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Friday, October 22, 2004 » music thought update

Went to the Bob Dylan concert earlier this evening. When I went to see him mere weeks after arriving at UCSB as a freshman, I barely expected to see him in concert ever again, let alone at the same venue three years later. I was horrified to see, the day after I discovered he was coming here again, that tickets had already gone on sale a week earlier. Luckily, the tickets didn't go as quickly as they did back in 2001 and I managed to procure a few.

The set list this time around wasn't as impressive as the last, unfortunately. Previously he pulled out a lot of his old classic songs, while tonight he played a lot of his newer stuff. I enjoyed hearing some of my favorites from Time out of Mind, but I think he played the exact same songs from Love and Theft as he did several years ago. (You can actually see the setlists for both concerts online already. The Internet is crazy!)

He also never played guitar during the show, sticking instead to his keyboard and harmonica. I don't know if that's a new trend or what, but it was a bit disappointing. To his credit, he did drop the "All Along the Watchtower"-bomb to wrap up the encore, which was a great surprise.

I don't want the concert to sound like a downer, of course. Any opportunity to see a performer like Bob Dylan live is a real privilege. It's kind of funny, but leaning over his keyboard in his hat and dress coat, he looked like some kind of naval captain looking over his crew on the bridge of a ship. That, and all the waves that kept crashing up onto the stage LOL.

p.s. Another question going through my head during the concert was: What happened to CHARLIE SEXTON? His "Honest with Me" guitar sliding was ferocious. Also he was so HOT.