mission freak!

Bob Dylan & Elvis Costello at Carver Hawkeye Arena - 10.24.07

First off, props to the University of Iowa’s Scope Productions for showing us what Carver Arena really is: the perfect (and surprisingly intimate) venue for larger bands to play when passing through Iowa City. The sound was great and the view of the stage seemed to be solid from every angle.

Costello, full of energy and good vibes, ripped through a quick set of songs on acoustic guitar. His voice is still top-notch, hitting its peak with “Veronica”, which perhaps trumped his mainstay classic, “Alison”.

Dylan opened with “Rain Day Women #12 and 35″ and raucous crowd noise ensued. His set relied heavily on material from last year’s Modern Times and the classic Highway 61 Revisited (1965), however the most striking moment was the band’s rave-up rendition of “Tangled Up In Blue”, which came off with an early 70’s Grateful Dead sensibility. The newer, blues-heavy material was mostly pleasant if innocuous at times; but Dylan’s voice was so clear that you could pick up on new and revised lyrics as he went along. At any rate, “Workingman’s Blues #2″ from Modern Times was sublime, perhaps one of his best late-career songs. He closed with “Masters of War” (!!!) and people just about fell out of their seats. The two song encore featured an invigorating “Thunder On the Mountain” and the inevitable “Like a Rolling Stone”. The verdict? A really great show. With all this indie-rock living all over me it’s great to see the dinosaurs from time to time. Please Scope, more shows like this at Carver.