Dispatches from the Outlaw Tour.

And the Wrench.

What would you say if I told you one of the reasons I accepted my job was due to its proximity to Dylan’s final Outlaw show? Anyway, last week I drove 5 hours on a school night to join the Outlaw Festival. I ended up seeing Cuyahoga Falls, Burgettstown, and Buffalo. In what follows I offer a measly review recapping what are now well-known highlights. And yes, I was close enough in Buffalo to witness the famous wrench incident.

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An areal view of the Cuyahoga Falls venue

Cuyahoga Falls.

First of all, it’s been so long since I’ve seen Dylan on a festival circuit and these Outlaw Fest shows were in huge amphitheaters with even bigger parking lots. However, I did appreciate the Ohio tailgating crowd. I arrived relatively late, during John Mellencamp’s set and I think there were more people out in the lots partying than inside, which makes sense given the cost of a beer in there.

Anyway, Cuyahoga Falls began with a badass All Along the Watchtower, which it turns out was covered by Mellencamp in his opening set. I thought it was a great performance, though I prefer Buffalo’s version.

Cuyahoga Falls is notable for me because it would be the only time I’d see Shooting Star. Fantastic harp solo. What really struck me was Under the Red Sky—something about the lyrics made me feel nostalgic for my early days following Dylan and how much has changed since then (and how much remains the same). There was an old man and he lived in the moon/One summer's day he came passing by.

I struggled a bit to “get into” the slowed down and deconstructed Can’t Wait, which is one of my favorite songs, but afterwards my friend (the indomitable Kait) reminded me that I needed to let it wash over me.

Overall I enjoyed Ohio, being my first Outlaw show, and it was certainly worth the 5 hour drive on a school night. But I felt it was a relatively subdued show (though that might also have been my projection of the audience). At least they let me stand and dance.

Burgettstown.

Another large venue, we had to leave early because it took 45 minutes to get from the parking lot to the venue. Good grief.

The show started with another high energy All Along the Watchtower (I assume Mellencamp played it as well). I also really enjoyed the Rainy Day Women from this show, and I think the juxtaposition of these two songs works well with the nonstandard Outlaw crowd (makes sense they’d narrow down the pattern on the fourth to last show).

This night I thought the new “Murder Most Foul”esque Hard Rain worked well, building up to the end “and I’ll tell it, and think it, and speak it, and breathe it”—nice little promo for the Marigold movie to boot. Can’t Wait was much more effective this time through as well, I finally “got it” as Kait said.

I think I’ve written before about how much I love I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight on the current Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. There’s just something playful and satirical about an 83 year old man singing “bring that bottle over here” It’s always great to see/hear him laugh as well. (also, I forgot to mention how much I love when he sings “not a day over seventeen” in Little Queenie loool)

Buffalo.

What else is there to say? Final shows are always imbued with a special energy. This one was no exception. I was able to score a 7th row center pit seat for below face value and it was a great audience down front, lots of standing and dancing throughout the entire show. One gentleman could no longer resist the urge to boogie and started dancing to Things Have Changed which was just an absolutely joy to witness and join.

(you can see me standing up front in the first 2 seconds)

Of course, when Dylan began singing “They’re selling postcards of the hanging..” I freaked out. I knew we were getting something special, but little did I know where it would go. From my experience in the 7th row, the stage had a positive energy and the performance was dialed in. Dylan did not seem particularly annoyed or upset (when he shakes his head, etc). However, when he started clapping I was genuinely surprised. I interpreted it as an invitation for the audience to join in, and I was simultaneously confused and a little worried—IMHO it is extremely unlikely and strange for Dylan to encourage audience participation!!! I was looking around trying to gauge others’ reactions whether this was a good or bad thing LOL

But Dylan seemed to be into it, and when people would stop clapping he’d start again reminding and encouraging us—which seemingly confused the band as well.

So Dylan kept clapping and when we weren’t keeping up he began hitting the top of the piano, and then as we all know now, picked up a wrench used to weigh down his lyric sheets and started hitting the mic with the wrench (I thought he was using a harmonica).

At this point I started yelling really loud because I knew we were headed into uncharted waters. The audience could not keep up with the wrench-rhythm and Dylan started looking back to the drummer as it seemed everyone was on a different page. But again, it never felt like things were going off the rails. FWIW In Japan I witnessed the band abort Brokedown Palace mid-song so I am familiar with what that might look like. Sometimes I think a performance can be energized by technical and other issues. What does it matter anyway?

I had a colleague out in the lawn and he was quite confused about what was going on LOL the cameras were not zoomed in enough for people to see him using the wrench, they could only hear him hitting the microphone.

However, my personal favorite song of the night, and of the shows I was fortunate to attend, was Ballad of a Thin Man from Buffalo (no video available). Dylan and his band, with Mickey Rapheal on harmonica, gave a really strong (and loud) performance which was the perfect way to “set fire to the place as a parting gift” (and almost enough to make up for not performing I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight :( ).

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After the show I ran into a guy who I had last seen in France, which is such a common experience as a BobCat, and a reminder of how small the world can be sometimes.