Dylan and Elvis, live and in person!

Sam and I took in an Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan concert this Friday, up in Manchester, New Hampshire. Good stuff. My friend, Ted, asked me to tell him how it went so I wrote him this . . . thought I'd post it to the blog, too, rather than re-write it.

Costello took the stage first (after Amos Lee, who's alright) and began his one-man show with a high-energy rendition of "Radio, Radio." He had his acoustic guitar tuned so the bass strings sounded more like an electric guitar, making it sound like two guitarists were playing. Pretty cool effects with that. At points Elvis got a little political, getting a rise out of the audience when he took jabs at the war and made fun of the robots on the campaign trail (a subject particularly appealing to those living in NH).

Dylan's set was pretty good, had some arrangements that I hadn't heard before which was refreshing. Sam made the comment that he hasn't changed the arrangement on any songs from "Modern Times" because he hasn't gotten bored with them yet. I thought that must be close to the mark, because his 60's songs were arranged so differently from the originals (and the more recent arrangements that I'd heard before) that I couldn't tell which song it was until he sang the first verse--songs like "Positively 4th Street" and, surprisingly, "Lay, Lady, Lay." "Pos. 4th St." was just awesome, where he slowed down the song and stretched out the second-to-last word of every-other line, making it sound more like words of advice, like a love song--far from the usual arsenic-laced and sharp-tongued wit of the original. Really, he stuck to songs from the 60's and his last two albums, so it was almost a "greatest hits" concert.

Sadly, Dylan and Elvis didn't take the stage together. I was left with a "what the fuck?" feeling after they turned on the house lights. Sam thought they'd come on and do "Working Mans' Blues" after Costello's political subjects. I thought maybe "Political World" would be even more appropriate. Well worth the hour drive and the ticket price, though, as I had a great time with Costello's set (first time I've seen him in concert) and Dylan, well, unless he came on stage and puked, he couldn't disappoint me.