thought I was being smart in advance by ordering tickets that would give me a good view of stage left, where his keyboard has been sat for the past 3 years. But guess what? The wee contrary bastard decided to move the keyboard to centre stage! This at least gave us the chance to see what Bob did when he was really into what was being played. He bopped, he jerked and he looked like he was humping his instrument. Not so much Jerry Lee Lewis as Geriatric Lee Lewis. It was highly amusing. Of course, when he wasn’t into it he still looked like a Thunderbirds puppet going out as a cowboy for Halloween. No review of Bob’s current tour would be complete without a comment or two on Bob’s keyboard sound. A cross between a 60s garage band Farfisa (good) and the ice hockey organ (bad) it was really noticeable for all the wrong reasons during many songs. But hey. It was Bob Dylan. Live. In front of me. For the umpteenth time. In some ways much better than previous times I’ve seen him – the voice, mainly and in other ways much worse than before – his band, mainly. But it was still Bob Dylan and he’s still better than the rest. Just think what he could do with a good band again.

Bob, if you’re reading this (hahahahaha) bring back Larry and Charlie.

Oh, and I’d appreciate a copy of the show if anyone has one. So far it’s not on dimeadozen. Bit disappointing that. Until anything better turns up, there’s some shaky hand-held video from someone’s mobile phone here.