Attention: Spoiler Alerts
Bob Dylan’s “Shadow Kingdom” streaming event debuted today (7/18/21) and as great as the music and vocals sounded, the performance keeps Dylan’s status as an enigma intact and leaves many questions unanswered.
First off, this was not your typical live-streamed concert, but a pre-recorded, film noir presentation of Dylan in a supper-club atmosphere of the late 50s/early 60s (The Bon Bon Club in Marseille, according to the credits). There was no live audience per se, but actors portraying the integrated club-goers seem disinterested at first, more concerned about smoking and drinking than the music, but become livelier as the show nears its conclusion.
Subtitled “The Early Music of Bob Dylan,” the setlist bore that out, except for the Oh Mercy track “What Was it You Wanted.” Does this mean there will be a Volume 2 of the later music?
Opening with “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” Dylan was onstage with his band, sans drums, presenting his music to well-dressed patrons of the smoky club. I can’t imagine Dylan actually being in amongst all the smoke, so there must have been some type of film trickery.
The staging reminded me a lot of the album cover for Rough and Rowdy Ways, his remarkable 2020 album that emerged just as the pandemic exploded, but not surprisingly nothing from that album was actually played.
The show segued from one song to the next, although there was an annoying title card announcing each song name as it began. Since I like to be surprised and pick up the vibe of the band as they move from song to song, I found myself closing my eyes so I could work my way into the next tune myself, instead of being blasted with the title.
Each Dylan tour seems to have its own unique feel, and this show was no different. In many ways it reminded me of the “Sinatra Years” sound, but with a small folk-blues combo instead of a Big Band, but Dylan performing the material in a crooning voice.
This is where this show was revelatory; his voice has not sounded this good in a live setting for a long time. His last performance was in December 2019, with the pandemic keeping him from the road since then, which seems to have provided much-needed rest for his vocal chords. Mostly Dylan was either standing and singing, or seated, but he did occasionally strum an acoustic and played some harmonica.
Often in Dylan shows you can’t always understand the words, but in this setting, every word was clear and pronounced. It would be great to see a show like this in a small, intimate theater. Is that what is on the horizon? We won’t know until that day comes, but for now “Shadow Kingdom” is another worthy entry into the Dylan lexicon.
Shadow Kingdom is available on veeps.com, and will be until the latter part of July. Technically I had no issues with the platform, and I used a laptop plugged into an HDMI port on my surround sound video system, which made it sound rich and vivid.,