“Things have changed,” snarled Bob Dylan while performing a one-off date from his college tour Saturday at a sold-out Riviera. Indeed, if there’s a constant from one Dylan show to the next, it’s change. And there was plenty of it during a 110-minute set that differed in mood and theme from the bard’s three-night stand at Aragon exactly a year ago.
Dressed in what’s become his custom attire—a wide-brim hat, bolo tie and military-style suit that looked pulled out of the attic of a Civil War battlefield general—Dylan led a crack backing quintet that, given its sharp black suits, low-key demeanor and angular movements, could’ve passed as a gang of mob hit men from the 1930s. Their shadowy outlines projected against a backdrop curtain, the setting reflecting the rootsy music’s no-frills aesthetic. Aside from thanking the crowd and introducing the band, Dylan was all business. Not that the group didn’t have fun.
Friskier and looser than at his previous local appearance, Dylan spent half of the concert liberated from the constraints of his keyboard, taking the opportunities to sing at center stage and blow harmonica solos in between verses. A number of songs—”Summer Days,” “Thunder on the Mountain” — hopped and skipped, the jumping rhythms owing more to swing jazz than rock or Americana. The frolicking vibes also complemented Dylan’s carefree articulation, replete with slinky phrasings and nasal accents. Whether anybody understood the words is another matter.
Dylan’s voice has seldom been a strong point, especially when weathered. True to form, it improved as the evening progressed, evolving from a deeply congested rasp into a textured hiss. Early on, the 69-year-old legend croaked through a nearly unrecognizable “The Man In Me” and chose to sermonize rather than sing “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” identifiable only because of its arched refrains. Little wonder that, after the encore, an older fan was overheard saying, “I don’t know most of that stuff, it’s new to me” despite the prevalence of classic tunes. Few, however, were played straight, a trademark albeit risky Dylan strategy that on this night proved rewarding.
With guitarist Charlie Sexton laying back and reading Dylan’s body language, the group’s rearrangements yielded revelatory results. Slowed down and infused with bluesy grooves, “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” slouched and swayed so that the tempo, not the lyrics, functioned as the punch line. Similarly, “Positively 4th Street” benefited from a creeping melody that flexed back and forth like a stubborn accordion. Dylan’s conversational delivery and Sexton’s country-laced fills piled on the invective. And a surprisingly concise “Tangled Up In Blue” turned surreal when Dylan sang behind instead of on the beat, a technique also employed on a clipped, understated “Like A Rolling Stone.”
The band should’ve harnessed such maverick sensibility on “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Jolene,” songs that are becoming one of the few predictable characteristics in what’s an otherwise eclectic modern-day medicine show.
Bob Dylan setlist Saturday at the Riviera:
1. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
2. The Man In Me
3. Things Have Changed
4. Positively 4th Street
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5. Summer Days
6. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
7. Cold Irons Bound
8. Simple Twist of Fate
9. High Water (For Charley Patton)
10. If You Ever Go To Houston
11. Highway 61 Revisited
12. Tangled Up In Blue
13. Thunder on the Mountain
14. Ballad of a Thin Man
Encore:
15. Jolene
16. Like A Rolling Stone
17. Forever Young