Bob Dylan Throws Shadows

If you’ve seen Bob Dylan live in the past 20 years, you know what to expect: voice rough as unwashed denim, some of his best-known songs re-arranged almost beyond recognition, a couple of new tunes, and zero interaction with the audience. So it was Wednesday at the Bass Concert Hall, only with the benefit of a proper concert hall instead of an arena or outdoors.

Near perfect sound and the atmosphere created by giant spotlights and a dark backdrop added tremendously to the evening’s many moods. At times, it felt like an Art Deco cavern filled with shadows and sepia tones, flawlessly matched to the retro rock, swing, country, and blues created by the singer’s seasoned band, featuring Austin guitar stud Charlie Sexton and multi-instrumentalist Donny Herron.

Dylan’s February release, Shadows in the Night, might best be described as a tribute to Frank Sinatra. Every song on it was recorded by Hoboken’s finest. If you think the juxtaposition between Dylan’s croak and Sinatra’s silky delivery a tough match, the album works because of the former’s obvious love of the songs.

He inhabits them in the same way Sinatra did.

So it was when he sang “Autumn Leaves” and “Stay With Me,” each better enunciated than any of his own songs and sung with a tip of, or a lean into, the microphone to emphasize his passion.

Dressed as a riverboat gambler in a white, flat-brimmed hat and pinstripes outlining his black suit, Dylan took the stage with a wispy “Things Have Changed,” the irony being his set-list hasn’t changed in quite a while. The main difference between this show and his concerts of the last decade: He never picked up a guitar. Instead, he stood and ‘crooned,’ taking a harmonica solo occasionally or shifting to a grand piano to lead the band, as on the heavy blues of “Early Roman Times.”

Out of the 20 songs performed, 12 came from his most recent studio discs going back to Modern Times in 2006. A couple of those got a healthy rise from the full house, including the mad swing of “Duquesne Whistle.” The biggest reactions were for older tunes including “Simple Twist of Fate” and “Tangled Up in Blue” from 1975’s Blood On the Tracks.

After two 50-minute sets, he encored with an almost unrecognizable “Blowin' in the Wind,” preventing any kind of folkie sing-a-long moment.

That he closed with the steel-guitar-heavy “Stay With Me,” a ballad from Shadows in the Night, could’ve been a plea for the audience’s acceptance of what he’s become. What followed was an odd moment where the band stood almost together and soaked up applause without a bow. Old weird America delivered what it wanted, a show to contemplate long after the band left town.

Bass Concert Hall set-list, 5.6.15

“Things Have Changed”
“She Belongs to Me”
“Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”
“Workingman’s Blues #2”
“Duquesne Whistle”
“Waiting for You”
“Pay in Blood”
“Tangled Up in Blue”
“Love Sick”

--Intermission--

“High Water (for Charley Patton)”
“Simple Twist of Fate”
“Early Roman Kings”
“Forgetful Heart”
“Spirit on the Water”
“Scarlet Town”
“Soon After Midnight”
“Long and Wasted Years”
“Autumn Leaves”

-- Encore--

“Blowin’ in the Wind”
“Stay With Me”