Bob Dylan - November 19, 2012 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Review by Leo
November 20, 2012 01:31AM 

We (my husband and I) just got back from the concert. We live fairly close to the Wells Fargo Center.  We left our house at 4:30, the plan being to get their early enough to get a good parking spot and not have to walk so far from the parking lot to the venue.  However, once we got there my husband decided he was not going to pay 25.00 to park, so he dropped me off at the restaurant complex and then drove to another location, Philabundance (our local food bank), and parked the truck there for free, then walked back and met me at the Spectrum Grill. The walk took him about 15 minutes.  We ordered 12.00 burgers that were burnt and we had to scrape the burnt outsides of the burgers off. Oh, well.  We sat around in the restaurant killing time before walking up a couple blocks to the WF Center.

Everything was orderly, no big lines.  They scanned our two $20.00 Sandy tickets (thanks for the tip, Blue-Eyed) and we had decent seats in section 111 row 7 to the right of the stage.  I thought the audience was very unenthusiastic, except for the odd few scattered here and there.  My husband is not a fan of Dylan, but he goes to the concerts with me and makes the most of it for my sake.  He was seated next to a guy with very long hair who kept flicking it (his hair) in the direction of my husband.  After about an hour of this my husband was really getting pissed and said to me "I wish to hell that guy would put his hair in a pony tail.  I can't take much more of his hair flicking."  Almost immediately the guy pulled his hair back and put it in a pony tail and then he and his friend changed their seats to another row.    Mark Knopfler and his band were excellent, the violinist and the piano player were superb. 

Exit Mark & Co., enter Dylan and his band.  I had a pen and a small tablet in my coat pocket, along with a very small flash light, the kind you use to find the keyhole in your front door when you come home late at night and forgot to leave the porch light on.   I brought these items because I was determined to jot down each song Dylan performed along with notes about the performance.  I say I was determined because the last few concerts I attended, I found to my dismay, that I could not for the life of me remember what songs he did due to the fact that I have poor short term memory and also because several of the songs I did not recognize.  As luck would have it, when I pulled the pen from my pocket the tip flew off and rolled down the floor.  So much for that idea.  

1. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - This warmed me up and got me in the mood, Bob's voice was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed the number from start to finish.



2. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (with Mark Knopfler on guitar)  So-so.  More spoken than sung.  I was disappointed because it's a favorite of mine.
3. Things Have Changed (with Mark Knopfler on guitar) Another so-so.  Spoken, croaked.
4. Tangled Up In Blue (with Mark Knopfler on guitar) Aah, I was never crazy about this song anyway, even more so tonight.

5. Early Roman Kings - From his latest album: Tempest.  Absolutely fantastic.  I wanted to dance but didn't because our stadium seating was tight and I didn't want to obstruct anyone's view.  His voice was terrific and the band was fantastic.  Love the rhythm of this song.



6. Chimes Of Freedom - Ah, it started out so beautiful, Bob on the piano and me so happy at this first opportunity fto hear this song live.   Again, his voice was very good, but about 3/4 of the way through something strange happened and the song became something other than Chimes of Freedom.  I think he got confused and started playing the melody of a different song but still singing the COF lyrics.  I found myself wondering how he was going to fit the lyrics into that melody.  He managed to do it, but it was disconcerting.




7. Rollin' And Tumblin' - I'd give him a B on this one.  It was a little better than mediocre.

8. Desolation Row - This was the BRAVO of the night.  I was enthralled.  Bob's voice was stupendous, his enunciation was perfect, his piano playing was fabulous.  I would forgive him any of the night's blunders on the merit of what he did this night with this song.  It made me remember why I love Bob Dylan and why I've been a devoted fan for  forty plus years.  Thank you Bob and God Bless You.



9. Highway 61 Revisited - This seemed to be very well accepted by the audience, I wasn't crazy about it, but maybe that's because it was kind of a let down after the previous high of Desolation Row. 
10. Mississippi - He murdered it.  That's all I have to say about that.  And I love Mississippi when he does it right.  Too much barking, not enough singing, and that's a sin considering it's such a wonderful melody. 
11. Thunder On The Mountain - I didn't recognize it.  I thought at first it was Cat's In The Well.  I asked some people in back of me if they knew what song it was.  They shook their heads no.  Oh, well. 
12. Ballad Of A Thin Man - I'd give him an A- on this one.  The chill factor was missing for me.  It didn't have that sense of intrigue and mystery that I associate with a great version of it, but it was still good enough for me to drum the rhytmn with my feet and rock my body in my seat. 
13. Like A Rolling Stone -  We left in the middle of this song.  It was good, but we had a long walk to the truck and I wanted to leave before the crowd started piling out. 

14. Band intros
15. All Along The Watchtower
16. (encore break)
17. Blowin' In The Wind 

One more thing I would like to note.  When Mark was on stage the lighting was good enough to allow me to see everyone in the band clearly.  When Bob got on stage the lights were so dim as to be almost non-existent.  I couldn't tell who was who and had to strain my eyes to find Bob in the mix, relying on that stripe down his black pants to let me know if he was standing in the middle of the stage or  at the piano on the right. 

The walk to the truck was not pleasant.  The temperature had dropped and the wind picked up, by the time we got to Philabundance parking lot I had an earache from the cold.

The show was an experience I will cherish and remember.  Bob has changed so much over the years, and so have I.  To sum it up I would liken the experience to visiting your hometown and trying to absorb and accept the many changes, the old familiar landmarks gone, strange new ones in their place. Or, going to visit a favorite uncle who's been acting kind of weird lately, who says strange things that make no sense to you, but who welcomes you into his home with a cold beer, shuffles around his kitchen in some crazy get-up searching the cabinets and refrigerator for something tasty to feed you. And then, when you sit down at his table with your plate of saltines and sardines, he pulls out a box of photographs to relive the old days with you, all the while, maintaining his dignity even though some of the family are plotting to put him in a home if he doesn't mind his p's & q's. You've got to love him and when you leave you feel happy that he's still alive and you were able to spend some quality time with him.