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Energized Dylan rocks the Expo
Elizabeth Pippa watches George Clark sing "Tambourine Man" as the Ashland couple joined a crowd of early arrivals hoping to get choice seats for the Bob Dylan and Phil Lesh concert in Central Point Tuesday evening. By Bill Varble The times, they may have changed, but the dude with the frizzy hair and the cowboy boots and the white necktie and black jacket is rocking like itís 1967, rocking like it by God matters. Bob Dylan may have a few more wrinkles, but when he segues from a new waltz with the fine acoustic band heís assembled for this tour into "Tangled Up in Blue," it hits the crowd, big-time. You can even understand the words (he said "trucker" for "carpenter," right?). Dylan kicked off a 90-plus-minute show opening for Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh at a little past 7 Tuesday evening at a packed Jackson County Expo. Plans for Lesh to open had been announced, but Expo manager Chris Borovansky said Dylan announced early Tuesday heíd be opening. Deadheads and Dylan fans packed an impromptu "Shakedown Street" vending area in the parking lot beginning early in the day, and the sun was warm and the vibes good as vendors hawked T-shirts and Jerry Garcia photos. "Itís been really mellow," said Chris Jackson, 25, a roofer in Kansas City, Mo., nine months of the year whoís been following the tour. "Dylanís about the same every night. Philís always different." There was plenty of gray hair along with the younger set. "Weíve gone with micros in the beer garden instead of just domestic," Borovansky said. Concert-goers heading north on Interstate 5 had to fight a mile-long traffic jam to get in. Many arrived late. Borovansky said officials decided to let concert-goers with campers use the south parking lot as a staging area after the show rather than clearing it out immediately. "We decided not to be hard-core," he said. When Dylan toured with the Dead in 1987, Rolling Stone called it "a match made in hell." To Tuesdayís crowd it was more like a match made in heaven. As Dylan launched into a passionate "Senior," nodding his head and twisting his body in the blue stage lights, Bill Payne was shaking his head backstage. "Heís SO energized," Payne said after Dylan and company turned in an incendiary "Highway 61." "Itís wonderful to listen and watch." The longtime Little Feat pianist performed at Britt recently before joining Lesh for his summer tour with Dylan. He wouldnít have found much argument at the Expo Tuesday. Dylan brought out a powerful, controlled "Like a Rolling Stone" for an encore, smiling hugely as he played up the neck of his guitar. If there was a curiously controlled quality to the song, it was because he wasnít finished. He followed with a sweet, acoustic "Forever Young," sending wave after wave of blue notes over the dancing crowd. Does it get any better than this? Well, yes, as the air was soon scorched with the refrain "Everybody Must Get Stoned!" and Mr. Z dropped into the living likeness of a Chuck Berry duck walk, believe it or not. He left the stage to a thunderous ovation after a set of 90 minutes plus. "Vital and wonderful," pronounced Ginny Deason of Medford. "Amazing," said Brad Youngs of Medford. "He was absolutely tremendous." After a short break, Lesh and company took the stage and opened with an extended, jazzy jam, Paul Barrere and Robben Ford playing dueling guitars over Leshís spirited bass. Payne and Barrere are long-time Little Feat members. Ford has played with Miles Davis, George Harrison, Joni Mitchell. "He loves it," said his pal Mark Keller, whoís along for the tour. "Philís challenging everybody to improvise all the time. Robben didnít know any Dead tunes. Heís learning fast." Lesh and friends went from the opening jam directly into "Morning Dew," the stretch-out standard Garcia used to take to scary places late in the second set of Dead shows. Lesh, who seldom sang with the Dead, sang with conviction and power, if not Garciaís fire. Hoping to capture every note on tape was Rick Sager, of McCloud, Calif., who brought $2,000 worth of taping gear, a practice the Dead encouraged for years. Sager, 39, and his wife, Donna, 38, who met 18 years ago on a plane from New York to Berkeley to see the Dead, were ensconsed in a "sweet spot" between speaker stacks to tape Lesh. They didnít tape Dylan, who doesnít permit it. Too bad, Donna Sager thought. "Iíve never seen him so good," she said. "Before he was always moody." |
