(no subject)

[reldnahkram]

Got a call from uncleamos this afternoon. Some family friends had one loose ticket to Bob Dylan this evening at the Spectrum. I went. How many opportunities to see Dylan am I really going to have?

Opening band was the Raconteurs, AKA Jack White and some people I've never heard of. They were, for the most part, much harder than I tend to like. But it was much better than I expected. Their single, "Steady as she Goes", I knew for some reason, was more poppy than most of the other stuff, and not really as enjoyable. They could go somewhere with, I think, some work on the lyrics. My point of view may be skewed because I really couldn't hear the lyrics.

Dylan and band entered to Rodeo. The set was good, but not great, IMHO. The people I was with had seen him live before, and were very aware that the live show was very different from the albums. I recognized about half of the set list (Desperation Row, Highway 61 Revisited, Tangled up in Blue, Summer Days, Like a Rolling Stone (encore), and All Along the Watchtower (encore). The rest was, I assume, mostly newer material. A lot of 12-bar blues patterns, with one traditional AABA pop song format. The band (two guitars (acoustic and electric), bass (guitar and double), drums, and steel guitar (also fiddle, banjo, guitar)) was very tight, though Dylan (keyboard, harmonica) was musically all over the place. As a performer, he all but put down roots on the stage, twisting a little in place behind the keyboard, but that's it. The sound, left a bit to be desired. I thought it was muddy, and that doesn't combine well with a singer who mumbles. I'd estimate the cell phone to lighter ratio before the encore as somewhere between 5:1 and 10:1. I'm not sure how I feel about this change in tradition.

Made it back to center city in time to catch an el towards 69th, but the el was bussing in West Philly, and I wasn't sure I'd catch the Rt. 100 in time, and between the uncertainty and walk, decided to bail and catch the last R5, even though it meant an hour wait. Ran into $NAME_FORGOTTEN (mawrtyr who I gave a ride home from reunion and stopped by Philcon and sung rounds, though not officially registered) and we chatted. Boarding the train, we entered the 1st car in the back just as someone was throwing up. We turned around and headed to the second car. A little while later, there was a mass exodus from that car towards the back of the train. After leaving Suburban, the announcement came: "This is an R5 local to Malvern. All stops to Malvern. All three cars are open, plenty of room in the back. If you're going to throw up, please go to the first car." There was much laughter. 12.15 AM trains are always an adventure.

While wandering up to Wawa to get food and kill time while waiting for the train, I heard lots of sirens and noticed what appeared to be several limousines escorted by police motorcylces heading down the parkway. Anyone know what was up?

Comments

[gerbilicious85.livejournal.com]

I don't know what was up with that either, but one of the motorcyclists wiped out like 10 ft. away from us. He seemed to have escaped major injury, but it was a bit of a shock.