Dylan rollicks in joy and comfort on the road less traveled

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Dylan rollicks in joy and comfort on the road less traveled
- Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic
Wednesday, October 18, 2006

It looks like it's never been more fun to be Bob Dylan.
At 65, Dylan would indeed appear to be, as he told a recent interviewer, in the prime of his life. He is certainly on a creative roll.
His latest album, "Modern Times," opened at No. 1 on the charts when it was released last month -- take that, Justin Timberlake -- and has been called the third consecutive masterpiece of his latter-era career.
He wrote a best-selling memoir, starred in a four-hour Martin Scorsese PBS-TV documentary miniseries, and currently hosts a warm and witty weekly radio show on satellite radio.
At the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Monday, the first of two nights, Dylan looked like Vincent Price in a mariachi suit and flat-brimmed Spanish hat, putting a crack blues band through its paces in a 100-minute romp that featured some wonderfully playful rearrangements of his classic songs, with Dylan himself cementing the band sound with a deft touch on keyboards.
With a five-piece band that played big, fat, robust grooves, Dylan could revel in a rich, full ensemble sound that brought new life to expected and unexpected selections alike.
After a rocky but surprising opening with the little-known "Lenny Bruce" and a tentative "Rollin' and Tumblin' " from the new album, Dylan settled into a powerful version of "SeÃ±or (Tales of Yankee Power)," a song barely noticed on the 1978 album "Street Legal," that took on soaring rock overtones with the twin lead guitars of Stuart Kimball and Denny Freeman.
From that point, the concert glowed hot with a bluesey version of "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight"; "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" done to a John Lee Hooker boogie, with the chorus pinned down by a big, ringing guitar riff; a jangly, semi-acoustic "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"; "Desolation Row," with the opening verse building to a surgical hook; "Tangled Up in Blue," with drummer George Recile dropping bombs behind the title line; and a blistering, full-throated "Highway 61 Revisited."
He sang "When the Deal Goes Down" and "Workingman's Blues #2" from the new album and gave a whole new treatment to the only song he played from his 2001 record, "Love and Theft," "Summer Days," as if he has already moved on from even his most recent past. Dylan is not going to let the dust settle on his music, and he remains the most exciting, daring and rewarding interpreter of his own songs, no small feat considering the breadth of artists who have covered him.
He played a lot of harmonica, drove most songs to a close with a couple of choruses on harp. He gave the soloists double choruses and took second instrumental breaks, clearly relishing the wide, swinging sound of the band and the spare, precise solo work. Bassist Tony Garnier played as much upright as electric. Steel guitarist and violinist Donnie Herron added to the group's aggressive drive, playing more blues than country. The whole "Modern Times" band sound harked back to the tight, rocking ensembles led by one of Dylan's early heroes, the late Doug Sahm.
If the last few songs and the predictable encore didn't quite match the broad sweep of the seven-song run in the middle, peaking early is better than not peaking at all. Dylan's sound crew even managed to handle the impossibly cavernous acoustics of the big boxy room.
The anticipated "Like a Rolling Stone" and "All Along the Watchtower" encore was the sole moment in the evening where he turned the show over to the audience's expectations. Up to that point, he was doing what he wanted to do, the way he wanted to do it, for reasons entirely his own. That is the Dylan style.
At the Civic on Monday, it was a winning formula. He is still the master of the unpredictable and charming in ways only he can be.
Or maybe it's always been this much fun being Dylan and he's just now letting everybody else in on it.
E-mail Joel Selvin at jselvin@sfchronicle.com.

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Kimber Kable

Topic - Dylan rollicks in joy and comfort on the road less traveled - LWR 07:25:05 10/18/06 (3)

Re: Dylan rollicks in joy and comfort on the road less traveled - blake 21:11:54 10/19/06 (1)

Yer welcome - LWR 21:13:51 10/19/06 (0)

Ever-changing Dylan rocks S.F. crowd - LWR 07:28:58 10/18/06 (0)

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