Concerts thread: Best/Worst/Next/Last one you attended?

Fortunately, I live in a part of the country where people prefer to keep their distance from one another in normal times. And the show is in the People's Republic of Dane County, where mask/vaccine mandates are in force and obeyed. It shows in the transmission/death rate, too.

 

Hold Steady show in London is six weeks out. The UK dropping restrictions is promising, and I'm actually more worried about picking up an asymptomatic case and testing positive on the return trip to the States. Still haven't bought a plane ticket, but those are easy to come by from Dulles to Heathrow. Giving it another couple of weeks to make sure the band doesn't cancel, but I'm leaning toward going now. Have already been to two concerts here where proof of vax was needed to get into the show, and the same will apply for this show. If I don't go now, then I don't think I'd ever go, because it's clear we're going to be living with this thing for the long term.

 

Sounds like a great adventure! Even if the concert is canceled at the last minute, there are a few things to do in London.

 

Bob Dylan is coming here, and I've never seen him live. OTOH, crowds, expensive tickets, and Dylan's notoriously erratic live performances plus he's 80.

I dunno.

 

I wouldn't say he's erratic. From my understanding he's pretty consistent.

He shuffles around a bit, never acknowledges there’s a crowd there, and you won't recognize a single thing he plays.

He's coming here and I'm slightly tempted, but only as a oddity and a chance to look at a legend for 90 minutes. The shows sound excruciating.

 

Yeah, that's sort of my take. I saw Johnny Cash and June Carter for the first time very late in their lives. It was slightly disappointing, and I hated myself for feeling that way. I'd seen plenty of video, I knew what was missing. I remain glad that I saw them, but I wish it had been when they were at their full powers.

I'm not sure that Dylan would leave me feeling the same way.

 

Here's what I find incredibly strange about Dylan:

He is responsible for some of the greatest songs ever written. He has a catalog of hundreds of songs. Yet when he tours, he plays the exact same set every single night. No variation. And the most recent leg of the tour, the best-known song he was playing was "Gotta Serve Somebody."

I mean, I understand keeping it roughly the same. I don't expect his band to know his entire catalog. Hell, I don't expect him to know his entire catalog. And there's no reason to expect a greatest hits set every night. But goddamn, you can't mix in an "Idiot Wind" now and then? "Boots of Spanish Leather"? Once or twice throw the crowd a bone and do a recognizable version of "Like a Rolling Stone"? I'd settle for "Jokerman" or "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine."

How do you not go insane trudging from city to city playing the exact same set night after night after night?

 

Even at the heights of his career, Dylan was not a great singer. The power is in his songs. As much as I love some of his stuff, I've no desire to see him perform live. Especially at this age.

 

There are some exceptions - Springsteen, Pearl Jam - but major rock shows are little more than Broadway shows these days: same songs, same order, same stage banter. The Stones would also fit in with your Dylan example, mammoth catalogue but with the exception of a song the fans vote on it's the same old, tired hits every night.

Every year the Rolling Stone summer concert preview would showcase all the big shows hitting the road with the artist saying this is the year they go deep in the catalogue, play songs they haven't played since their early days, deep tracks their fans have been clamouring to hear and then you look at the setlists online and it's the same songs every night.

 

Among aging rockers, the best show I've seen in recent years was by Roger McGuinn. That was seven or eight years ago, and he's now pushing 80, but back then he looked fantastic, was engaging and could still play and sing. I still vividly remember him walking onto the stage, singing and playing "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star." He reminisced a bit about the old days, and did a great cover of Joni Mitchell's "Dreamland." And he had recently recorded an album of sea shanties. His website has some tour dates listed.

 

I saw Johnny and June Carter more than 20 years ago, and they were great. One of my favorite shows.

 

Found the Unified Scene message board for Hold Steady fans, and one right bloke happened to have an extra for the Sunday night show at MOTH club, so my first weekend in March will now feature three THS shows in London and a Premier League match. I could do worse.