Dylan Amazes at Borgata
Last Saturday (Aug. 16), for the fourth time in five years, Bob Dylan made a tour stop at the Borgata Casino Hotel & Spa in Atlantic City.
To a packed Event Center crowd, Dylan and his band played 16 songs, many of which the 67-year-old performer hadn't pulled out of his song bag for a while. Highlights of the concert included rarely (and beautifully) played tunes like "Visions of Johanna," "Mississippi" and a mournful "Lenny Bruce."
The banjo-driven "Ballad of Hollis Brown," with its sorrowful tale of economic gloom — ("You prayed to the Lord above / Oh please send you a friend / You prayed to the Lord above /Oh please send you a friend / Your empty pockets tell yuh /That you ain't a-got no friend") — and Dylan's surprising and poignant take on 1997's "To Make You Feel My Love" were gifts to an audience that hung on every line and whose bodies shook with every beat. Dylan was on at the Borgata — on like he is during very special performances and this was surely one. Dylan's current road band is subdued, yet it sounds great behind him. The players are masters of their instruments and are a tight-knit outfit, which allows Dylan to take his songs wherever he wants them to go.
Other Dylan Notes: A few nights before the A.C. gig, Bruce Springsteen was spotted at Dylan's show up in Asbury Park (Aug. 13).
If you visit www.bobdylan.com you can download a free and previously unreleased song ("Dreamin' of You") from Dylan's upcoming Bootleg Series Vol. 8 release Tell Tale Signs, which is due out in October. Hopefully, we'll see Dylan back in these parts next spring or summer. Also on the official Dylan site you'll find a news item about Dylan's top-notch show in Atlantic City and at the Foxwoods casino up in Connecticut the night before.