Neil Young & Bob Dylan in Hyde Park 2019

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by arthurprecarious, Nov 27, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. DTK

    DTK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    I'd love to see Bob in a club. Seen him in an arena and a big outdoor concert and neither was a good experience.
     
    RoyalPineapple likes this.
  2. GubGub

    GubGub Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sussex
    Really interesting to read these reviews. They sum up in part why I did not go. I am a lifelong Dylan fan, almost an obsessive I guess. I have seen a lot of shows, starting in 1981 (yeah, I am a little too young to have caught the more legendary tours). Many of them were wonderful. Some were terrible. It has always been a lottery with Bob. I have embraced his late period voice, on record at least and will defend Christmas In The Heart to my dying day but my last live show was a little over a decade ago. I can't adjust to him not playing guitar and his vocalising was twisted beyond all recognition. It was sort of fascinating but not to my taste. I decided then to live with the memory of the great shows I had seen rather than dilute it by going to further shows that might disappoint me.

    Also a huge Neil fan by the way and have seen him too a number of times. His previous show at Hyde Park is one of the greatest of my life but I was less happy with the O2 show with Crazy Horse a few years back so all things considered I gave it a miss but I am living vicariously through everyone's descriptions.
     
    majorlance, Lemon Curry and bobcat like this.
  3. Artery1

    Artery1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Coventry UK
    I wasn't there but just watched the 3 videos above and all 3 songs were very good performances by 2019 Bob Dylan. His voice is shot now but he has found a way of dealing with that. There were several interactions with the audience in these 3 songs: he bows to the audience at the end of North Country and does a little flourish after he nails the word "weather" in Can't Wait. Of course these subtleties will have been harder to spot at the back of a huge field. Thanks for posting those vids.
     
    DaveJ, enro99, jumpinjulian and 2 others like this.
  4. OberonOz

    OberonOz Senior Member

    Barely recognisable as LARS. The band sound like they're playing "Islands in the Stream"
     
    The MEZ, bobcat and Brian Doherty like this.
  5. edgwareman

    edgwareman Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    I was at Hyde Park yesterday. Neil was brilliant, a performance full of energy and his voice hasn’t changed over the years really and his performance was really suited to a ‘festival’ type of audience, i.e. playing well known and instantly recognisable songs for the fans and a few hits for everybody else. Bob on the other hand played a set more suited to an indoor smaller venue, and played some hits in arrangements that made it difficult to recognise, so ok for diehards but difficult for the rest. Actually I recognised the songs not by their tune (their wasn’t one really) but by the words. My friend even said to me ‘isn’t that Blowing in the Wind?’, I said ‘give me a minute whilst I check the words’. I really couldn’t tell. I think Bob should have come on before Neil, that would have worked better IMO.
     
  6. OberonOz

    OberonOz Senior Member

    The last I saw Bob was exactly like that. I thought the band were excellent and as Im not a huge Bob fan I struggled recognising the set list sometimes (I know the greatest hits very well, I have a bunch of the albums, but wouldn't maybe recognise a lot of rarities). I would be standing there thinking "wow.. this sounds really familiar but I have no idea what it is" until finally Bob would intone "like a rolling... stooooone" and Id have a light bulb moment! Bob was also being painful in that there were video screens at the festival. One big portrait screen either side of the stage. Bob wouldn't let them be used, finally allowed them to have one camera to project landscape on the screens. Totally useless as there were no closeups or anything allowed and it made him appear about exactly the same size as you could see him from a distance anyway.
    Grace Jones came on after Bob. She blew him away! That was and will be my last Bob show. I don't need to pay good money to see the show he gives these days.
     
    The MEZ and bobcat like this.
  7. wabrit

    wabrit from gardens where we feel secure

    Location:
    UK
    I loved Neil's performance, save for his abandonment of "Roll another number" in the encore for the inferior "Piece of crap". Dylan did his Dylan thing, and we all played "guess which famous song this actually is" to our amusement. Both bands were good, and the sound (near Delay 5) seemed fine. Neil played to the audience and the moment, Dylan played how he felt like playing, but only one of them "connected" for me.
     
    DaveJ and bobcat like this.
  8. Syscrusher

    Syscrusher Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    True but I can't imagine a lot of casual concert goers searching out live Bob on YT. Do people even do that before concerts? I'm sure they must but that's when I avoid it, I hate spoilers. :)

    Bob should probably not be booked into large outdoor venues. I imagine I will be passing on all future Bob shows unless he finally plays Massey Hall or I can get tickets real close. Not that I don't appreciate his performances, it's just at the venues he plays you CAN'T appreciate his performances. Bob has been fully entrenched in the 'adult contemporary' for many years now while Neil is still as 'rock n roll' as he's ever been. As songwriters they pair well together but not so much as performers.
     
    enro99, The MEZ and DTK like this.
  9. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Ridiculous that Neil didn't go on last.
     
    enfield likes this.
  10. Dave Gilmour's Cat

    Dave Gilmour's Cat Forum Resident

    This is a much stronger vocal than anything Bob sang when I last saw him a couple of years ago:

     
    enro99 likes this.
  11. Brian Doherty

    Brian Doherty Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA
    islands in the stream, and at times just "Whatever we can make up in the moment, what the heck is going on, what song is he singing?" it's a weird performance, and i'm pretty used to modern-era bob. I mean, they MUST have rehearsed this arrangement out, but it really sounds like he threw them a loop and they are just trying to make something up on the fly.
     
    bobcat and NunoBento like this.
  12. NunoBento

    NunoBento Rock 'n' Roll Star

    Location:
    London
    I was at that Neil show at the o2 and was likewise unimpressed. Yesterday was a completely different story. The ticket was fully justified by Neil's performance alone.
     
    bobcat likes this.
  13. Deek57

    Deek57 Forum Resident

    I had a similar feeling at Knebworth in 1978 when The Tubes went on after Frank Zappa, definitely should have been the other way around.
     
    Syscrusher likes this.
  14. RoyalPineapple

    RoyalPineapple It ain't me in the photo, babe.

    Location:
    England
    Neil considered his 2013 London show to be one of the weakest of the tour. I got the inpression the band couldn't hear each other particularly well. My opinion of it was somewhat higher, but it was a full-on "Godfather Of Grunge" performance.
     
    bobcat and Graham like this.
  15. Graham

    Graham Senior Member

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
    I’d been meaning to catch Dylan live for years but was always put off by the high ticket prices and chances of a bad performance. So yesterday was perfect - get to see Neil again (not to mention Cat Power and Laura Marling) and get Dylan for free.

    And it was interesting. Neil was great, although the sound was muddy. Dylan’s band was super tight but it took me ages to recognise most songs. I enjoyed it but the video screens only showed Bob in medium shot so I had no concept of the rest of the band at all. Apart from the guy next to him who appeared to be watching Dylan’s hands the whole time, like an understudy.

    One last comment - having the front two areas reserved for (much) higher ticket prices stinks. It wasn’t that way in 2014 but that’s what happens when corporations are involved. Really lousy.

    All in all though, a great day.
     
  16. JudasPriest

    JudasPriest Forum Resident

    Bob sounds in terrific voice from the clips I've seen.
     
    Dan33185, Pussycat and mark ab like this.
  17. nikosvault

    nikosvault Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denmark
    Saw him at Roskilde last week.

    [​IMG]
     
  18. Graham

    Graham Senior Member

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
    Some songs he sang relatively clearly (such as Like A Rolling Stone). Others he appeared to be deliberately singing as obtusely as possible. All fun though - and he smiled a few times like he was enjoying himself.
     
  19. bobcat

    bobcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    I was there and I totally agree: it struck me how many people were drunk. It was horribly boozy.

    That and the fact that the sound is very bad there is why I passed on this one.
     
    FourWalledWorld likes this.
  20. bobcat

    bobcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    How was Seinfeld?

    I have tickets (very expensive!) for him tonight at 21:30
     
    NunoBento likes this.
  21. 3coloursbeige

    3coloursbeige Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Not a lot to add to the discussion: Neil was ace, a Ragged Glory-heavy set is absolutely fine by me. As for Bob, well, I'm not a huge fan so was only really watching out of curiosity...I thought there were flickers of it coming together...but large swathes where it came across as a incoherent croaking...
     
    NunoBento likes this.
  22. bobcat

    bobcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Wembley Arena '87?

    They were sensational!
     
    The MEZ likes this.
  23. bobcat

    bobcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Yes but when he plays them nowadays can you actually tell what songs they are?
     
    majorlance likes this.
  24. bobcat

    bobcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Yes, the O2 show I saw was very disappointing, although, it must be said that the venue really doesn't help.
     
  25. onlyconnect

    onlyconnect The prose and the passion

    Location:
    Winchester, UK
    One of the things Dylan fans have always had to accept is that a certain proportion of other music fans don’t like the sound of his voice. Today’s situation is similar except there is now another group who say they used to like it in 60s 70s or 80s but not now. It’s just one of those things. There is no absolute answer; some of us hear music, some of us hear noise and that is how it is. The important thing to understand is that different people have different perceptions.

    It is for sure a voice that is shot from years of touring but he remains uniquely expressive for those of us that can still enjoy it.

    Tim
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine