Modern Times Live Archive

Thunder on the Mountain

That was really something to hear and to see! As predicted, this one is a barn burner live, and it really peaked that second night at the Bill Graham Civic. Bob sang it so fucking good and the band just cooked. Stu’s acoustic rhythm seemed more out front to me than on the album, maybe just the mix I was hearing where I was, but I liked it and it gave the song a jaunty rockabilly feel. George’s drumming is tremendous on this one. I love how he throws in different accents in different verses and during the instrumental parts of songs, like alternate syncopations, or a quick hit of the cymbal that wasn’t there the last time through, always making it sound different. He does so much more than just keep the beat.
Throughout the second half of Thunder on the Mountain this night, everyone in the band was smiling big. George would look over at Bob who was tapping his feet and pointing into the air, swiveling his legs around and crouching down under his microphone at the keyboard, then look at us in the front row freaking out, then back to Bob doing more crazy shit, and he was just laughing the whole time. For a whole verse or more Bob turned sideways to face us, banging on the keys with one hand and the other one held up and outspread like he was feelin’ the pulse and vibration in the air! I think he was really pleased with both the band’s performance on and on the crowd’s reaction to this song tonight. Caroline Schwarz, San Francisco 10/17/06

Spirit On The Water

Without a doubt, “Spirit on the Water,” was the highlight of the night. The band took real delight in playing it. The crowd knew the song cold, sung along in parts, went crazy when Bob sang, “You ought to be a fool about me,” and shouted back, “No we don’t, Bob” in near unison when the lines “You think I’m over the hill/You think I’m past my prime,” came up. The crowd knew its Modern Times. Things have changed since I first saw Dylan (1988), when it seemed a vast minority of the crowd had his latest album at the time, Down in the Groove. Will Everitt, Portland ME 11/9/06

ROLLIN’ AND TUMBLIN’

This was the first show with four Modern Times songs, and Rollin’ and Tumblin’
makes its frenetically paced debut in slot three, destined to roll and tumble like a pool ball around the set, knocking against other songs and landing in different slots as the tour goes on. We jump up and down at the familiar opening riff, overtaken by that rare excitement that comes with hearing Bob do a song for the first time ever. It’s a half beat or so faster than the already lively version on the album, sped up and super-charged the whole way through. Georges’s drumming is fantastic, punctuating different beats each time round, the cymbal crashes, mixing it up but holding it together so tightly. Bob smiles a lot during this one and seems to have fun singing it, cracking himself up on the lines about some young lazy slut who’s charmed away his brains. And when he sings “Ain’t nothing so depressin’ as trying to satisfy this woman of miiiine,” he pulls back from the microphone with an snarl that is halfway between agonized and elated: “AAAAAH!” Ends on a strong bass note: “Think I must be traveling aaawwwn!” Portland, ME 11/9/06

Rollin’ and Tumblin’ rolls into slot 5 for this night. The band explodes into it, Bob puts everything into every line, the audience erupts, which whips the Bob and the band into more of a frenzy, the energy ricocheting from stage to audience and back! Bob cracks up a few times, looking out at the bouncing, pulsating, super-enthusiastic first few rows. The buds are on the vi-ha-ha-ine! This line is gets extra emphasis and a chuckle tonight and (solely because I find it fun to read into things) I take it as a nod from Bob to our, ahem, agriculture here in Northern Cali – it is harvest season after all! This song’s starting to feel like something of an anthem for the tour, feeling rolled and tumbled as I do right about now, with a couple days of hanging out on the San Francisco sidewalk under my belt, getting up at dawn to go down and lay in the shade of the venue!
Caroline Schwarz, San Francisco 10/16/06

 When The Deal Does Down

“When the Deal Goes Down” was the 6th song of the night. I feel like I know what Bob was talking about when, In the Rolling Stone interview earlier this year, he complained about modern recording sound. Tonight, the band seems to play the song note for note right off the album, but it becomes alive, warm…altogether different. If there were more room (the show was sold out), all of us would have been waltzing around the room. The crowd grew quiet(er), and everyone swayed. Will Everitt, Portland ME 11/9/06

Someday Baby

Workingman’s Blues

Beyond The Horizon

Nettie Moore

I was at the Arco Arena for the first Nettie Moore. Not in my usual spot at the rail but in about the 12th row for this particular song standing on the left side aisle, swaying and bouncing to the marching beat. I made it as far as the second row for the encores, facing Bob. When Nettie started, I recognized the plaintive beat immediately but didn’t connect it to the song at first. Then I realized it was Nettie Moore, so I prepared to listen intently. The first words about Lost John on the railroad track came out a little weak but after that, Bob was articulate, emphatic, and the words were heartfelt. Like most new songs live, I always enjoy them better than the studio version. I mean, take your pick. Would you rather have Dylan performing it right in front of you or would you rather be hearing it on your stereo? But regardless of the immediacy factor that can very easily obscure my objectivity, it really did sound better to me live at this show, and now with the benefit of the recording to jar my memory, I stand by my initial feelings.
There’s one moment of the chorus towards the end when Bob sings, “the rivers on the rise” very tenderly that just melts me, breaks me down, because he’s exposing his vulnerability, and I share that feeling with him, that moment. That’s what following Bob is all about to me. Sharing those experiences with him. The first Nettie Moore set a precedent insofar as the inevitable cheers for the “I’m in a cowboy band” line that have followed ever since. Also, the “they say whiskey’ll kill you” line, which at this show elicited cheers from the hell raisers who decided to indulge in alcohol, and will undoubtedly at subsequent shows as well. Andy Carroll, Sacramento 10/18/06 (song debut)

The best thing about hearing Nettie Moore live was the beauty and gentleness with which it is conveyed. I love the album version, but hearing it live and seeing Bob sing it was way better The audience really responded to the song too, cheering during “I’m in a cowboy band” and “whiskey will kill you but I don’t think it will”. There was some matter-a-fact talk-singing in some of the song but also offered Bob the opportunity to put the greatest strengths in his voice to work. He held out words like “strriiifffeeeee” and made things very pointed like he does with the ‘ck’ sound at the end of “black“. He picked perfectly complimentary note choices to those being played by the band on the lines “don’t have to wonder no more” and “can’t eat all the stuff…” and sung them like it was never supposed to sound any differently. Bob really held onto the ends of the lines until you could hears the words “fate” and “straight” lingering on long after the songs had moved on. The organ really highlights this songs and was ever-present in the background, moving along with it. The line “no knife could ever cut our love part” sounded like it was almost sung with a snicker. Bob let all the choruses lit along with a sort of mythical feeling. At the end, the violin brings it all to a sort of dreamy end.
Kait Runevitch, 10/21/06

Ain’t Talkin’