When Bob Dylan last toured Australia in 2011, on a visit anchored by the Blues ‘n’ roots festivals of the east and west coasts, audiences were once again polarised by the man they want him to be and the man he is.
A theatre run provides a different forum and with 2,500 people cosied into Perth’s Riverside theatre for the opening three-night gambit of Dylan’s latest drive-by of Australia for his Never Ending tour, the mood was one of excited reverence. At eight on the dot, Dylan and his black-clad band sauntered unannounced onto a dimly-lit stage, easing into Things Have Changed. Dylan – dressed in a stylish, bespoke morning coat with wide-brimmed hat – stood firm, his face obscured by a quartet of microphones.
Lulling into She Belongs To Me, Dylan brought out his harmonica to immediate applause, its discordance singing to the rafters but, as ever, heart-tugging and just very him. Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ and Workingman Blues II saw Dylan take to the piano, as bassist/musical director Tony Garnier indulged in a two-step while Charlie Sexton riffed with exquisite minimalism.
Dylan’s gruff growl occasionally parted, revealing echoes of the younger voice, before he walked to the front of the drum kit, held a pose and took in the audience’s applause, which he seemed, for a second at least, to breathe in just a little. The opening bars of Duquesne Whistle, his 2012 single from the Tempest LP, were met with hoots, unexpected for a “new” Dylan song. But even if the key had already changed up, its cautious but joyful tone lifted the room.
Watching the band roll anew through Tangled Up In Blue (the “You’re looking like somebody I used to trust” line poignant given Dylan’s history with his live audiences), it was clear the fresh vistas opened up in these songs is what gives Dylan that little skip in his step each time he finishes one.
Part two continued the first half’s momentum with High Water and Simple Twist Of Fate, the latter featuring three separate harmonica runs from Dylan, using those four microphones to full effect. From the blues walk of Early Roman Kings and the darker, lamenting Forgetful Heart to Spirit On The Water’s fond change in pace and heart, the band were at one with Dylan – you’d swear they could play a fade-out if he wanted them to.
The main set ended with a trio of songs from Tempest – Scarlet Town, Soon After Midnight and Long And Wasted Years – an album that holds a similar place in Dylan’s work as Push The Sky Away does in Nick Cave’s – nostalgia is death. We did get All Along The Watchtower and Blowin’ In The Wind as encores and many may have hung out for those old gems. But Dylan continues, resolutely, to create in spite of nostalgia and that’s why we are still able to watch him perform in 2014.
- Bob Dylan plays Perth on 15 August, then dates in Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Sydney
