Live Review: Bob Dylan

The pavement out the front of Palais Theatre is flooded with heads before the doors open and plus one (dad) reckons he smells “wacky tobaccy” on people’s clothes, which soon inspires recollections about the misdemeanours of his brothers. No one wants to miss a second of Bob Dylan, so as announcements warn, “Bob Dylan will be on stage in eight minutes,” things get a little shovey.  

The foot warmers are on inside the venue and at 8pm on the dot, Act 1 commences. Dylan appears, clad in what resembles an oversized school blazer, matching pants with white stripes down the outside leg seams and a gondolier hat (minus the ribbon tails). The audience erupts and ushers dash about trying to enforce the “strictly no video recording or photography of any kind” rule as he launches into Things Have Changed. We struggle to hear Dylan’s gravelly words (although this improves and by song four, Workingman’s Blues #2, we have some semblance of diction). We’re also acutely aware of how special it is to experience Dylan in a theatre setting such as this. The legendary artist often adopts a wide-legged lunge stance behind a selection of multiple mics and lighting design is very shadowy. He’s backed by five extraordinarily gifted players and guitarist Charlie Sexton resembles Duran Duran’s John Taylor on an off day. Double bassist Tony Garnier is exceptional! When Dylan whips that harmonica from his coat pocket with little fanfare and makes it sing, we realise this is an instrument few can claim to have mastered. It’s intermission before we know it.

At 9.10pm exactly, Dylan and co return to the stage. Whenever he takes a seat at the grand piano, stage left, Dylan creates a killer atmosphere, particularly during the bouncy Spirit On The Water. We marvel as multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron alternates between guitar, violin and lap steel with a deft touch. There is such subtlety in the backing band’s playing – sweet music is created and we never notice individual notes. A couple of excitable audience heads bop along continuously with the enthusiasm of Muppets, irrespective of what kinda song Dylan brings. Vocal punters yell out indecipherable phrases from the balcony. A galaxy of stars decorates the back curtain for Soon After Midnight as Dylan returns to the baby grand.

Perth scored an encore the other night, so there’s no way we’re not getting the same and therefore clap, cheer and stomping. Our encore comprises All Along The Watchtower and an almost spoken-word version of Blowin’ In The Wind. This is in no way a best-of set, with the focus on Dylan’s material from 2006 onwards. He’s 73 now, but still possesses undeniable swag, and there’s a very real sense that we’re honouring a legend and experiencing a slice of history this evening. And dad’s verdict? “He was singing about a lot of old girlfriends and at one point I heard him singing about a divorced girl. He was basically singing his life away.”