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On November 4, Bob Dylan performed at the Civic Center in Portland. The opening band was a project of Jack White’s, The Raconteurs. Seeing Jack White was a very pleasant surprise, since I had never heard of the band. Their blues-rock style was an interesting open for Dylan- and not something I expected. Jack greeted the audience, telling us it was his first time being in Portland. They played a great set, and received a thunderous applause at the end of their set.

Around nine o’clock, Bob Dylan and his band walked on stage. The band members were sporting gray suits and gray cowboy hats, and Bob followed them wearing the same in black. He did not address the audience, but immediately began playing on the keyboard one of his newer songs. A few songs into his set, I started to notice a very strong similarity between each song- the bass line, the notes he sang, etc. Soon after that my dad leaned over and told me. It was one of his older songs I knew, and I then realized it sounded absolutely nothing like its original recording. It became a guessing game, and I had to listen very hard to the words that he sang, and then figure out which song it was, since they were practically all the same. Eventually my dad identified a song Dylan was playing as “Tangled Up In Blue” and it was so morphed that we decided we were ready to leave.

Bob’s new country-esque style is well done, and easy to listen to. I did not mind his recognizable sound, and it looked like the mass of people down on the floor were enjoying it a lot. I found this to be an odd phase of his, and one out of many I hadn’t heard of. Bob Dylan is known for his eccentricity when it comes to his performances, and you never know what to expect. His new western style is far from being one of my favorites, but it was certainly interesting.