Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Stožice Arena / Slovenia
Concert date: 25.06.2015
Attendance: 2500
Ticket price: from 46.00€
It’s hard to add anything »clever« about one of the greatest singer-songwriters in the world, if not the greatest. Especially after six decades of defiance in the music business. The man who has left his mark on generations of musicians and listeners is, in other words, an old friend of Slovenian stages.
He rolled into Stožice Arena with his new album »Shadows in the Night« in his pocket, released this February and dedicated to the figures and work of performers Dylan has always admired, who helped shape his musical vision and have always inspired him. The concert repertoire, though, wasn’t built around that album. Instead, the setlist drew most of its numbers from his latest studio album of original material, »Tempest«.
This time around, Bob Dylan didn’t have a lucky day with his Ljubljana show. All of Stožice Arena held somewhere between 2000 and 3000 people, let’s just say 2500 heads, maybe a few more. The stands were almost completely empty, and the floor was packed only in the front rows. By the time you got to the mixing desk in the middle of the floor, the crowd had thinned out like crazy.
The seasoned veteran and his five-piece backing band took the stage bathed in cabaret lighting. The stage was only »licked« by a few timid lamps pointed upward or at the musicians’ backs. Total stage minimalism. No photographers, not even ones with »smart« phones and tablets! Dylan came on last, after the quintet had already set up the backdrop for his one-of-a-kind vocal approach and interpretation. The man and his crew didn’t lose any sleep over the empty hall, and those of us there got to soak up all the unique ferocity of Dylan’s moving poetry. You had to stand somewhere between the mixing desk and the front rows. Right at the front, the sound drifted off over the first rows, and the effect was even that the PA seemed too quiet. So you were pretty much forced to hunt for the right spot, where the sound delivered its best.
Dylan, of course, instantly steps into the spotlight, while the quintet stuns with exceptional softness and precision. From the first note to the last moment of the concert. Professionalism demands total refinement and, of course, the best musical interpreters. It was also interesting to realize that this kind of gentle beauty required as many as two guitars. Most of the backing was built on strings and organic wood, while attention was grabbed by two different steel pedals, adding an all-important stamp of elemental rawness to Dylan’s musical mission, rooted in American folk music.
Dylan split the performance into two parts with a 20-minute break in between. After all these years, his interpretation keeps a unique character and artistic face. Full of fire. The verses shake you and instantly get under your skin. Every word has its own crafted poetic character and, in Dylan’s delivery, keeps an incredible realness and conviction. The kind of priceless experience you know can’t be repeated, and that you only come into contact with when a legendary singer-songwriter appears on stage. In terms of performance, Dylan bent the material, no matter the year it was written, to the musical vision of the present day. Even Blowin’ in the Wind was barely recognizable, that’s how much it has changed in his interpretation over the years. Yet it kept that unique stamp of eternal evergreen-ness that has always marked, and still marks today, every single musical generation. Dylan’s one-of-a-kind vocal character, draped in a softly yearning and superbly played soundscape weaving together American folk, blues garnished with smooth jazz variations, a flirtation with elements of Americana and dashes of surf, fully took over in the interpretation.
Dylan, who rarely spoke to the audience during the show, and only did so for the first time when he announced the break, sat down at the piano a few times during the concert, and when he blew into the harmonica too, alongside his piercing messages, the picture of the concert was pretty much complete. This time Dylan didn’t use a guitar.
The 74-year-old singer-songwriter legend delivered yet another musical treat. Just as expected. Bob Dylan and his crew still have a long world tour ahead of them, which will wrap up in mid-November on the North American continent. With the years, good old Dylan only ripens, which he pointed out once again with his stage fascination in Ljubljana, and let’s hope that this ripening and evergreen quality stays with us for many years to come. So may his so-called “Never Ending” tour, running nonstop since 1988, go on and on.
Setlist
1. Things Have Changed
2. She Belongs to Me
3. Beyond Here Lies Nothin’
4. Workingman’s Blues #2
5. Duquesne Whistle
6. Waiting for You
7. Pay in Blood
8. Tangled Up in Blue
9. I’m a Fool to Want You
—intermission 20 min—
10. High Water (For Charley Patton)
11. Simple Twist of Fate
12. Early Roman Kings
13. Forgetful Heart
14. Spirit on the Water
15. Scarlet Town
16. Soon After Midnight
17. Long and Wasted Years
18. Autumn Leaves
—encore—
19. Blowin’ in the Wind
20. Love Sick
