While still recovering from the revelry of Wednesday’s eclectic and well produced I’m Not There Concert celebrating director Todd Haynes Dylan Biopic of the same name, I sadly realized I lost my notes. I should have probably guessed this was going to be the case as they were scrawled on the flimsy cardboard that my trusty partner in crime Mr. Swanhaus used to carry our beers down to the front row. No matter how much my head still hurts I can easily remember the highlights, of which they were many.
Right from the get go it was clear that this was not going to be one of those typical tribute clusterf&*k shows where chaos reigns and the sound abominable. You know the promoters, Michael Dorf, Jim Dunbar, and Randall Poster knew what they were doing when they kicked off the night with a Calexico BANG. Barely had we sat down, before the one two combo punch of “Goin’ to Acapulco
While the roadies switched out gear, a VERY laid back Health Ledger who plays one of Haynes’ many Dylans (along with Cate Blanchet, Richard Gere, and Christian Bale to name a few others), acted as a quasi emcee. He very kindly withdrew his vocal chords from any unnecessary crooning which is refreshing giving the seemingly endless cadre of actors who now deem themselves omni talented as soon as they learn a couple of chords and how to turn on a microphone. He simply introduced his friend Edward Sharpe (and the Magnetic Zeros) whose report with the crowd hung precipitously between a devil may care confidence and a holy shit-how-the-heck-did-I get on-this-stage sincerity. It didn’t hurt that the kids’ voice is pretty good and his not so subtly nuanced overtures while singing “All I Really Wanna Do” to his doe-eyed, twirling and skipping duet partner was somehow endearing in a Laurel Canyon
I basically skipped Al Kooper and the Funky Faculty and braved the insanity of the backstage area only to run into Ian Ball of Gomez strapped into his gorgeous Gibson acoustic as he deftly dodged a veritable who’s who of music biz impresarios, in fact it seemed like 50% of the crowd was wearing all access laminates, which gave it a genial cocktail party everywhere you looked. As Ball quietly strummed we discussed his top-notch new album which came out at Halloween. If you haven’t heard it, make it a point to track it down. His “Don’t Think Twice Its Alright” came in a close second, right behind Mason Jennings stellar “The Times They Are A-Changin”, for most Dylanesque performance of the night.
Jennings gets a special super trooper responsibility prize for foregoing the after party so he wouldn’t miss his 6:00 am flight to the west coast to make another show. He was an excellent addition to this gig and hopefully his name will keep growing amongst music lovers. If you haven’t seen the surf movie Shelter it’s a great way to be introduced to his crafty stylings.
While Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks and Terry “I swear I am not the spawn of Jerry Lee Lewis” Adams added the night’s comedic respites with their strutting versions of “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Rainy Day Women” respectively, John Doe delivered the plodding “Pressing On” with needed aplomb and tenacity, after giving the night’s only direct shout out to his Bobness by saying, “Dylan’s out there somewhere, probably playing a gig or smoking a joint with Merle Haggard. I’m just glad to know he’s still out there somewhere.”
Thankfully Yo La Tengo brought the punk and funk on “I Wanna Be Your Lover” with the B3 of Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural and the bold and beautiful on “Fourth Time Around” with the inimitable string virtuoso, David Mansfield, a member of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue on mandolin, As I said when the hits keep coming they keep coming. It was great to see the normally subdued YLT crew playing with childlike abandon as they book-ended the tempo spectrum. Their obvious enjoyment was truly infectious.
However the real fever came a calling when Mansfield Kentucky Mansfield
“fantastic, fantastic time but playing on ‘Tonight I’ll be Staying Here with You’ with those guys took the prize by far.”
It was like listening to Dylan with The Band in all it’s country infused Big Pink-ness, but with a just a smidgen of Slayer thrown in for good measure.
As a welcome breather and a surprise addition, Tift Merritt came strutting out in all her sweet “badassness”, boots and all and tackled “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” along side Joe Henry. If you don’t know by now, that girl can flat out sing, as in blow the dust off the rafters sing.
Lee Ranaldo and the Million Dollar Bashers, basically an all-star house-band played the rare “Can’t Leave Her Behind”, Which was great and a cool tune, but perhaps the only sonic complaint from the whole night was that J Masicis’ solo (as I said it was an ALL-STAR band) was absolutely ripping good, but either he forgot to turn up the volume knob or someone at the soundboard was out getting more $8 dollar nachos. I mean if your ears aren’t bleeding after a Mascis solo is it really a Mascis solo. Ponder.
Now ending the night with the Roots playing their Star Spangled Banner meet Zeppelin version of Masters of War is a no-brainer. When, I had the pleasure of being on stage for this same cover at Bonnaroo this summer I wrote, “with ?uest’s drums sounding like bursting cannons and Captain Kirk firing his guitar leads like sonic strafing, the anthemic posturing seemed politically apt. This night was no different as almost every artist stared from the wings with slack jawed awe. Everywhere you turned people were playing some sort of air instrument… Heath Ledger, check, Bruce Greenwood, check, Ira Kaplan, check. I even think I saw Terry Adams playing a mean air tuba.
The “All Along the Watchtower” encore with everyone on stage was of course a gorgeous mess but it kept with the overall celebratory vibe of the event.
The after party at the Royalton was typically aloof and uber-sch-wanky which didn’t really seem right for this cast of musical misfits. Even super hip John Doe who was clad in an silk orange suit seemed out of place amongst the waxen, too cool for school model boys, nonchalantly posing by the fire and the “I had a Evian for lunch” hostess wearing a bedazzled gym sock looming about the VH1 cameras. Not surprisingly MMJ and Tift Merritt made their own after-after party (don’t you love NYC) at a tiny Irish pub with a great Jukebox. So great that the last two three things I remember were:
a) Asking Merritt if she liked Prince and nearly squirting her in the eye with my lime.
b) Getting ridiculed for my love of all things J. Geils , and my cheesy/cool vest by several associates.
c) Singing the background “Aahh Ahhh Ahhh” of Lionel Richie’s “Easy” with ATO’s Chris Sampson while Jim James sang a note perfect lead, nailing every inflection with conviction and sincerity, including the guitar and horn parts. Now that’s what I call talent. He even agreed that Faith No More’s cover is actually superior to the Commodores version. Two-Tone Tommy had no comment but I swear I caught him nodding approvingly.
Sometime shortly thereafter I lost my notes and my internal monologue. Witnesses say I was still singing my part as I was unceremoniously stuffed into a cab and ushered to the airport for my flight home.
Did I mention I forgot my camera as well? To see some killer photos checkout the more prepared post by Stereogum.
Amazing night. Worth clicking through the Stereogum link at the end for the MMJ, "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You."
Posted by: Trent | November 13, 2007 at 04:03 PM