We've all had that moment when a song hits us at just the right time, you're very receptive to what the song is saying & the song delivers what we're looking for. The song fits the mood, the mood fits the song. Whenever this happens, time seems to stop, if only for a few minutes. Bob Dylan played a song that fit the mood of Detroit on Friday night, a song called Workingman's Blues #2. The perfect song for the perfect place at the perfect place. What more can you ask for of an artist? To stop time & to shed a little light on the problems of the day with humor & earnestness. When Bob Dylan stepped to the middle of the stage & grabbed his mic, he looked and sounded like an angry farmer at a small town meeting explaining his plight, "they burned my barn & they stole my horse, I can't save a dime". I've heard this song in concert before, but I've never heard it like this before. I'd like to think Bob realized the power of his own song to a city hit harder than any other with poverty, unemployment & corrupt leadership. There's anger, sorrow & most importantly, defiance. A perfect lullaby for Detroit.
One could say that Bob Dylan is anything but a generous performer. He doesn't say a word to his audience except to introduce his band, he isn't a crowd pleaser & on most nights it appears as if he could care less if the audience is there or not. This night was no different, except in the care he gave to every word he spit out. He commanded the stage in a way I haven't seen before & by playing more than half of his songs from the last four albums he made you forget that he's the Bob Dylan of the 1960's who wrote all of those classic songs. Watching him perform center stage with his shadow behind him shows us an image of a living, breathing artist who is at once both living up to his legend and shattering it at the same time.
Detroit, Michigan
Fox Theatrer
November 6, 2009
1. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
2. The Man In Me
3. Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
4. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob on guitar)
5. Summer Days
6. Desolation Row
7. Cold Irons Bound
8. Sugar Baby
9. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
10. Po' Boy
11. Highway 61 Revisited
12. Workingman's Blues #2
13. Thunder On The Mountain
14. Ballad Of A Thin Man
(encore)
15. Like A Rolling Stone
16. Jolene (Bob on keyboard
17. All Along The Watchtower
Five Favorite Songs of the Day
Skinny Love-Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
Workingman Blues #2-Bob Dylan
Sam Stone-John Prine, Souvenirs
Ballad of a Thin Man-Bob Dylan
Won't Want for Love-The Decemberists, Hazards of Love
Happy Saturday, friends...
andrew
