BeatNonStop A Weblog by Chris Macias Bee pop music critic Music geek (n. myü-zik 'gEk) 1: A person who proudly wore KISS commemorative pajamas in third grade. 2: A person who owns multiple copies of the same album, still buys vinyl and has a room dedicated to 2,000 or so CDs and records. 3. A person who wrote a five-part series about traveling with a local band in their stinky van - and loved every minute of it. 4: Chris Macias, the Bee's pop music critic, serving Sacramento's music scene since 1999.

BACK TO THE BEATNONSTOP HOME PAGE

« Encore and verdict | | Righteous track »

September 27, 2007

Man, that (Dylan) show was lame

Last week I offered the question: what's the worst concert you ever paid for? And apart from a couple votes for Smashing Pumpkins at Lollapalooza - James Iha's rapping apparently gave new meaning to "wack" - it turns out that Bob Dylan has really let down some fans over the years. Turns out that his show at the old Cal Expo Amphitheatre is especially infamous, so let's hear some more, shall we?

From Scot Siden, Sacramento:

Hands down, it was Bob Dylan sometime back in the late 80's ... at the old Cal Expo Amphitheatre. I remember the opening band (the Alarm, I think?) came out and just blew everyone away with their dynamic performance. Then we sat and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Then we waited some more. FINALLY, Bob and his band came out, rushed through the most listless, un-energetic 30 minutes of music imaginable with his trademark mush-mouth delivery (though even LAZIER, if that is possible), never uttering a single word to the crowd between songs. Then he left the stage without so much as a goodbye or even a wave to the audience, as if he had something more important to do. The crowd cheered and cheered, thinking we could bring him back out, but it was not to be. Finally, the crowd turned ugly, booed their heads off and slowly left the grounds. I've not been to a Dylan concert since, and probably never will. I STILL haven't forgiven him.

From George Kostyrko, Sacramento:

Probably the worst Sacramento concert experience I remember was when Bob Dylan played at the Cal Expo Amphitheatre in June 88 or 89. GE Smith was the backing band (the prior tour Tom Petty’s band had backed him.) ... To say Bob Dylan was disappointing is to put it mildly. It seems like the band was only on stage for 75 minutes total (with encore) or so with a number of bizarre and strange arrangements of songs that were somewhat recognizable. Bob’s singing was unintelligible. Then they stopped playing and left the stage. After what appeared to be much reluctance, most of the band, minus Bob showed up on stage and played on encore. Bob came out after a minute or so of the band playing, and half-heartedly participated. The song finished and they were off the stage. Despite a good 10 minutes of clapping and feet stamping, the fans finally realized the show was just over. That was the first concert I could ever remember in the summer that ended while the sun was still fairly high up in the sky with no sign of sundown.

From Bob Aldrich and Chris Davis, Sacramento:

The absolute WORST concert we've paid for was Bob Dylan at UC Davis
in 2005 (we think that was the year). We're trying to forget, actually. Both of us have seen Dylan when he could sing. Bob saw him at the Concert for Bangladesh, and Chris saw him with Tom Petty at the CalExpo Amphitheatre. But his UC Davis concert was the pits. ("Indeed," says Chris.)

It wasn't the backup band. They were competent and sounded together.
But Dylan mumbled; almost talking his way through songs. He wasn't rapping though; though he may have really invented the genre. Dylan sounded like a bad K-Tel satire or impersonation of himself. If we hadn't have recognized the tunes, we wouldn't have known what he was singing. As it was it still took a couple of verses on a few to even recognize them. Both our spouses hated the show, and the bleacher basketball arena benches with no backs were torture - almost as tortuous as Dylan's singing. He may be a legend, but he was a legend "in his own mind" that night.

Posted by cmacias at 12:51 PM | Comments |