THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411030088
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music Review
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
BOB DYLAN has spent the onstage portion of his last 20 years reinventing his endlessly classic catalog. His Tuesday night concert at Chrysler Hall found him on top of his game and very involved musically.
The strong guitar work that characterizes his two recent acoustic albums has apparently fueled his desire to play even more. Dylan's electric solos were among the highlights of the 90-minute set.
In particular, his statements on ``All Along the Watchtower'' should have put to rest the notion that he's a rudimentary picker at best. And fittingly so. Dylan once noted, in reference to Jimi Hendrix's reading of the tune, that, ``When I sing it, I always feel like it's a tribute to him in some kind of way.'' This night, he pointedly began and ended the number with the core riff of the Hendrix arrangement.
His muscular six-string presence meshing with those of nominal lead guitarist John Jackson and pedal steel man Bucky Baxter, Dylan created great aural structures that held great hope for his next full-band recording.
Among the most striking revisions came during a three-song set that had drummer Winston Watson sitting out and the other band members taking to acoustic instruments. Dylan delivered a yearning ``Mr. Tambourine Man'' and a ``Masters of War'' that depicted how it might sound played around an extremely bitter campfire.
But it was the oldest pages of the Dylan songbook that received the most revelatory recasting. A pleading ``Don't Think Twice It's All Right'' was a positive respite after ``Masters,'' with the artist offering a deceptively casual harp solo - he began it off-mike, glancing above the heads of his fellows, but he quickly leaned into it.
It was a sign that Dylan wasn't toying with anything - material, musicians or audience. That he was thinking hard was evidenced by the wide-ranging set's inclusion of a few surprises. Did he put forth a country-ish, rumbling-train take on ``Watching the River Flow''? Yes. And did he slyly link the narrator's wish to stop and read a book with the sight of ``someone whose goose was really cooked''? It appeared that he did.
Finally, Dylan's own spirit was vivid enough that at several points, he essayed what looked suspiciously like compact guitar-hero moves, cocking his instrument and even falling into a knock-kneed position during ``Maggie's Farm.'' The Chuck Berry-ish gambit must have inspired the young woman who took the stage to dance through the rest of the number as the band rocked on, poker-faced.
If one ticket-holder within inches of the star was cute, the dozen or so that took to the boards during the encore of ``Like a Rolling Stone'' were presumably too many. Dylan cut the song short, singing only two of its four verses, and dropped the closing solo-acoustic pieces that have been customary of late. by CNB