4/5
Bobby.
Something spiritual, like a fever dream for the rolling stone, this was an epic experience like no other. Perhaps it was the early start, waking up at 4:30 in the AM for a beautiful annual Easter event for my old school, a town over from Yokohama to Tokyo, that made it. The early afternoon sun that burnt me to a stroke. The rush back and the quick American cheeseburger scarfed before I took to this show. Tired in a trance that made this what was already almost akin to a religious experience. He may be 80, but I was the one almost nodding off around 5. Charge those weary eyes and the inability to read kanji on my stupid broken Japanese question, "is this row 16, seat 4", I asked (notice how good the Japanese is). "Oh, no, no. I'm sorry, that's today's date", the kind arena staff replied and reassured.
Tokyo Garden Theatre was in bloom this beautiful weekend just gone with a spring in its step. Because after a brief break (an 18-month hiatus especially during corona for this 81-year-old legend surely is short), the one and only singer/songwriter, prophet and poet Bob Dylan was back in Japan for the first time in seven seals. Tickets might have cost a week worth of minimum wage, but it was well worth it just like the wait. Even if your smartphone's hope of capturing it for posterity was way Yondr in that pouch that seals up your device like security tags on clothing. Like Prince once simply put it in an effort for people to enjoy what turned out to be one of his last shows in the moment, "put your phones away." Engaged in this half-decade worldwide tour with no farewell that only Elton John's 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'. The man with the great American songbook performed a playlist worthy set-list for your Spotify streams.
Black rising to this tour supporting Dylan's 2020 'Rough And Rowdy Ways' album really had everyone in a dance like the bar-room bliss it beautifully evokes in slow-drawl, smokey, old times numbers. 'Things Aren't What They Were' reads the red masthead of this tour under the suited skeleton's top hat and boy is the 'The Times They Are A-Changin'' singer right. Fans feeling for that and other classics 'Blowin' In The Wind' may have been disappointed, but what did you expect. This great 'Contains Multitudes' and they were all there. From the 'Blonde On Blonde' beginnings 'Watching The River Flow, Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine', to the Grateful Dead closer ('Brokedown Palace') that's been making headlines after its Far East debut. Already another classic concert for the calendar post-corona (Norah and Gaga last year) after Phoebe Bridgers at Zepp and the Red Hot Chili Peppers under the Giants' Tokyo Dome.
Sure, even when Dylan could sing, he couldn't (he admitted so much on an iconic white banner), but save those sentiments. This is a poet still on top of his prose and penmanship. Plus the grain of that gravelly voice just graces the record with even greater grooves. Scratchy and signature to the way he autographed this auditorium that could rival London's Barbican and other theatrical masterpieces. Watching him paint his a day before accidentally happening on a Wes Anderson inspired perfect portrait photography exhibition in Tokyo reminded us of the notion that watching Dylan is like watching a work of art. And that's no tired age joke. It's on you if you don't realize this is like watching a Mona Lisa, Da Vinci, or Sunflowers for your Van Gogh.
The closest thing to seeing Elvis, Sinatra, or the full Beatles line-up. MLK or JFK. Bobby or Ali. When it comes to Bob Zimmerman, it doesn't get any realer than that. No 'False Prophet'. Instead, the 'Mother of All Muses' serving someone. Us. Even way back yonder in the nosebleeds, peeking at him behind the piano and this grand royal red curtain return. Wondering if this is all a dream in the theatre of our minds. But instead it was a night like no other playing out in more than our mind's eye for a memory that will always stay with us. All as 'Every Grain Of Sand' of that iconic harmonica harmonized like Leonardo and Vincent's paintbrush for the picture. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Set-List Picks: 'I Contain Multitudes', 'When I Paint My Masterpiece', 'Brokedown Palace'.
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