Review by Vanessa Monaghan
Jakob Dylan at Crawdaddy 27/07/2010
A change of venue and keeping them waiting, didn’t put the audience off at Jakob Dylan in Crawdaddy, instead it seemed to build the anticipation for the ex-Wallflowers front man.
Shay Cotter opened for Dylan with his brand of finger picking good acoustic sounds. He comes across as much more than a singer songwriter, his songs are catchy, with lyrical hooks that are easy to remember. Plus, he’s really funny! His between song banter means he quickly develops a rapport with the audience. His speed guitar playing antics has the audience in the the palm of his hand before he leaves the stage. Pity his set wasn’t longer.
There was a long gap between Cotter leaving the stage and Dylan’s 9.20 start. Dylan along with his band though, get a rapturous welcome. He starts his set with the laid ‘Nothing But The Whole Wide World’ from his latest album ‘Women And Country’. Tracks from the album, take centre stage as the band also play “Everybody’s Hurting’, slightly more uptempo and more melodic than its predecessor. It takes about fifteen minutes for the house sound to settle down though, once it does the full impact of the band is heard.
Dylan spends time chatting to the band in between tracks, perhaps he’s not working from a setlist. He does the obligatory thank yous and then asks a front of stage audience member if he’s taking a photograph, there’s no flash photography allowed. To the fans relief, Dylan’s says that its OK , that you can see him online so when he’s here in the flesh, don’t spend the night looking through the lens. Dylan gets a good audience response for this.
There’s no denying that the Jakob looks like his Dad, Bob and his voice isn’t that dissimilar. He has an amazing backing band with him on tour, double bass drums, lap steel, a lead guitarist that doubles up with mandolin and two amazing backing singers, Nora O’Connor and Kelly Hogan. Dylan takes this opportunity to say the girls are part Irish and its great to be playing the ‘Homeland’ but cornily saying ‘We don’t live here anymore’ before the song of the same name.
Truth is Dylan’s voice would be lost with the vocal harmonies. Hogan who also appears on the record ‘Women and Country’, not only has a fantastic voice and leads the harmonies to compliment Dylan but also seems to be the onstage band leader. She could quiet easily overtake Dylan as the main focus onstage but subtly returns to her backing vocalist position.
Best reaction so far goes a reworked version of The Wallflowers hit ‘Three Marlenas’. The country vibed version gets a guitar solo and a lapsteel solo. Hogan also takes the song to another level by making one of the verses her own. Dylan gives the crowd a little more of what they want and plays ‘One Headlight’ this time giving Nora O’Connor a verse and her chance to shine.
Just for good measure Dylan also plays a couple of tracks from ‘Seeing Things’, the more uptempo ‘Evil is Alive and Well’ and ‘Up on the Mountain’ suit the country evening perfectly. Dylan then returned to his Wallflowers days for ‘6th Avenue Heartache’ for which the audience wildly show their appreciation.
After a brief encore, the band return to the stage to play a brand new song. The refrain ‘Down in a hole and you gotta stop digging’ gets the crowd singing and moving to the music. Dylan seems to be a very calculated character on stage, saying exactly what the audience wants to hear but also seeming like he’s very laid back. In between songs during the encore a voice shouts, ‘I Love you Kelly’, this leads Dylan to show a more human side by eventually retorting ‘Not as much as I do’.
The touring band are fantastic musicians and during the last song of the night ‘They’ve trapped us boys’, each are allowed their time to shine. The guitar solo though slightly overpowers everything else which is a pity. The gig ends with the audience clapping along to the country sounds.
Good gig, really nice ambience, the venue was full and everybody loved it. The versatility and contributions from the backing vocalists and other musicians made it more of a band performance, it wasn’t all about Jakob Dylan.