TORONTO -- Torontonians got their Bob Dylan fix this weekend, in sizes ranging from small, medium and large.
The folk-rock-country legend, who turns 63 in May, played three shows in the city: Friday night at Ricoh Coliseum, Saturday night at the Phoenix, and last night at Kool Haus.
Why, you may ask? Because he can, and he has been playing multiple dates in different venues in other cities too.
I was fortunate enough to take in the master songwriter at his most intimate show.
My colleague Mary Dickie expressed astonishment in her Saturday review of Dylan playing keyboards the entire night at Ricoh -- he left the guitar-playing to two other accomplished musicians -- which helped prepare me for what was about to unfold at the Phoenix. So I wasn't entirely disappointed when Dylan didn't pick up the guitar once over two hours.
Some of his fans might have been perplexed by his guitar-less performance, but truthfully, there didn't seem to be a disappointed person in the dedicated Dylan lot. (Did I mention their dedication? I saw one person with his arm in a sling, and another with his cane raised high in the air.)
When I arrived at the Phoenix, which holds about 1,000 when it's packed to the rafters as it was on Saturday night -- there were still people lined up far down the block to get inside. Once you had gained entry, it was a smoky, sweaty, sardine-like atmosphere with a lot of excited anticipation fueling the crowd.
After a ramblng but hilarious introduction that even made reference to his finding Jesus in the late '70s, the man himself took the stage with his four musicans in tow.
Dylan's position, as at the Ricoh, was way off to the left of the stage, as he hunched over his keyboards, decked out in a black cowboy hat and black and red cowboy suit.
From there, it was two hours of pure Bob. Fantastic musicianship, lengthy jams, classic songs like Maggie's Farm, Tangled Up In Blue, Positively 4th Street, Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, or newer tunes like Million Miles or Honest With Me and almost undecipherable vocals in that crazy, nasal delivery of his.
There was also a rather irritating tendency for the house lights to be blasted at the audience between songs while the stage went to black.
A small complaint, since Dylan's neverending tour, which began back in the late '80s and has included multiple visits to Toronto, shows no signs of abating any time soon.
Nor does his commercial ouput. Still to come on March 30 is Bob Dylan Live 1964, while his recent movie, Masked And Anonymous, is out on video.
Wonderfully inventive film-maker Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, Velvet Goldmine, Safe), has a biopic in the works for which Dylan has licensed rights to his music.
In the meantime, those of us who were at the Phoenix have the thrilling encores of Like A Rolling Stone and All Along The Watchtower to keep us satisfied.
JAM! Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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