Not only a career-best touring year from Bob Dylan, but a collaboration with Elvis Costello to round out the show. Live at Tramps is one of those magic moments, the type of show that dedicated listeners will know happens more than it should. It’s not every day Dylan pulls out a rarity or cover, but it’s rarer still for him to bring out special guests. During the post-Time Out of Mind days, though, Dylan would bring out the music veterans he had influenced. Costello is just one of a number, with Patti Smith and Stevie Nicks also featuring on-stage with Dylan. All that to say, these guest appearances are chances for a creative mind to sing with their influence. Live at Tramps has an hour and a half of great music before that Costello collaboration, and it’s one of the better live bootlegs around when it comes to sound quality. Clarity is everything, and Live at Tramps has that.Â
Dylan had found a comfortable routine for these performances. Particularly this tour, where most shows opened with a cover and then broke into a selection of all-time greats (of which there are too many to choose from), worked well. Oh Babe, It Ain’t No Lie is a nice start because, as is the case for other shows on this tour, it acts as a chance to get a feel for the audience. Figuring out what they want from the show, how they may respond to the instrumentals, it gives Dylan and the band a read on what to expect from the show and they can, from there, format the instrumental style given to these songs. It can only change so far, of course, given these are acoustic-led renditions, but all the same it’s a cornerstone of the performance and helps Dylan figure out what tone he wants to bring about. No show is the same despite the same instruments, and often the same core songs. Â
Songs like Not Fade Away and It Ain’t Me, Babe were relatively constant on this tour and feature in the encore of the show. Before that, though, are the likes of Boots of Spanish Leather, Ballad of a Thin Man, and Tombstone Blues. Some all-time greats which are both memorable classics but also avoid the more obvious selections of Mr. Tambourine Man and Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right. Dylan is one of the few artists who could play a nineteen-song set, as he does here, and leave listeners disappointed because he missed this hit or that moment. It’s the experience in of itself, of hearing Costello join for a performance of underrated gem I Shall Be Released, that matters most of all.
It’s not just Costello who brings out the best in this I Shall Be Released performance, though. Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell share the brilliance of guitar with Costello to create a rich and layered sound while Tony Garnier and David Kemper on bass and drums keep the flow of the song steady. Costello is a natural fit for Dylan’s work and had worked with heavy-hitting names like Paul McCartney and The Pogues in the past. He and Dylan’s version of I Shall Be Released must have been a relaxed experience with a legend compared to how much tooth-pulling pain was present in the studio for the Pump It Up hitmaker through the 1980s. Beyond that is some beautiful guitar playing throughout what proved to be one of Dylan’s more intimate gigs at the time. A thousand capacity venue hosting some of the greatest songs around, from a performer at the top of his game.
