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Post subject: Americanarama Tour (Dylan, MMJ, Wilco)
Posted: Mon April 22, 2013 12:29 pm
Broken Tamborine
Joined: Wed January 02, 2013 2:00 pm Posts: 382 Location: Buffalo, NY
Hoping to land tickets to this at Darien Lake. I haven't seen Bob since he played with the Dead in the '90's and MMJ and Wilco are two of my favorite current live bands. Anyone else going to this?
Post subject: Re: Americanarama Tour (Dylan, MMJ, Wilco)
Posted: Mon April 22, 2013 3:17 pm
Broken Tamborine
Joined: Wed January 02, 2013 2:00 pm Posts: 382 Location: Buffalo, NY
Strat wrote:
I just wouldnt feel right letting Bob Dylan open for me.....
I know, but I read on one of their sites this morning that they'll be rotating. I keep thinking that if Dylan closes lots of people might leave, which would be a shame. Even if he's sounding harsh he's always had a stellar band.
I need to figure out who the hell Richard Thompson is.
Post subject: Re: Americanarama Tour (Dylan, MMJ, Wilco)
Posted: Sun July 14, 2013 5:32 am
tl;dr
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 6:06 pm Posts: 8634
I saw this tour in Peoria the other night. It was a really fun show, and I was pleased with how Dylan sounded. I haven't seen him for eight years and have avoided overdosing on bootlegs (mainly because I thought the shows were awful, but still) the way I used to since then, so I went into the show with not much in the way of expectations beyond "seeing one of my favorite singers sing some of my favorite songs," and was actually rather blown away at how much I enjoyed the performance on a musical level. His voice is shot, even by his standards, and I wouldn't even really say he makes the most of what he has, but he seemed engaged with the performance and the band was in good enough shape to surround his recitative bark-rapping with a sort of melodic glow that at least gave the songs a tuneful air they may not have had otherwise. He stood center stage with just the microphone for about half the songs, which gave the show a vivaciousness it lacked when he was spending the entire night hunched over his little keyboard. I thought the material from "Time Out of Mind" onward was especially strong, though I was elated to hear "Tangled Up in Blue," "Simple Twist of Fate," and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall."
Wilco was wonderful as they usually are, crafting a set that you could tell was deliberately in the spirit of the event and giving Nels Cline lots of room to solo. Richard Thompson joined them onstage for "Calvary Cross" and "California Stars" and it was just insane watching him trade phrases with Nels--two of the very best guitar players on planet Earth. The wall of violent pyrotechnics Cline erected around the ending of "Art of Almost" (the one "experimental" song of the evening) is definitely not the "dad rock" it's frequently mistaken for. Richard Thompson was tremendous on his own, too, though his set was only five songs, which was barely enough time to get into it.
I've never been able to get into My Morning Jacket's albums (I like the odd song here and there but overall I've always found the songwriting to be pretty weak and indistinct and the arrangements not to be as texturally developed as I think they're shooting for), but everyone told me that seeing them live would make a convert out of me. It did not--in fact I think I found the live show even more annoying than the CD's, though I suppose I understand why they're such a hit on the jam band festival circuit. A few times throughout the show Jim James put on some kind of blue cape and pranced around in it, which I did not understand. Towards the end of their set they brought Wilco out to do George Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity" and Tweedy's mic wasn't turned on. Their whole set just felt like a real comedy of errors--I guess I'm really just not a fan of these guys.
I was at the Peoria show too KD, your assessment of MMJ was pretty spot on. Man, were they disappointing. Wilco was less focused on their latest disappointing album so they sounded pretty great compared to when I saw them last summer.
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