Stabbone and McGraw: Willie Nelson

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Set List, The Bob Dylan Show, July 10th, 2009

Last night Alex, suegra and I hopped in the McBonemobile and raced over at warp speed to Fifth Third Field in Dayton, Ohio. The Bob Dylan Show featured another pair of legends, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cougar, and the venue was the cozy home of Class A ballclub, the Dayton Dragons (currently languishing at 6-9 in the Midwest League). While we love Willie Nelson (and are 100% indifferent to Mellencamp), Bob was the reason we made the three-hour drive. Full of hotdogs and beer and piss and vinegar, we found a good spot and parked ourselves on the outfield grass. Here's the set list from his completely awesome performance:

Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
Lay Lady Lay
Lonesome Day Blues
Love Sick
The Levee's Gonna Break
Beyond the Horizon
Honest with Me
Make You Feel My Love
Highway 61 Revisited
If You Ever Go to Houston
Summer Days
Like a Rolling Stone*
Jolene
All Along the Watchtower

This marks, by my calculations, the 9th time I've seen Dylan in concert. How does this one rank? Pretty near the middle, I'd say. I'm not sure he'll ever surpass a certain night in Columbus in 1996, when he redefined the meaning of transcendence, but this was really, really, really good. Mostly he stuck to his post 1999 output, a pretty even mix of songs from the last four albums with a few classics thrown in for good measure. The band, a bit loose at the beginning, was in top form by the time they cranked out Lonesome Day Blues. From there it was a rollicking good time. Great crowd, great band, and the ultimate musical genius pounding the keyboard and blowing harp. Why, he even picked up his guitar for a couple of numbers.

*Like a Rolling Stone--it's the song that made me fall in love with Bob Dylan. Has it become a cliche? I would say yes, if Bob didn't refuse to let it become cliche by constantly finding new ways to deliver it to us. Honestly, I don't think I've ever heard a better performance of the song, and several other equally stunned people around us were making similar comments.

Official McBone Rating: 4.0 McBones.

The evening also provided an unexpected delight from Alex's Dayton years--an encounter with old friends Fran and Ralph.

nwb

The Legend of Stabbone and McGraw

In 1967 the world's most powerful criminal super-genius, Stabbone, stole ten trillion dollars worth of gold boullion. Police, baffled as to the whereabouts of Stabbone's purported impenetrable underground lair, called on top investigator Rock McGraw to crack the case. Working tirelessly day after day, McGraw eventually tracked Stabbone to an abandoned latex mask factory. While McGraw radioed the boys for backup, Stabbone made his daring escape. In the chaos that ensued, both disappeared. Thirty years later, the case of Stabbone and McGraw remains a mystery, though some say that McGraw remains undercover, in relentless pursuit of his evil arch-nemesis.