Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Amos LeeU.S. Cellular Coliseum
Bloomington Illinois
October 20th, 2007
As you read yesterday and I have explained several times... I am an idiot. Do to my genius I was in possession of two tickets to see this show in Bloomington. There were only three problems with that:
1. The tickets cost 180 bucks each;
2. Bloomington is 160 Miles from downtown St. Louis
3. I also have expensive tickets to see the same show at the Fox on october 22.
Those are three fairly large problems. I have the tickets, I did not get my act together to sell them on line (because i do not know how and because I no longer have an associate working for me (JD Luhning) to whom I can assign the task. The cost of the tickets is of course a sunk cost. I need to decide whether I want to drive 2 1/2 hours and sit through a show I will see 48 hours later. Not being too bright I decided to do so.
The drive north to Bloomington (Illinois, not Indiana) is a painful one up 55 a little over 1/2 way to Chicago. It is flat and windy and has high spots like Benld (look it up) and Funks Grove (not China Grove). I left town at 4 and was comfortably in my 10th row seat to see Amos Lee. Amos Lee had a competent bad and was unremarkable. He will not be having a major recording career despite this show case. Do not worry about him. he came on at 7 and was off at 7:35. A little about the venue. U.S. Cellular Coliseum is about like the Family Arena in St. Charles. Wikipida says:
“U.S. Cellular Coliseum is an arena in downtown Bloomington, Illinois that opened to the public on April 1, 2006. It is on the southwest corner of Madison Street (US-51) and Front Street. It hosts the Bloomington Extreme indoor football team of United Indoor Football and the Bloomington Prairie Thunder of the International Hockey League. The arena's seating capacity is approximately 7,000 for hockey and indoor football games.
Mayor Judy Markowitz, who had championed the project, cast the deciding vote when the City Council was deadlocked at 4-4 on a resolution to initiate its construction.[1] Following the Council vote, a non-binding referendum asking if public funds should be used to build the arena failed by 2/3 of the vote.[2] Even so, the arena was still built.
Currently, the City of Bloomington is searching for ways to fill the budget deficit it faces, due to the facility's operating losses projected to top $1.6 million for this calendar year. Proposals include scaling back public infrastructure repair projects and eliminating staff in order to avoid a tax raise.” Well put.
The Place is a dump. But I am in the 10th row wand am seated in a reasonably padded folding chair. At 7:55 the lights dim and Elvis Costello walks out with an acoustic guitar. He is nattily dressed in a suit and looks a little chunky. He also is kind of charming in his ineffable British way and he kicks off with “Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes”, “Radio Sweetheart” and “Alison” and... well... he just sounds great. No band and only an average guitarist (that might be generous) he just relies on that voice that no one gives him enough credit for. he rattles off Alison and leads some sing alongs. Announces it is his dad’s birthday but there is no place he would rather be and then goes into a several song anti war rant. It was some good stuff and capped with “Whats So Funny About Peace love and Understanding?” Indeed.Since he is not a great guitar player he had a large effects array peddled before him and sometimes the volume of the guitar slightly overwhelmed his always strong voice.We have another break and I try...ineffectively to go to the bathroom. There are approximately twice as many girls rooms as boys rooms. I am treated to the rare sight of no lines in the ladies rooms and thirty men lines up outside the door of the mens room. Did I mention that the place was a dump. I went back to my seat with a full beer and a full bladder. Seeing Dylan is problematic and not always pleasing. he is not a young man and he is at best an eclectic artist. he has toured relentlessly over the last ten years and put out 7 albums during that time and two of them were pretty good. But the shows are not problematic because of the material but just because of his voice. But still... it is Bob freaking Dylan. he came out dressed in his typical cowboy hat which is circa Rolling Thunder Review” from 72 or so. He started with his guitar and ripped through a couple including “Tangled Up In Blue” which were just...to my ears. Awful. he was raspy and seemed to be belching the words out in a machine gun pace to keep up with the song and it is one of my favorites and I just thought... maybe he should not sing pretty songs anymore.
But...as an idiot I am often wrong and this was one of those case. He left center stage and went behind his organ for Tangled and never cam back out and as it went on...he got better and better and stronger and stronger. Really good stuff. Ripping through older songs as well as newer stuff. The set list was very diverse and from looking at earlier reviews he is not holding onto a solid set list. His band was incredibly tight. My only complaint was that they really went to the bar blues of “Modern Times” as much as anything and although it swung nicely... if I never heard a blues riff again my life would be none the poorer. Still....”Highway 61 as a blues rant with a real hot blues guitarist is a treat and Dylan’s voice hit every note hard. The band was tight and his lead guitar Denny Freeman is just awesome to watch and hear. For more on him take a look at Brad Bucholz blog:
http://bobdylantour2007.blogspot.com/2007_09_21_archive.html
Dylan’s ability to find great guitarists to take out on the road with him whether it was the singer songwriter Robbie Robertson and the band or the brilliant T-Bone Burnette he has a knack. Dylan’s two hour set coincided nicely with Costello’s anti war rant and he finished predictably with a nice version of “Masters of War” The Bloomington crowd was able to find their way out of the place... and tired and a little sleepy.... I took a long drive home and anticipated Monday night at the Fox.
http://stldinerreview.blogspot.com/
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