The day had finally arrived, today was the day I would breathe the same air as Bob Dylan. It was April 18, 2013, and Bob was playing at Lehigh University. This was no ordinary concert, which was plain to see.
What became obvious to me was the fact that Bob touched people of many generations. Bob has been an influential figure in popular music for more than five decades. It was truly a multigenerational experience. I saw a neatly dressed white haired couple strolling down the street making their approach. I saw people from the same generation of obvious class distinction drinking beer on the streets. There were women of a slightly younger generation dressed in bohemian style dresses. Some were slovenly dressed and either drunk or slightly strung out. One thing they all had in common was that they stared at my sister and I as we walked down the street and made our way to the entrance. At first, I didn’t understand why, until I noticed my sister had on a Nirvana T-shirt. It all suddenly made sense.
As we made our way to our seats just in time for the opening band to start playing we couldn’t help but notice the obvious smell in the air. The predominant smell wasn’t the smell I had expected. It was the smell of sandal wood and patchouli oils emanating from the white haired fans in the row in front of me.
Los Angeles based folk band, Dawes, opened the concert with tracks from their recent release “Stories Don’t End.” “Hey Lover” gave drummer Griffith Goldsmith a low range vocal cameo and their indie infused single “Most People” addressed a deeper and thus bolder subject matter. Despite deserting their record label “ATO Records” and enlisting the help of producer Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Norah Jones), their poe-tic lyrics, Peter Hook-like bass lines and nostalgic 60‘s/70‘s undertones still remain intact if not more resonant.
As Bob Dylan entered the stage, the crowd passionately applauded. The stage was intimate and lounge-like, while Dylan stood to the side of stage for the majority of the show. The performance contained rock and country elements, with minor fusions of blues and jazz as Dylan’s performance went on. The main act begun with a raspy rendition of “Things Have Changed” while a harmonica solo followed with “Love Sick.” The mystical “Visions of Johanna” and “Tangled Up In Blue” revealed Dylan’s darker side as his voice strengthened. Most rock icons thrive largely off of reputation after their angst-filed prime has jaggedly worn off, but such is not the case with Bob Dylan as demonstrated in his improvisational cover of Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower”; my favorite performance of the evening. Bob’s rendition was much different from Jimi’s, despite Bob having written the original version. It started off with a strong blues element, with subtle psychedelic undertones which built to a crescendo by the end of the song. The show began to take form as a semi-comedy act when everyone’s eyes were glued to the man strung out on acid dancing aimlessly on the floor, which gave the appearance of a Grateful Dead concert, more than a Bob Dylan concert. The concert came to an end, as all good things do, but I felt privileged to have had the opportunity to be in the presence of greatness.
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