Sunday, November 30, 2014

The Weekend in Review: Bob Dylan and Star Wars

For the last two nights it has been my utmost pleasure to see Bob Dylan live at the Beacon where the man himself has put on two great concerts.  I’d say that the first one was better overall as his singing was stronger and he was more animated.  My only complaint about the shows was that he played the same setlist both nights, but I knew that coming into the shows as he’s had a rather static setlist of late.  The move towards a regular setlist may be the reason why he is in good vocal form as he and his great band have mastered each of the 19 numbers they barrel through.  I believe he picks and reworks songs to fit his voice which is why he emphasizes his later day material (also his later day material is great for anyone who thinks otherwise).   He only played four songs from the 60’s-70’s (“She Belongs to Me”, “Tangled Up in Blue”, “Simple Twist of Fate”, and “Blowin’ in the Wind”) but I was not disappointed as I enjoy the later material.  The highlights were “Love Sick” which was played with a growling intensity, “She Belongs to Me” (a beautiful song played with a driving and pounding melody), and “Long and Wasted Years” from the first night.  “Long and Wasted Years” was performed with ferocity and force with each line becoming more intense than anything that preceded it.  Everyone in the crowd was whipped into a frenzy as Dylan powered through each verse.  There were the usual calls (especially on the second night) for a return to older material, but not as many complaints or walk outs as I have seen at Dylan concerts.  The crowd for the most part knew what going to a Dylan show in 2014 entails and one fan jumped the stage but was immediately taken down by security.  Dylan didn’t miss a beat or seem to particularly notice the fan getting his ass kicked by security.  I guess that once you survive Soy Bomb and Newport 65, these things just all blend together.  The Minnesota Bard spends half his time at a grand piano next to a bust of Athena and the other half perched at the microphone whilst leisurely strutting around during the musical interludes coupled with his occasional harmonica solos.  Every song ends with him standing in front of the drums with his hand on his hip in a judging pose, as if he is surveying his audience to see if they are worthy of his precious time leading a quite the funny scene.  Again, the man has the taste for the dramatic.  The only words he spoke to the audience were his announcement that they would be taking a short break and even that was garbled.  The shows ended with him playing a gospel tinged Frank Sinatra cover, “Stay with Me’, that was better the second night, and was the perfect way to end both shows.  The song sounds like a plea to whoever’s listening and perhaps hints at the content of his next album (a rumored record of Sinatra covers).  The shows were great and I can’t wait to attend the next three shows he’s playing at the Beacon (Monday to Wednesday) and hope that he changes the setlist a bit because he is back in New York City and we sure do love him here.


The other big cultural event of my weekend was the Star Wars 7 trailer which I may have seen over a hundred times by now.  The teaser is simply amazing.  My brother woke me up (I was awakened like the force! – see what I did there) to watch it on his phone and I stood there in stunned silence after 88 seconds of pure Star Wars.  After each cut to black my eyes widened until the point where I probably looked like a cartoon character whose eyes had popped out of their sockets after seeing a sultry female.  The dirty droids and distressed people gave the look of a lived in Star Wars universe as opposed to the cold, CGI world of the prequels.  I have no problem with the lightsaber longsword as I just think it looks awesome.  I have no further analysis other than “oh shit that Sith looks pissed”!  The X-Wings over the water looks great, but the real prize was seeing the Millennium Falcon back in flight dodging its way through some Tie Fighters.  Instead of dogfights in space we may be privy to spaceships duking it out over water and sand so that would be a first.  All in all I don’t know if it is possible to not be excited for Star Wars after seeing such a masterful teaser.  I’ve been high on JJ Abram’s new film and this clip only puts my excitement into overdrive and promises that the wait until December 18th 2015 will be excruciating.  All I ask is that we get a trailer with Luke, Han, and Leia for Christmas.  Then I’ll be able to calm down a bit until asking for another trailer.          

No comments:

Post a Comment