TORONTO -- So there was Bob Dylan onstage, leading his band through a charged-up, Stonsey rendition of Seeing The Real You At Last, and the wry smile that spread across his face seemed like his acknowledgement of what an ironic moment this was.
After watching Dylan slide by for a half-dozen years with listless performances occasionally enlightened by glimpses of true inspiration, Saturday's opening concert of a two-night stand at Toronto's intimate Concert Hall was truly a chance to see the real Bob, at last.
Dylan's lacklustre attitude has, on past tours, made it so easy to dismiss the greatest living songwriter as a tired old has-been. But egged on by a fired-up audience of 1,800 and inspired by the ornate venue (formerly a Masonic Temple) and crisp acoustics, Dylan served notice he is still capable of spinning your head around with the unexpected.
Take his entrance. When the lights came up, there was His Bobness, decked out not in his trademark black but in a shocking, shiny pink jacket (with white belt), and without his guitar. As his backing quartet cranked out a snarling blues arrangement of the rarely performed Drifter's Escape, a guitar-less Dylan barked the lyrics into his mike Sinatra-style.
The surprises continued like that all night, with Dylan constantly delighting the attentive listener, reaching way back into his songbook for obscurities like Mama, You Been On My Mind and This Wheel's On Fire (from his Bootleg Tapes and Basement Tapes respectively), or rearranging familiar material in fresh, most often superior fashion.
During the encores, Dylan and company even raced through The Dead's Alabama Getaway.
An unrecognizable rockabilly shuffle turned into a spirited Watching The River Flow. And Tangled Up In Blue, the ever-evolving masterful epic from Blood On The Tracks, was transformed into a gorgeous bluegrass ballad, arranged for two guitars, acoustic bass and mandolin.
Full marks must go to his backing troupe, which has weathered hundreds of shows on Dylan's so-called Never Ending Tour (which has continued, with the occasional interlude and lineup change, since the late 1980s) and has now coalesced into a peerless team. They locked into a mesmerizing groove on Maggie's Farm,and all the players seemed so overcome with the pure joy of performing, they could have gone all night.
Guitarist J.J. Jackson seemed to bring out the best in his boss, even leaving room for Dylan to take his own occasional ragged solos. Steel guitarist Bucky Baxter is capable of coaxing a bizarre array of sounds from his instrument -- atmospheric sustained chords, Hammond B3 organ-like fills and more straightforward countrified grace notes during a tender If Not For You.
Dylan's voice was ragged but right, with no sign of the wasted wheeze that has spoiled so many recent tours. His delivery was intense and he never seemed less than absolutely in the moment, investing each song with conviction and heart.
I'm at a loss to pick a highlight. Was it the extra muscle the one-time fundamentalist put into Positively Fourth Street's line, "You have no faith to lose AND YOU KNOW IT"? Or the way he prowled the stage like some doomsday prophet reciting This Wheel's On Fire? Or the tasty exchange of solos on All Along The Watchtower? Or the heart-melting country-waltz treatment of My Back Pages, served up as an exquisite final encore?
He is a notoriously erratic performer who picks his own moments of inspiration and could quite easily retreat back into his shell of indifference and enigma. That's the risk you take with Dylan, but on this night, the gamble was richly rewarded.
Former 'Til Tuesday leader Aimee Mann provided a tentative opening set that drew heavily from her fine recent release I'm With Stupid. The glammy Sugarcoated (which recounts the bust-up of the British group Suede), the buoyant Fifty Years After The Fair and outstanding Choice In The Matter found favor with the crowd.
JAM! Rating: 5 out of 5
