Stories

Bob Dylan's Americanarama Festival of Music, Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 6, 2013

Cincinnati is an easy town to visit from anywhere. The Riverbend Music Center is even easier, just minutes off the Appalachian Highway that cuts through southern Ohio farm country, sitting on the Ohio River next to what used to be Coney Island Amusement Park along State Route 52.

Just a little over a week into Dylan's two month long Americanarama tour that features another legend, Richard Thompson, Wilco and My Morning Jacket, with Ryan Bingham substituting for Thompson on the tour's second half.

The tour is mostly being held at large (but not huge) outdoor venues, open on three sides with a covered reserved seating area and pits in front of the stage. Given all the rain the mid-west has seen this summer the roof is a welcome addition. But as the pit area is on the same level as the first row of seats, it was a domino effect of everyone standing. A definite design flaw.Riverbend has been around for awhile, looks clean and is nicely appointed with some of the tightest security I have ever seen -- but then I am used to clubs and small halls -- we had to show our tickets to six different people to get to our fifth row center seats. One of first informed me that it would not be a late show as everyone had to be off the stage by 11 PM. Cincinnati must have an eleven o'clock phobia as I was reminded of the time I saw The Kinks at the Music Hall and the sound plug was pulled and the house lights went up exactly at 11.

While the show was scheduled to begin at 5:30, Richard Thompson went on 15 minutes early. No big deal as we had been there for awhile. But, 90% of the audience was missing and I am sad to report that few of those there apparently knew who he was. Thompson played, however, as if was a packed crowd when I saw him at the Ryman last year. While he played only five songs, his Electric Trio stretched out on them, making the most of an all too short set. He is always a joy.In between these two legends are the two indie bands each with loyal followings that would justify playing close to the same towns Dylan played in the Spring and bring in different crowds.

My Morning Jacket did not disappoint its many fans, loud and full of themselves -- it was as if they had seen too many performance clips from the sixties and seventies. They seemed rather juvenile and played their instruments without due regard, sloppy and ineffectual. However, when members of Wilco came out and both bands covered George Harrison's "Isn't It A Pity" they came outside of themselves and delivered a moving performance. Otherwise, they stayed inside their own fan base. And being practically a local band - Louisville -- perhaps they felt they could get away with it. A towel seemed to stay on Jim James' head for half the set and the Michael Jackson-type jacket was a bit much.

That was not the case when Wilco hit the stage with most of the audience having finally arrived. Jeff Tweedy came out Bob Dylan-style, white hat and jacket, playfully teasing the audience when they began their set at low volume -- their second song was the mournfully beautiful "When The Roses Bloom Again" -- about whether they should amp it up. And slowly they did. Again the highlight of their set was with a special guest, Richard Thomspon who brilliantly sang and played lead on "Sloth" and stuck around for "California Stars." Tweedy, playful and smirking, patronizingly teased a bandmate about who was Thompson's new best friend. Thompson was grace personified under his black beret.

Dylan went on at 9:20 and played for 90 minutes, it was clear he was the performer we all wanted to see. He went about it all in a straightforward fashion, alternating between the electric keyboard on stage left and the harmonica center stage, offering rhythm-driven tunes from "Tempest" as well as all too few older songs, including two from "Blood on the Tracks" where he changed the lyrics to "Tangled me in blue," "She Belongs To Me" and "Hard Rain." Unlike the night before in Indianapolis there was no interaction with the crowd -- two guys next to us from my hometown told us all about it.As he has been doing of late, Dylan's meager piano playing was obscured by driving force of his band --- Charlie Sexton taking over from Duke Robillard a few days earlier without explanation -- and when he took center stage with only a harmonica in his hand and the microphone as a crutch he rocked back and forth with a faraway look in his eyes. One has to wonder what he makes of all of this this, having seen so much, having been there from about the beginning, from Bleecker Street and Joan Baez to Rolling Thunder to the Never Ending Tour in its many guises.

Dylan has performed for quite some time in near darkness, with three mirrors strategically placed on the stage facing the audience to reflect any camera flashes. But no need on this mid-summer night as Riverbend has their own camera Nazis who, despite what its website says, squelched would-be picture takers as soon as they were lifted to eye level. There were six, three stationed on either side of the stage and it was obvious this was the main focus, at times moving swiftly through the pit area to put down any rebellion. The times are changing indeed.As with the Spring tour, the Americanarama sets have been the same. Dylan rocking back and forth, sips of water between songs, one arm arched to his side as the band readies for the next number. And when it was over, they take the front of the stage as Dylan hitches his hands in his pockets, no discernible expression and at ten minutes before eleven, Dylan left the building and the house lights went up.