The
old sorcerer of Rock and Roll spread his tricks again in Buenos Aires
Bob Dylan
Gran Rex Theatre
(Buenos Aires, Argentina, Uruguay)
April 26th-27th-28th, 2012
The previous visits to South America… and
Argentina
It was the
fifth visit of Bob Dylan to South America.
The first
one was to Brazil in 1990 when he played the Hollywood Rock Festival among a
wide range of local and international artists.
The first
time in Argentina was a year later, in 1991, when he sold out three nights at
Obras Sanitarias, a 4,700 people basketball arena (Argentine fans are extremely
loyal to classic rock and the presence of one of the really big names in the
music scene in Buenos Aires received the response it deserved). A particular
memory I have from that first coming was the fact that Bob avoided the limo
that was waiting for him at the Ezeiza international airport and took a taxi to
the hotel as a regular guy. When the cab driver was interviewed by the press
afterwards, he said that Dylan was very polite, very generous with the tip and
asked him several questions about the city. When the man asked Bob about his
occupation he simply replied “I look… and sometimes write and paint things
about what I feel about it…”. The shows at Obras were… how to say it… weird for Argentine fans that had been
waiting for decades to see his hero playing live. Not only the renditions of
the classics were extremely hard to recognize but also was almost
unidentifiable the version of “Wiggle Wiggle” from the album he was supposedly presenting
during those nights (“Under The red Sky”).
The second
visit to Argentina was no less than memorable, when the Rolling Stones (the
first major rockers who realized the kind of too overwhelming energy that
Argentine audiences offer to their idols in live concerts, paving the way to
many mainstream artists that later took advantage of that, deciding the release
of commercial DVDs of their shows made here: The Police, Madonna and AC/DC,
among others) coincided with Bob in South America on April 1998 and, having
recorded “Like a Rolling Stone” for their “Stripped” album, invited Dylan to
open their shows in Buenos Aires’ River Plate football stadium and to appear as
a guest artist during their performance of the song. A very serious Dylan
warmed the stage in both occasions with an 11-song supporting set and went back
smiling to the stage to offer an awesome (though short) contribution to the
Stones (“Well… how to move on after that” said a respectful Mr. Jagger when
Dylan left the stage amidst a standing ovation from a 70,000 standing-clapping
attendance the night I was present).
The third
landing of our hero in Argentine soil took place in 2008 when he sold 25,000
tickets out of a total 45,000 seats from the Velez Sarsfield football stadium
(the second largest in Buenos Aires city). The first song (a triumphant version
of “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35) was followed by an unforgettable and touching
version of “Lay Lady Lay”. Lots of fathers and sons in the audience enjoyed a very
good show organized in maybe not the best venue available in Buenos Aires for the
current Dylan’s artistic offering. After the unexpected three-song encore
(Dylan normally closed their shows of the Latin American leg of that tour with just
two last songs) comprised of “Stuck Inside Of Mobile with the Memphis Blues
Again”, “All Along The Watchtower” and the unavoidable “Blowin’ in the Wind” we
all left the stadium that night with mixed feelings. On one hand the
performance from Bob and his band had been impeccable (as always) but, on the
other, the show had been rather “cold” not only for the weather (it was almost
the beginning of the Autumn in Buenos Aires) but for the lack of an adequate venue
for the event (a half-filled open air football stadium for such a deep artist
with so many intimate feelings to transmit was undoubtedly a bad choice from
the promoters). Maybe the Oscar prize won by Dylan for the song “Things Have
Changed” in 2000, that was present at the show, from his VIP position over Bob’s
piano, felt something similar…
The 2012 shows. The perfect stage in town for good old Bob…
Three Bob
Dylan shows between Thursday and Saturday in the Gran Rex theatre (a residency
which was later expanded through the addition of a fourth concert on Monday,
due to an unexpected popular demand) were like having the chance of sharing the
songs of the right artist, at the right moment, at the right place. The Gran
Rex is a 3,200 seat theatre with the second best acoustics in the city, after
the classical art oriented and world-class Colón theatre. As Claudio Kleiman, one
of the best music journalists in Argentina, summed up in a review for the local
version of Rolling Stone magazine, these concerts, thanks to the inspired band
that supported Dylan and an extremely good-mood Bob, were like a kind of
epiphany that left all of us in the audience walking back home 20 inches above
the ground, floating in the air…
The shows
included 17 songs which focused (with the exception of, in my opinion, the peak
of the night “Tangled Up in Blue” which was played almost theatrically by Bob, showing
himself as an old Southern crooner, aided by his harmonica) in some of the
classics from the 60s and tunes from the records that followed “Time Out Of
Mind”. The only songs which were played over all of the four nights were “Leopard-Skin
Pill-Box Hat” (the opening song which played pretty well its role of showing
the crowd that the band was determined to burn the house down each night),
“Tangled Up in Blue”, “Highway 61 Revisited”, “Thunder on the Mountain” and the
succession of three classics “Ballad Of A Thin Man”, “Like A Rolling Stone” and
“All Along The Watchtower” which virtually knocked the crowd out before the
(predictable, but essential) final encore of “Blowin’ in the Wind”).
Extremely
well dressed with a black suit and a white hat, Dylan constantly went and came
back on stage from his old Korg organ to his guitar and his harmonica, always giving
rare hints to his musicians about the direction he wanted to provide to each
song at the much unexpected moment. The good mood from Dylan and the band was
evident. Hard-to-smile Bob showed his teeth several times in Buenos Aires, as
if approving the whole performance, the friendly dialogue established with the
rest of the band and the relaxed and enjoyable vibe created all over the
place.
The only
words which emerged from Dylan were devoted to introduce the band: the talented
Charlie Sexton who clearly plays a lead role from his electric guitar, Stu
Kimball who makes his moves between the guitars and the mandolin, Donnie Herron
who played wonderful pieces of steel guitar, banjo, violin and guitar, and the
spine of the group: the meticulous George Recile on drums and Bob’s old mate, Tony
Garnier, on both acoustic and electric basses.
After the
final song “Blowin’ in the Wind” came to an end Bob called his musicians to the
front of the stage to finally say goodbye to the public. The whole band and Dylan
stood there motionless for several seconds, standing there with serious faces,
no smiles at all, almost like challenging the crowd as a gang before a kind of
confrontation, when in fact they had just only turned our brains and our hearts
upside down with their music (and their talents) as a lethal weapon over the
course of the previous two hours.
The old Master
did it again. It may have been the last stop of the Never Ending Tour in
Argentina but it’s alright. We saw it all, as we never thought we could. After
50 years on the road Dylan showed that he is still at the top of his game as
these concerts with no doubt will be remembered as some of the best rock and
roll shows ever witnessed in our country and, for many reasons, were by far the
best performances from Bob in Argentina.
Hat’s off
for Mr. Dylan.
Not one of
us attending these shows (including my new Italian friend Roberto, who came to
South America just to see Bob playing live overseas) are to be the same after
this unforgettable demonstration of music, poetry, commitment and art, at its
highest expression.
Marcelo Olguín
(Buenos Aires, Argentina)
SETLISTS
Agosto 26,
2012
Leopard-Skin
Pill-Box Hat
It Ain't
Me, Babe
Things Have
Changed
Tangled Up
In Blue
Beyond Here
Lies Nothin'
Trying To
Get To Heaven
High Water
(For Charley Patton)
Spirit On
The Water
The Levee's
Gonna Break
A Hard
Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Highway 61
Revisited
Love Sick
Thunder On
The Mountain
Ballad Of A
Thin Man
Like A
Rolling Stone
All Along
The Watchtower
Blowin' In
The Wind
Agosto 27, 2012
Leopard-Skin
Pill-Box Hat
Girl From
The North Country
Beyond Here
Lies Nothin'
Tangled Up
In Blue
Honest With
Me
Desolation
Row
Cry A While
Make You
Feel My Love
The Levee's
Gonna Break
Love Sick
Highway 61
Revisited
Simple
Twist Of Fate
Thunder On
The Mountain
Ballad Of A
Thin Man
Like A
Rolling Stone
All Along
The Watchtower
Blowin' In
The Wind
Agosto
28, 2012
Leopard-Skin
Pill-Box Hat
To Ramona
Beyond Here
Lies Nothin'
Tangled Up
In Blue
Summer Days
Not Dark
Yet
Jolene
Ballad Of
Hollis Brown
A Hard
Rain's A-Gonna Fall
The
Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
Highway 61
Revisited
Forgetful
Heart
Thunder On
The Mountain
Ballad Of A
Thin Man
Like A
Rolling Stone
All Along The Watchtower
Blowin' In The Wind
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