I’ve been giving my orange ear plugs a workout in the last 24 hours. I wore them this morning while blowing leaves off the roof and I had them on last night at the Bob Dylan show and then after that I shoved them in as far as they would go for the second set of SLT at the Montage.
John Gilmore bought us reserved seats for Dylan but we never saw them. We arrived while Dylan was half way through his opening number, “Rainy Day Women #12 & #35, and we worked our way through the crowd on the floor to about forty people back. Bob was great, loose and adventurous and mischievous. His band kept him in check.
It occurred to me that you can’t get too good as a working, rock musician without getting into steamroller territory. That’s why Tommy was a better drummer than Marky Ramone. Bob spent half the night at the organ and that was the best half. He’s already got another rhythm guitar player and a lead guitar (who was trying to be annoying with repetitive figures) and a steel player so there was no way he could shape his own songs while on guitar. Was his band trying to make his harmonica playing sound out of tune? Rock can’t be too healthy. It doesn’t work.
“Like A Rolling Stone” was so sensational when it came out, way more than a pop song. It blew me away and I’m not a lyric kinda guy. I never know what bands are singing about. I remember going wild when they played the long version. Dylan finished with that song last night and it is still sensational. It was great to see him.
SLT was the better band last night.
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