Bob Dylan – 9:30 Club Review

Three years after the release of Love and Theft, Bob Dylan found himself with no real notion of new music. Modern Times was not far off, but as far as the live spectacle that comes with the veteran songwriter’s ongoing tour, little had changed. A voiceover introduction that opens the show, moulding Dylan as that ever-mentioned voice of a generation turned burnout but back to a reformed master of the stage, is the kicker for 9:30 Club. An everyday show from Dylan, sure, but there is magic to be heard within the bootleg here. A performance from Dylan where he plays a collection of all-time greats is not out of the ordinary. But this performance from Washington D.C., 2004, is special. Not just because it’s where Dylan decides to revive If Dogs Run Free, but because the instrumental tone, that spirited stage style, is changing once more.  

After major success between Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft, Dylan decided to play around with his style. Slowly but surely, he drifted into what is now his on-stage instrumental choice. There’s much in the way of guitar solos and thrilling percussion here, but it begins to soften. Compare it to the rocked-out style of the 1980s or the 1990s period where Dylan was feeding in his classics but, occasionally, stripping them back in that nostalgic gaze sort of way, and you get the feeling a new tone was needed. That’s what 9:30 Club brings. It becomes clear almost immediately with a performance of Drifter’s Escape. A harmonica rounding out the song with a floaty, country style, which had evaded Dylan in previous years because of his rock and roll flourish. Performing Hazel straight after gives that new instrumental spirit a better spread. A chance to hear that Planet Waves deep cut is a real treat, but Dylan’s vocal range here is the key. Delicate but a bit rugged too, a chance to hear a song he created with The Band right before a heavy collection of hits.  

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum always felt like more of a transition track than a focus point, and the same goes for this performance. Breaking up the rarity of Hazel and the hits run of Just Like a Woman, It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding), Positively 4th Street, Highway 61 Revisited, and Love Sick, is necessary. On the other end of that incredible run, instrumentally brilliant with that swaying, lighter touch, is another rarity. If Dogs Run Free serves a similar purpose to Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum. The latter track has a moodiness to it which keeps it flowing well enough, but the New Morning lift is such a shock to the system that it gives the show’s first half a full-circle moment. It’s the same surprise you may feel when hearing a cover from Dylan, or a turn of phrase in a fan favourite, as is the case for a few moments on the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour.  

Take a look at the end of the show, too. Like a Rolling Stone and All Along the Watchtower were inevitable additions for these early 2000s shows, though they would soon find themselves shuffled out of place. What precedes it is far more interesting than those well-played classics. Not Dark Yet, Summer Days, and Cat’s in the Well all appeared fairly often post-Time Out of Mind and pre-Modern Times. They fit well, too, like some forgotten shirt that Dylan just happens to remind his audience of occasionally. Delicacy is what his voice has in moments here, a far stretch of difference from the easy rock and vocal thrills of the 1995 to 2003 glory days. It’s not better or worse for 9:30 Club, just welcomingly different. Dylan sounds, at times, as though he’s trying to trap the original meaning of the song, and accepts it’s just out of reach all the same. Just Like a Woman is gut-wrenching in that regard, and so too is It Ain’t Me, Babe. Not because of nostalgia, but the opposite. Dylan moves the songs along with such emotional clarity.