After two and half months of FOMO as I watched the Outlaw tour meander about the West and South, finally, last night, it came near me. I attended the show in Saratoga Springs, and will continue onward to Gilford NH tonight. Then I’ll catch it again when it returns to New England in September (strange tour routing to play New Hampshire and Massachusetts a month apart…).
Here are my slightly bleary-eyed observations the morning after a beautiful, chilly night in Saratoga Springs.
The evening’s big surprise came right up top: For the first time since 1989, “Positively 4th Street” opened the show. “Gotta Serve Somebody” was out. It made for a killer opening. Bob really leaned into the growl, while still belting to the rafters. Is growlbelting the new upsinging? A little girl in front of me had her fingers in her ears. Can’t please everyone.
No tape yet, but I have do have most of this song:LISTEN NOW · 3:14
I wrote the word “jaunty” three times in my notes. Now maybe this is a sign I need to grow my vocabulary, but in all the Rough and Rowdy Ways shows I’ve attended, that is rarely a word that jumps to mind. But things were moving last night! The pace was up across the board. After years of a tempo range from “mid” to “slow-as-molasses,” it marks quite a change. Even a song like “To Ramona” had almost a carnival-esque swing.
The band is notably tighter than last year’s Outlaw run. Bob, on the other hand, was sloppier, at least last night. For much of the show he was unusually mush-mouthed (even by his standards). Lines mumbled, muttered, cast off, swallowed, not sang at all. After a strong start for the first few songs, he settled into a rut it took him until “Watchtower” to pull out of.
But pull out he did. The Van Morrison “Watchtower” arrangement is even more fun live than it is on the tapes, but what really turned things around was a stunning “Til I Fell in Love with You.” Bob croons the lines over an arrhythmic, atonal backing, the band just making noises behind him without really playing “music.” It sounded like something Tom Waits might do (but quieter). From then on things were pretty solid.
Bob Britt, who seems like such an unassuming guy, is suddenly in the spotlight. Not only does he sing backing vocals on “I Can Tell” (first Bob backing vocals since the 2000s?), but it was like guitar-solo-palooza up there. After years where “minimalism” was the watchword, suddenly Bob D is giving Bob B the nod all night. A half dozen solos—and real solos too, not like one flashy lick immediately submerged. The pendulum is swinging back it seems. Here comes Denny Freeman 2.0.
Brief clip of Bob B’s backing vocals:
The covers he chooses to do every night are wild. Songs you’ve never heard of, songs you’ve never heard him mention before, then suddenly he’s doing “Axe and the Wind” or “I'll Make It All Up To You” 23 times in a row (and counting). It makes you realize just how many thousands of songs in his head could surely get slotted into that role if one happens to pop into his mind during band rehearsals.
Which reminds me, a pre-tour leak mentioned they’d rehearsed covers of Bo Diddley, Rick Nelson, and Bruce Springsteen. The first two have come to pass. Only one to go. All together now: Bruuuuuuuce.
“He sounds like a parody of himself,” someone behind me said at one point. It’s a criticism he’s been getting for decades! In fact, it prompted one of my favorite bits of BobTalk way back in 1986:
“Well, I just read another concert review the other day. It said ‘Bob’s sounding like a parody of himself. He sounds just exactly like he’s imitating himself.’ I should like to know who I’m supposed to sound like, you know? I know it’s hard when so many people sound like me these days. [laughs] But someday, somebody got to tell these people that I’m still here. Well, I can’t sound like anybody else. I don’t know how to. If I did, I would.”No BobTalk last night though. Not even a muttered “Thank you friends.” Also no singing center stage, as he had a few times the week before, to great effect. Alas.
Stage report: It’s hilarious just how far back they set everything up onstage. It’s even more obvious at these daytime shows. The front half or more of the stage, where all the other bands stand, goes entirely unused. A few more feet back and he’ll be performing behind the backdrop. Bob also has a silver mirrored piano backing, that annoyingly reflected some flashing red light from the audience (or front of stage?) for much of the show. Also they set up a black curtain for him and the band to enter from, so you don’t see him until he is already close to the piano. The other acts did not have this.
Not only do the video screens show a still camera positioned a million miles away, but they make the stage a deep blood red, where in reality it was a warm orange. This was just for Bob; everyone else used the regular cameras and lighting. Strange. Compare these two pics, one screen and one not, taken seconds apart:
Did the band get yelled at after Jones Beach? On four separate songs, Tony Garnier made a point to clap in the intros for everyone to follow. Were they too fast last time, or too slow? Tony clearly had been tasked with getting things back on track, though it’s unclear how they went off.
I was reminded of two funny Robyn Hitchcock lines he told me last weekend. He said it’s easy for “Highway 61 Revisited” to devolve into a “colorless boogie”—which, sure enough, it was last night. But he also criticized Bob for the current “Desolation Row” arrangement, saying “it’s one of those songs he loves to reverse a car over at the moment.” But I love it! The surf-rock drums remain, but it’s spookier, more menacing and ominous. “Highway 61” could use a car reversed over it too.
Yesterday was Garth Hudson’s birthday. Given the location—not that far from Big Pink—I was surprised it went unmentioned. By Wilco at least. The last time they played this venue with Dylan, back in 2013, you know who sat in with them? Garth! They did “Long Black Veil” and Garth’s showcase “The Genetic Method>Chest Fever.” This time, Willie’s harmonica player (and recent interviewee) Mickey Raphael sat in, for “California Stars” and The Dead’s “U.S. Blues.” Hope Bob invites him to sit in again before the tour’s over. He did tell me he’s been practicing his accordion…
SPAC is as good as these big outdoor venues get. You park your car in a state park, walk through trees and across a bridge over a creek to get in, there’s a ton of grassy space to explore in between sets. A couple years ago a bunch of old soundboard tapes leaked from this venue. There was at least one Dylan, a great Summer 2000 show with—whaddya know—“Searching for a Soldier’s Grave.” My vague recollection is they came from a retired sound engineer. Maybe there’s a new sound engineer there who can keep the tradition alive.
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