Review by Toby Richards-Carpenter ‘Tired And Emotional’ A fifth show at the Beacon, and a fifth different tone of performance. Frederica, the Italian lady who attends every Bob Dylan show, has the right idea. You can never grow tired watching Bob Dylan. Bob himself seemed to grow a little tired by the end of tonight’s performance, mind. Considering all that he has delivered over this NYC residency, let alone the thirty-odd shows preceeding it, it would be amazing had he not. Yet he still left us with a head full of ideas from this final show. It was a set-list populated by characters, Bob exploring and presenting the plight of individuals. This was in marked contrast to the all-encompassing, epic songs of the previous two shows, and left me with many contrasting thoughts. Tonight the emphasis was less on the singing. Bob’s voice was still strong, at least for the first half of the performance, but seemed to take its place back among the band’s overall sound, rather than striding out to dominate the music as it had done so gloriously at the previous Beacon shows. Only on one song, ‘Lenny Bruce’, did Bob’s singing approach the magical heights of Thursday’s and Friday’s shows. This was a heartfelt interpretation though, Bob’s personal connection with Bruce laid bare. The line ‘He knew what he was talking about’ seemed to be projected with particular energy and passion, as though it were the key to Bob’s admiration for the man. It was fascinating to hear both ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’ and ‘Ballad Of Hollis Brown’ in the same show. Both require stunning feats of memory and concentration, and Bob delivered on both scores to recount these dignified stories. ‘Hollis Brown’, to my ears, had a particularly tragic tone to it, such was the tension created by Bob’s vocal dexterity. Another personal tale, ‘To Ramona’, filled the number two slot tonight. It was an understated, sympathetic reading from Bob, clarified by the most extensive harmonica solo of the show. Crowd-pleasing was, once again, heroically low on Bob’s list of priorities. Final night of the tour or not, he wasn’t compromising his art for anyone. ‘High Water’, for example, was all the more dramatic for Bob’s off-beat singing; he cut across the song’s rhythm and forced the band to chop around him as best they could. This tension drew my thoughts closer to the song’s unflinching lyrics, although the band had locked into a momentous groove by the song’s conclusion. The high points were scattered this evening, among several weary-sounding performances. ‘If You See Her, Say Hello’ was redeemed by some sparkling harmonica work, after a rather eccentric vocal performance characterised by Bob’s ‘up-singing’ technique. ‘I Shall Be Released’ struggled in vain to strike home a particular point, and ‘Honest With Me’ and ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ re-covered ground already conquered by Bob in previous shows this week. Perhaps the finest ‘Bob moment’ of the evening came with the first encore, when he sauntered into a wholly unexpected rendition of the little-heard ‘Po’Boy’. This was a magnificently odd choice under the circumstances. Given that it was Saturday night in NYC, with two songs to go on the final night of the tour, the boisterous crowd was ready to dance and Bob’s strength and voice were rapidly fading, perhaps an auto-pilot pivot through ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ would have been a more comfortable choice for all concerned. But oh no. Bob is no-one’s performing monkey. Whatever bloody-minded spirit prompted him, at this point, to tackle perhaps the most awkward "Love And Theft" song of all to master live, we should be grateful, for it is this spirit that gave us all the glorious, re-invented versions of many of his greatest songs this week. And the version of ‘Po’Boy’ itself? Well, several lines were missed and Bob seemed to struggle to connect with it at this stage of proceedings. He wasn’t quite done yet though. ‘All Along The Watchtower’ closed the show with its lines chopped in two; ‘There must be some way... outta here’. Finally, there was a way out of there. I was very sorry to leave the Beacon Theater, but over the five nights, I believe I heard the most expressive singing from Bob of all the 28 live shows I’ve attended. I didn’t dare hope it would be this great Toby Richards-Carpenter ========================================================================= Review by Peter Stone Brown Last night I watched the show from the steam bath environs of the Beacon Theater's loge, though people in the orchestra said it was stifling as well. Again the curtain rose on Merle Haggard and the Strangers with Haggard showing he could change things around just as much as the person closing the show. I like seeing shows from several vantage points and from the loge you could see what was going on on the entire stage easily. Haggard doesn't necessarily focus on his hits or even his own songs. At this point in time he seems more interested in playing what he wants to play and having fun though plenty of his classics song were included usually right up front to get things going. Tonight however, he received standing ovations on quite a few songs including "Mule Skinner Blues." The interesting thing was even after two months on the road he didn't seem quite sure which songs would work. For the two shows I saw he ignored his 2003 quite good album "Haggard Like Never Before," which included Woody Guthrie's "Philadelphia Lawyer" and a quite interesting swing song co-written with his keyboard player, called "Lonesome Day" which includes the lyrics, "Who's gonna sing the songs of freedom when freedom goes away and "When the big boys with the microphones get stuck and back away and they're afraid to say the things they know they ought to say." Now for Bob Dylan's portion of the evening, Friday night was better in terms of energy, song flow and consistency of performance. It was Saturday so "Maggie's Farm" was the opener followed by "To Ramona" with Stu Kimball setting the mood on acoustic with Don Herron on electric mandolin, and Dylan coming to center stage for the first of several quite good harp solos throughout the evening. For a week of shows that saw few night-to-night repeats of songs, I was somewhat surprised "Cry A While" came next and I almost suspected they wanted to see if they could pull of the dead stops of the night before which they did. A so-so "Bye and Bye" came next followed by one of the high points of the show "Hollis Brown." This song showed what this band is capable of in providing arrangements with Denny Freeman playing slide on acoustic, Kimball playing the original lick of the song on electric, Don Herron on banjo and Tony on standup bass, they created the perfect tension and stark background for this song. This was followed by "If You See Her, Say Hello" in pretty much the arrangement Dylan's been using on it for years, complete with the apparently now official lyrics from the latest lyrics book. Why this song is done this way will probably remain one of the great Dylan mysteries. However the harp solo was a lot of fun. Vocal-wise, "Lenny Bruce" was the song of the night which might be the weirdest thing I've ever said in a Bob Dylan concert review. He sang clearly, with obvious care making each word count. There was a sadness about this performance that went beyond the lyrics, beyond the subject matter. If Dylan's present vocal limitations prevent a song from truly cutting to the bone the way they once did, he is still quite capable of letting you know when he cares about something. A rearranged "Honest With Me" followed. The key slide lick to the song is now played in very different form by Herron on lap steel way up on the neck giving the song both a different feel and sound. This band can rock hard and the sound was loud and nasty. A close to acoustic jazz arrangement of "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" came next. With Stu on acoustic again this band showed their mastery of dynamics, playing quietly, letting the words be the focus. This arrangement could work in time, but the sadness of the melody was absent. Things returned to extreme rocking mode with "High Water." With Herron setting the tone on banjo with a quite a few dissonant jazz-grass excursions, what the current version of this song does is combine the feel of the original album version with the hard blues rock arrangement Dylan has been playing since 2002. The sound was nothing less than ferocious. A not bad "I Shall Be Released" was highlighted by an extended harp solo. The encores, "Po Boy" (which was interrupted by a loud conversation behind me) which caused me to miss many of lyrical mistakes) and a quite typical "Watchtower" were basically inconsequential. Based on various recordings I've heard all along this tour, and the two final shows I was able to see in New York, it seems obvious that the tide for this group of musicians was turned in Boston and they are just starting gel, and find out what they can do. If the same crew goes is on the next tour, things should start to get interesting a few weeks from now.