Bob Dylan to bring ‘magic’ to Eisenhower Auditorium for first State College show in a decade
Bob Dylan’s semi-never-ending tour is making a stop at Penn State on Friday, where Dylan will bring his characteristic elusiveness, mystique, and, yes, momentum to Eisenhower Auditorium.
The last time Dylan played in State College was Nov. 10, 2010 at the Bryce Jordan Center. I remember that show and the buildup to it, which was a well-entrenched ebb and flow of anticipation revolving around Dylan’s undeniable impact on popular forms of music, his mythic and often seemingly self-sabotaging reclusive nature, and his perpetually deteriorating physical skills. That includes the timbre of his voice and more recently his supposed arthritic hands, which some theorize are why he doesn’t play the guitar any more.
As local musician Jeremy Frank is prone to saying, Dylan is an anomaly wrapped up in a mystery. What other entertainer works so hard to avoid promoting himself and yet is so successful? What other singer could get away with sometimes laboriously gasping through his or her own Nobel-Prize winning lyrics — an award he did not fly to Sweden to accept in person — while still conveying new essences of the songs in some kind of mystical phenomenological wonderment?
It’s Dylan’s ability to age in a way that makes him more awesome that is so astounding. While on stage, he has the full weight of his first seven albums, his epic, amphetamine-laden 1965 and 1966 world tours that were quickly followed by a mysterious motorcycle accident that sent Dylan into recovery, after which he made sparse appearances for the next seven years. He has a nearly carnival-esque or circus act array of mannerisms, appearing as an oddity that you can’t quite ever see clearly or conceptualize even though he’s right in front of you. He has that voice that has never been embraced as being any good, but somehow nobody can sing “Visions of Johanna” like 25-year-old Dylan or 75-year-old Dylan.
It’s all happening at once when you catch Dylan these days, and on top of it all the artistry is still happening. He has himself in a interesting spot, because he’s an icon of popular music, but is really an artists’ artist at the same time. He’s the one Otis Redding, Jerry Garcia, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and generations of musicians thereafter wanted to see and hear. They were his fans just like us, occupying some space that was often awesome in their own right, but never quite like Dylan’s.
So, when he’s here this weekend, it’s all continuing. Whatever there is to say about his age and his physical condition, that’s all aside from his vitality. No, the songs aren’t rolling the way they were between 1962 and 1966, and at sporadic times thereafter, but he’s putting out one or two things a year to keep the output current. Sometimes, it’s releasing older recordings in his Bootleg Series, sometimes it’s a new album, even an album or two of Christmas songs or Frank Sinatra songs. But whatever it is, it’s part of the magic that steadily streams out of this fellow from Minnesota, and we are here at the same time to catch it in person.
There has been a sense around Dylan that he is on the verge of not touring or performing any more, and that sense has existed for decades. Yet, here he is again. However, he is now pushing 80, and, despite all of the gushing and effusion, he’s actually a human like the rest of us, so it will come to an end at some point. As for now, this is another opportunity to catch the Dylan phenomenon while we still can, and it sure does feel like a blessing.
Bob Dylan and His Band will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at Eisenhower Auditorium. With a capacity crowd expected, combined with a home Penn State football game on Saturday, Penn State issued a traffic and parking advisory preparing drivers for heavy traffic and delays. For more information on the show, visit https://cpa.psu.edu/events/bob-dylan.
