10-18-2012, 11:04 AM
The place was empty - less than half sold. It's the first of a 3-night Bay Area run, the 1st 2 @ BGC, the last on Friday at the Greek. I could only make it out for this one.
Mark Knopfler opened and while I respect him, I've never been that much of a fan of him or Dire Straits. Just not my sound. He delivered a quiet, intoning Scottish folk songs, so quiet that the staff kept asking if it was intermission already.
He was totally upstaged by the DEW TOUR, which has taken over Civic Center. It's a huge X-Games style promotion for Mountain Dew, and while not nearly as cool as Red Bull sponsoring Felix Baumgartner's 23 mile jump, it was still pretty cool. There were these stunt bikers doing incredible jumps right in front of city hall and we could get right up close and personal to the action. What a scene! The weather was freakishly greenhouseffect warm - I was in a t-shirt in Oct in SF.
I got out for Dylan right as he went into Tangled Up and Blue, which I called as they were just starting it. Dylan's vocals were horrid, like Tom Waits with a throat cold, worse even, barely comprehensible and I know TU&B so well. Then he picked up his harmonica and literally blew down the house. He went over to his keyboard later, but didn't dazzle as much as he did with the harp. It was all about his harmonica. Later I caught Like a Rolling Stone, and again it was almost incomprehensible lyrically, but great harp. There was a lurch from staff so I knew something went down and by the end of the song, I was first on scene for our lone patient, a diabetic crash. All those hungry young EMTs and I was still first. I still gotz it. I caught Blowing in the Wind later and I had to get a full verse into it to identify the song. How does Dylan get his voice to do that? It sounds so painful. It must be great to be a lyricist of such high regard that you can totally slaughter your own lyrics and still have the audience applauding.
Mark Knopfler opened and while I respect him, I've never been that much of a fan of him or Dire Straits. Just not my sound. He delivered a quiet, intoning Scottish folk songs, so quiet that the staff kept asking if it was intermission already.
He was totally upstaged by the DEW TOUR, which has taken over Civic Center. It's a huge X-Games style promotion for Mountain Dew, and while not nearly as cool as Red Bull sponsoring Felix Baumgartner's 23 mile jump, it was still pretty cool. There were these stunt bikers doing incredible jumps right in front of city hall and we could get right up close and personal to the action. What a scene! The weather was freakishly greenhouseffect warm - I was in a t-shirt in Oct in SF.
I got out for Dylan right as he went into Tangled Up and Blue, which I called as they were just starting it. Dylan's vocals were horrid, like Tom Waits with a throat cold, worse even, barely comprehensible and I know TU&B so well. Then he picked up his harmonica and literally blew down the house. He went over to his keyboard later, but didn't dazzle as much as he did with the harp. It was all about his harmonica. Later I caught Like a Rolling Stone, and again it was almost incomprehensible lyrically, but great harp. There was a lurch from staff so I knew something went down and by the end of the song, I was first on scene for our lone patient, a diabetic crash. All those hungry young EMTs and I was still first. I still gotz it. I caught Blowing in the Wind later and I had to get a full verse into it to identify the song. How does Dylan get his voice to do that? It sounds so painful. It must be great to be a lyricist of such high regard that you can totally slaughter your own lyrics and still have the audience applauding.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse