Bob Dylan - rare treat at the Warfield!

The announcement started on message boards--and soon after appeared in the regular media:  Bob Dylan would be playing a small show in downtown San Francisco, at the Warfield.

Dylan came up with the concept himself.

The concert was to be deliberately "low tech" (his words), meaning....

--> No internet sales

--> No Ticketmaster

--> No credit cards

--> $60 cash in hand

--> only 1 ticket per customer

--> tickets go on sale at 5:30

--> get in line, if you choose to, from noon onward

--> OR take your chances and not wait in line -- show up between 5:30 and 8pm when the show starts

--> once you're in, you're in (so people can't leave and scalp)

_________________________

I loved the premise.

Haven't seen Dylan in 10 years. And only see bands in small venues. And I have some flexibility with my days.

Around 11:45 I took the bus from Pacific Heights to the Tenderloin to scope out the situation.  Walked to the theatre.  It was a gorgeous day.

The Tenderloin is seedy, smelly, impoverished, beautiful, gentle, and old-fashioned.

The roadies, lighting and sound crews, and friends of the band were there.

Around the corner, there were only 100-150 people in line. The media made it sound like it would be mayhem. Not so!

I stepped into line and met some people from Alameda, Rick and Anni--and we made an agreement. I needed to go back home to meet with my landlady, but would bring them back sandwiches and water if they'd hold my place.

On my way home I passed another line of people - maybe there's another show!

But it was the Glide Foundation.  Serving lunch to the homeless.

 Returned to the Warfield by 3pm. The people who said they'd hold my spot did so. I'd made them giant sandwiches, and brought drinks, snacks, cookies, etc.

It was an amazing scene. Sterotypically or prototypically San Francisco.

Guys on stilts, jugglers, people playing hacky sack, chick in a spangly boustier and hot pants strolling around giving people nicknames and playing the accordian. Homeless guys playing chess and renting lawn chairs for $1. Guys jamming on guitar and drums, lots of open weed smoking (not that uncommon in San Francisco but it still feels very outlaw to me). People from their 20s to their 70s.

Many cool people and fun convos. Dylan freaks and fans, people who snuck out of offices---as well as the self-employed, the under-employed, the unemployed. Entrepreneurs w/Blackberries and iPhones--the Warfield provided wifi for all--students, old people in tie-dye, artists, writers, poets, musicians, as well as some pretty fringe-y people. "Saints and sinners, losers and winners, all kindsa people you might wanna know..."
At 5:30 they started packing us in. I went straight to the front and joined maybe 40 people at that time sitting on the floor directly in front of the stage like it was someone's livingroom. I was 3 people from the stage, which is about my preferred spot at shows.

Great people in that pack, very convivial. (Met an interesting guy in that front section - rare for me, because I'm secretly shy - talked 2 and 1/2 hours we were waiting)

We were told early on not to take pix or record audio or video - if we did, menacing men would take our equipment (I had put my camera down my pants because otherwise I would've had to have turned it over to theatre staff--in DC they pat-search you  but here they asked on the way in: "Do you have a camera?"  to which I answered "HI!" and they waved me in).

I planned to take some snaps and record the show. But my new show friend, Pete, had some compelling ideas about why Dylan might not want us to be doing that. So I didn't.   So no photos.  I do have a 2 minutes of audio.

Dylan came on around 8:30 -- and was phenomenal. Completely on - great setlist. Started off with Rainy Day Women, to which the crowd pulsed and jumped as one. Went almost straight into Senor(!) which was fascinating, eerie, spellbinding.  An unfolding conversation--with singing. Alternately demanding and beseeching Senor tell him things. "Son, this ain't a dream no more. it's the REAL THING" it walloped the solar plexus. And when he sang "Ready when you are...Senor," it was somber resigned dialogue with the devil or death, something very serious and not undoable.

Reviews of recent shows had said he's not singing at all, and that may have been true for other nights, but not tonight. He was singing. Lots of guitar. Good solos, trading off and blending (not quite weaving but close at times) with Charlie Sexton. His harmonica playing is phenomenal. Has gotten very minimalist, not a wasted note or breath - very beautiful. I was smiling the whole time, and in awe, he was so on. The band couldn't have been tighter. In Ballad of a Thin Man Dylan was looking into the audience, freestyling lyrics, one of which rhyming with Mr Jones was: "And maybe next time you can turn off your cell phones."

Charlie Sexton was a-writhe with rock star moves and preposterously beautiful, but musically fit well with Bob. I preferred the other guitarist tho. There were actually 2 others--one guy looked like he was playing electric banjo at one point--don't know what else it could be; like a miniature straocaster body with 5 strings. That guy also played pedal steel, fiddle, mandolin. And of course Tony, who is phenomenal--he and Dylan are mind melded, playing together for so long.

Back in the small club show in DC Tony was all grins and eye contact - but here, he and everyone, even the preposterously vain CS, kept their eyes focused on Bob at all times; only Bob could look into the audience. The band was hawk-eyed on Dylan's every move. I wish I knew more about what exactly was going on musically, because there were times when Bob was doing stuff on the organ (not electric piano; it was real organ) that was making the multi-instrumentalist in the back crack up--he'd be fiercely watching Dylan and basing his playing on what Dylan was doing, then his face would register "Are you kidding me?!" and Dylan in response would sometimes turn around, cackle toward him, or shrug. I know Dylan's notorious for being in the moment and changing keys etc, but I couldn't hear that from an audience perspective.

Dylan can be such a great performer when he's on--and he was on last night, and also just having a lot of fun--cracking up, smiling, doing weird herky jerky punctuations of lyrics and lines, dancing.

Dylan and I had a good deal of eye contact, which was thrilling because he's creating in the moment, so expressive, spontaneous and, most importantly, completely hilarious. Basically if you're close to the front and are looking at him he'll sing to you on and off. A lot of people just stand at the front and dance and do their thing, which is cool, but I'm pretty much spellbound with what's going on, on stage. We were doing well, with many expressions and shrugs and mugs and eyebrow cocks my way, and then I could stand it no longer. I sneakily snuck out my camera during the encore, and thought I could get one shot--and he saw it. He winced and moved across the stage to the other side. And for the rest of Like a Rolling Stone he wouldn't make eye contact with me.

At the end he went of the concert to the lip of the stage, around 12 feet from us (I'd moved up to 2nd from the stage then), and said thank you to us who were up front. He pointed at me and shook his finger HARD, tilted his head, and gave a wry smile.

The show was really amazing. Intimate, Bob was on fire, the crowd ADORED him! A great night - so grateful to have had the chance to see him under these circs!

SETLIST
San Francisco, California
Warfield Theater
August 25, 2010
source: boblinks

1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (Bob on keyboard then guitar)

2. Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
(Bob center stage on harp, Donnie on lap steel)

3. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (Bob on guitar, Donnie on lap steel)

4. Simple Twist Of Fate (Bob on guitar, Donnie on pedal steel, Stu on acoustic guitar)

5. Rollin' And Tumblin' (Bob on keyboard, Donnie on electric mandolin)

6. Desolation Row
(Bob on keyboard, Donnie on electric mandolin, Stu on acoustic guitar, Tony on standup bass)

7. High Water (For Charley Patton)
(Bob center stage on harp, Donnie on banjo, Tony on standup bass)

8. Man In The Long Black Coat
(Bob center stage on harp, Donnie on lap steel, Stu on acoustic guitar)

9. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
(Bob on keyboard then center stage - no harp, picked up guitar at end but did not play it, Donnie on lap steel, Stu on acoustic guitar)

10. My Wife's Home Town
(Bob on guitar, Donnie on electric mandolin, Tony on standup bass)

11. Highway 61 Revisited (Bob on keyboard, Donnie on lap steel)

12. Ain't Talkin' (Bob on keyboard, Donnie on viola, Stu on acoustic guitar)

13. Thunder On The Mountain
(Bob on keyboard, Donnie on lap steel, Stu on acoustic guitar)

14. Ballad Of A Thin Man (Bob center stage on harp, Donnie on lap steel)

(encore)
15. Jolene (Bob on keyboard, Donnie on lap steel, Tony on standup bass)

16. Like A Rolling Stone (Bob on keyboard, Donnie on pedal steel)

__________________

Afterwords

Show did not sell out. People could have walked in the door at 8:30 and gotten a good seat in this 2200-capacity theatre! There were about, I'd say, 300 empty seats.

So, the people who did make it--as said--were people who could make it downtown in the middle of a Wednesday. So that includes people who took off a half day of work--(1) diehard fans (there were lots of them) and (2) fans who for one reason or another hadn't seen him in a small venue - and knew it would be a special show and (3) spontanteous free spirited people who thought it would be a great lark for a beautiful summer afternoon.

It also includes a large collection of: people with nontraditional work schedules self-employed, artists and musicians, emergency medical people and Coast Guard guys who work 4 days on 4 days off, students, unemployed, disabled people, quasi-homeless people. As well as tourists who happened to be strolling by and decided: what the heck! And people who couldn't ordinarily afford to see a Dylan show. It was a rag-taggy, non-upscale-non-internet/expensivo ticket-buying crowd.

What that meant to me: it was a radically democratic, meritocratic, very interesting, and appreciative audience.

I wish when it was nearing 5:30 the promoters got the word out through twitter and FB and email lists and traditional braodcast and print media that the show was not near sold out. I counted at about 5pm and there were maybe 1500-1700 people in line. If more people knew AHEAD of time they could swing by after work and they might make it in (they could have!) Dylan would have made his numbers.