Dylan show question

[Mr.Whippy]

Hi,
   My wife and I are thinking about getting lawn seats for the Dylan/Elvis show at Merriweather so we can bring our 5 year-old daughter.  We've taken her to other shows and she loves it.  The lawn is best as she's a bit sensitive to volume (and I don't the she would be OK with wearing earplugs) and she can run around some.  
 
   I recall seeing Dylan at an amphitheater with video screens a long time ago and he refused to let himself be filmed.  Does anyone know if that is still his policy, or is it safe to assume that the video screens will be going at Merriweather?  I think I recall seeing a video screen at one of his baseball staduim shows a few years ago, so maybe he does let himself be filmed these days.
 
 Thanks for any info.

[Brian_Wallace]

Considering what Bob Dylan looks like these days, do you REALLY want a five year-old to see this:
 
   <img src="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/041004/041004_bob_dylan_vmed.widec.jpg" alt=" - " />
 
 staring at her on a giant video screen?
 
 It may scar the kid for life.
 
 Brian

[walkonby]

wow . . . it's as if merle haggard tuned out of reality like syd barrett on some serious drugs.
 nice photo!  he deserves another victoria secretion ad.

[anarchist]

i saw dylan for free two times last year.  1/2 way into the 2nd show i said i would never go again.  this review pretty much sums up the experience.
 
 Music
 Dylan, Wheezin' In the Wind
 
 By Chris Richards
 Special to The Washington Post
 Monday, August 21, 2006; Page C01
 
 Ah, the sights, smells and sounds of the ballpark. A grown man dancing with a sunflower. The smell of reefer blowing in the outfield. A mother lecturing her fidgety child: "He is a legend !"
 
 "He" is Bob Dylan, and yes, kiddo, he is a legend. Dylan's third annual summer tour of minor league ballparks stopped Saturday night at Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick, where parents got to hear one of America's greatest living songwriters wheeze through his greatest tunes while their kids just watched, confused.
 
 
 It's not breaking news that Dylan's voice has withered over the course of his storied 65 years. Nor is his tendency to rearrange the phrasing and melodies of his songs to suit those battered pipes. But these days, the man sounds less like a rock-and-roll icon and more like Cookie Monster with a head cold.
 
 He played the hits, but would you have recognized them? The opening one-two punch of "Maggie's Farm" and "The Times They Are A-Changin' " was full of promise, but Dylan's run-down vocal delivery rendered the songs almost unrecognizable. The lyrics are still trenchant -- "There's a battle outside and it is ragin' / It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls / For the times they are a-changin' " -- but good luck finding them in the garble of huffs, puffs and croaks.
 
 Even more disappointing was Dylan's lack of engagement with the audience. From a stage erected in deep center field, he stood hunched over a keyboard, rarely facing the thousands of fans flooding the ballpark's field and stands. During his 90 minutes onstage he thanked the crowd only once.
 
 He also thanked his band, which brought a bluesy hue to his songbook. After a lean, driving version of "Cold Irons Bound" (a tune from Dylan's 1997 comeback album "Time Out of Mind"), the band slipped into the twinkling, nimble "Girl From the North Country." Dylan reined it in and sang quietly over the song's sparkling guitars before blowing a plaintive harmonica solo.
 
 Despite the ragged vocal performance, the crowd mustered enough applause for an encore in which Dylan cued up two of his masterpieces, "Like a Rolling Stone" and "All Along the Watchtower." It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment: One where you wished those drunk dudes singing behind you would cut loose and drown out the guy onstage.

[sweetcell]

to offer a counterpoint to the previous post: i saw dylan at his last appearance here in the area, at patriot center with the raconteurs.  it was an amazing show.  dylan was "on" that night, and when he's "on" he's great.  i didn't read or hear a negative opinion about that night's performance.  if i was here on the night of the show, i'd most definitely be at merriweather.
 
 and regarding drunk folks singing: one of the funniest things about that show was how dylan kept switching up the pace of delivery of his hits.  lots of drunks wanted to belt out the chorus of "like a rolling stone", but he kept speeding up and slowing down in ways that prevented anyone from singing along in time.
 
 maybe when he's having an "off" night you get a performance of the above-mentioned quality...

[walkonby]

Originally posted by sweetcell:
  to offer a counterpoint to the previous post: i saw dylan at his last appearance here in the area, at patriot center with the raconteurs.  it was an amazing show.  dylan was "on" that night, and when he's "on" he's great.  i didn't read or hear a negative opinion about that night's performance.  if i was here on the night of the show, i'd most definitely be at merriweather.
 
 maybe when he's having an "off" night you get a performance of the above caliber...

i was at that show with a great seat up front, and it was one of few concerts i made sure to be there for both bands . . . and it is was indeed one of the better dylan sets i've ever seen.  he was so alive and not reserved.  i think because the raconteurs laid down quite a set beforehand.

[BookerT]

i was at both shows. that show in frederick was the worst i've ever seen dylan. the patriot center show was one of the best. he's been generally better since "modern times" came out.

[Mobius]

Dylan is constantly on tour and I think that results in a certain 'ebb and flow' to his shows -like the weather . . . or Dead shows used to be.
 
 I've seen him 5 times since 95 and each time he was 'on'.  I would bet on Merriweather in late Sept. accompanied by Elvis as being sufficiently inspiring.
 
 The reputation he earned for being notoriously horrible in the late 80's early 90's is no longer deserved - although I guess he's still capable of low lows (more likely at minor league ballpark in the heat in the dog days of summer or free show than more dignified (?) environment).  He has surrounded himself with fantastic 'professional' musicians and I think its safe to say that if the venue and circumstance are good, the mood will strike.
 
 The photo above is funny, but not what Dylan looks like generally.  In fact he seems (surprisingly) fit and lucid these days.

[Cash is King]

I was also at the Fredrick show last year. Loved Junior Brown. But other then that, was probably the worst concert i have ever been to. Dylan was just horrible.

[Mr.Whippy]

Originally posted by Brian Wallace:
  Considering what Bob Dylan looks like these days, do you REALLY want a five year-old to see this:
 
   staring at her on a giant video screen?
 
 It may scar the kid for life.
 
 Brian

I took her to see him in '05 on one of the ballpark tours when she was 4.  She absolutely loved it and talked about it nonstop for months.  
 
 These days, though, she's much more into Arcade Fire.  That's not a joke, she knows all of their songs by name.  Speaking of Arcade Fire, who do I need to blow around here for a local Arcade Fire/LCD Soundsystem date?

[sweetcell]

something has just occured to me about the pic above: you know it has to be an old pic (i.e. no longer reflective of what dylan looks like) since he's playing a guitar.  dylan plays keyboards these days, he always has a guitar set up for him but he never uses it.  
 
 or at least that's what i've read... when was the last time anyone here saw dylan perform with a guitar?

[Mr.Whippy]

Originally posted by sweetcell:
  something has just occured to me about the pic above: you know it has to be an old pic (i.e. no longer reflective of what dylan looks like) since he's playing a guitar.  dylan plays keyboards these days, he always has a guitar set up for him but he never uses it.  
 
 or at least that's what i've read... when was the last time anyone here saw dylan perform with a guitar?

Supposedly he just recently started playing guitar again.  I don't know if it is for a song or two or for the whole show.  
 
 Great news as I think the shows were better with him on guitar than on piano.

[manimtired]

the last time i saw him play guitar was in 2000 (i think) when i was a junior at duquesne university in pittsburgh.  he played our small ass basketball stadium which was pretty cool. ive seen him about 4 or 5 times since and its all keyboards.

[Bombay Chutney]

Originally posted by manimtired:
  the last time i saw him play guitar was in 2000 (i think) when i was a junior at duquesne university in pittsburgh.  he played our small ass basketball stadium which was pretty cool. ive seen him about 4 or 5 times since and its all keyboards.

That sounds about right.  He was definitely playing guitar in 2000 and keyboards in 2003, so I guess the switch was sometime in between.  I saw him once in 2001, but I don't really remember what he was playing.
 
 I saw Dylan once in the early 90's at Wolf Trap.  Easily one of the worst shows I've ever seen.  Horrible.  But I've been seeing him regularly since '99 and he's just getting better and better all the time.  I skipped the ballpark shows, but I was at the Patriot Center and he was fantastic.  The Merriweather show is a must-see (although you'll find me in the cheap seats).
 
 You need to know what to expect when you see modern-day Dylan.  His voice and style are very different now.  He basically sounds like he does on his recent albums.  If you can imagine the voice on "Modern Times" singing "Like A Rolling Stone"  - that's what you're going to get.  If that's not what you're expecting, you're going to be disappointed.  If you know that going into it, you're probably going to love it.

[ggw]

I have seen Dylan ~15 times over the last twenty years.  It's always a bit of a crapshoot, although - as others have pointed out - his voice is in much better shape now than it was in the past.
 
 As for the guitar playing, the following was lifted from wikipedia:
 
 "For a two and a half year period, between 2003 and 2006, Dylan ceased playing guitar, and stuck to the keyboard during concerts. Various rumors circulated as to why Dylan gave up guitar during this period, none very reliable. According to David Gates, a Newsweek reporter who interviewed Dylan in 2004, "...basically it has to do with his guitar not giving him quite the fullness of sound he was wanting at the bottom. (six strings on a guitar, ten fingers on a piano.) He's thought of hiring a keyboard player so he doesn't have to do it himself, but hasn't been able to figure out who. Most keyboard players, he says, like to be soloists, and he wants a very basic sound."[159] Dylan's touring band has two guitarists along with a multi-instrumentalist who plays steel guitar, mandolin, banjo and fiddle. From 2002 to 2005, Dylan's keyboard had a piano sound. In 2006, this was changed to an organ sound. At the start of his Spring 2007 tour in Europe, Dylan played the first half of the set on electric guitar and switched to keyboard for the second half."