Show Review: Bob Dylan and the Band – Oakland, CA (02/11/74)

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Furthering my attempts to add more music discussion at The Midnight Cafe, I thought I’d add to my reviews of officially released live music by reviewing some unofficially released tunes as well. That’s maybe slightly a falsehood in this case, as Dylan has released all of these shows in a magnificent boxed set, but he left out all The Band’s solo performances. And this review is not of the officially released discs but of a ROIO.  

Some time ago on my music blog I posted a Bob Dylan and The Band show from 1974, or maybe it was a compilation. I don’t remember.  It doesn’t matter. The point is, I posted something from their tour together at that time, and I made a comment about how it was one of the greatest tours ever.  The thing is I didn’t really know that to be true. I hadn’t really listened to much of that tour. I don’t think I’d even listened to Before the Flood all the way through. But I knew it was a big tour that played big venues to big crowds. I knew people were excited about it because this was the first tour after Bob Dylan’s long hiatus and that while The Band had toured with him in the 1960s, they were now a major rock and roll act in their own right.

Sometime after I posted my unrealized praise, I came to realize that quite a few hardcore Dylanheads weren’t really down with this tour. In fact, many downright loathe it. Turns out Dylan and at least some members of The Band felt it was a sellout tour, good for the pocketbook, but not for the soul. So I thought it would be fun for this, my first bootleg review in a long time to tackle a show from this tour.

I randomly picked this performance and this particular source. Dylan and the Band played some 40 gigs over the course of about two months (often playing two shows per day). This show was towards the end of the tour. They’d play three more gigs in Los Angeles after that, and then they were done. Lossless Bob lists some fourteen sources for this show. I have five of them. I chose LB-4455 to listen to. It is a nice sounding soundboard recording. Oddly, it contains parts of the early show and parts of the late show. The set lists were identical (or nearly so) and this bootleg basically cuts it in half. The split occurs in the middle of the Dylan solo acoustic set.

The tour changed a little bit from the early shows to the end of the tour but by this point they were playing mostly the same songs every night. It broke down like this: Dylan and The Band performed together, then The Band would play some of their songs without Dylan. The Band would leave and Dylan would do a few solo acoustic numbers. Then he’d leave again, allowing The Band to play a few more of their tunes, followed by Dylan being backed by The Band.

After listening to this performance a few times, I can definitely see where the hate is coming from, but also feel that it is overblown. This performance is a big rock and roll show. It is loud and brash, rowdy and racous. It is a big stadium rock and roll show. That’s great for bands like The Rolling Stones, but one usually expects something different from Bob Dylan. His music is suited for a more intimate setting where you can get more nuance. 

But often, it actually works. It starts with a rambunctious “Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine).” The music is played loud and fast, Dylan practically spits his words out. I dig it.  It is a powerful way to start the show. This is followed by “Lay Lady Lay”, which is a little more laid back but still rowdy. The song is meant as a seduction, but any girl listening to this would likely run for her life. Garth Hudson is playing some kind of new electric piano. It sounds like an organ here. Or maybe it is an actual organ. I’m terrible at figuring out who is playing what instrument.

I’m not going to do a song by song review. I just don’t have that much to say. I’ll try to list the highlights and maybe anything that seems weird or bad.

“Rainy Day Women” has a carnival feel which really works for the song. “It Ain’t Me, Babe” hangs onto that carnival sound. There are some droning organ chords which I kind of dig, but I can see how it might drive some folks nuts.  Then the piano kicks in and it sounds great. Ditto Robbie Robertson’s guitar playing.  The guitars get loud and rocking during “King Harvest.”

Here’s where I admit I’m not actually a huge fan of The Band. They were all incredibly talented musicians and great live performers. I freaking love The Last Waltz, but a lot of their songs just don’t do it for me. I’ve never been able to “get” Music From the Big Pink. I’ve got numerous recordings of their concerts without Bob and while the performances are often good, I can rarely get into them because of the songs.

I do love “Up on Cripple Creek” but, unfortunately, it cuts out on this recording.  “All Along The Watchtower” which brings Dylan back in with The Band cuts in. Dylan’s solo acoustic songs are fine. I love these songs and he performs them well. But this isn’t Dylan in the 1960s. The nuance and fire is gone.  

“Ballad of Hollis Brown” with The Band is terrific. It is not a favorite song of mine, but this version is fantastic. Great keyboard work, terrific guitar lines. “The Weight” is another song I do love from The Band is it is played with great enthusiasm here. Enthusiasm is a good word for the rest of the songs on this set. The last few songs are played with high energy.

So, yeah, this is good stuff.  It is a big rock and roll concert played with verve. But it does feel like maybe something is missing. It has to be weird playing in front of 20,000 people all cheering and shouting. That personal connection is going to get lost. Nuance and subtlety are hard to find in a massive arena. I look forward to listening to other shows on this tour, but I probably won’t do that for a while.  It is easy to see why Dylan completely deconstructed his concerts the next year with The Rolling Thunder group. But I’m also glad he did something like this.

You can view the entire setlist with notes about this recording here.

I’m not sure how I want to post this sort of thing. I had initally thought I’d upload all the images and text files (but not the music – if you want that send me a message and I can point you in the right direction.) But that seems like a hassle and maybe not that interesting to anyone. So, I’ll ask. Would anyone be interested in seeing that sort of thing? Would you like to have all the source information, just not the music? Is that worth it? Leave me a comment if you have thoughts on this, or anything else.

The Friday Night Horror Movie: The Toxic Avenger (2025)

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When I was a teenager the USA network had a show called Up All Night that ran on Friday and Saturday evenings.  They shows movies all night long. It was hosted by Rhonda Shear (Friday nights) and Gilbert Gottfried (Saturday nights). Rhonda did the whole hot blonde bimbo thing and Gottfried, well he basically just did his usual schtick. The movies were usually dumb comedies or horror films; they were almost always of the b-variety. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized a great many of the films were produced by Troma Entertainment.

Troma specialized in low-budget, self-aware fare that always seem to wink at the audience, letting you know they knew their movies were stupid. I loved that stuff as a teenager, but now I find it insufferable. I like low-budget movies. I can even dig the so bad it’s good genre of films. But the thing for me about that is that the films have be aiming for something good. It needs to have attempted to be a good movie and failed spectacularly. That’s what makes it fun. When  a movie knowingly tries to be stupid in order to fall into the so bad its good category it just annoys me. Troma often falls into that category.

Admittedly, I say that as someone who hasn’t watched a Troma film in decades. I don’t really know what they’ve been doing since the 1990s. Maybe they got good. I doubt that, but maybe my memory of what they used to do has gotten washed.

Troma’s flagship film was The Toxic Avenger (1984). The main character became their mascot of sorts and there were numerous sequels and various other multi-media projects based around it. It is about a nerdy pipsqueek of a teenager who gets ruthlessly picked on. One day he falls into some toxic sludge becoming a mutant with super strength. He then wreaks ultra-violent vengeance upon his enemies. I watched the first one when I was a teenager and enjoyed it, but I haven’t seen the sequels.

When I heard they were doing a remake I was immediately on board. When it came out on Blu-ray I made it my pick of the week. As I note in that article I wouldn’t actually be interested in the film except that it was written and directed by Macon Blair. He’s an actor and director I really enjoy and I’m always excited to see one of his films.  Watching him play around in the Troma sandbox sounded interesting.

The film is pretty much what you would expect from that pairing. Blair is a big fan of the studio and is happy to dive into their mix of goopy violence and goofy comedy. But he’s also too good of a filmmaker to make this truly dumb. He’s also cool enough to get actors like Peter Dinklage, Elijah Wood, and Kevin Bacon to star in it.

Even so it had difficulties getting made. It bounced around for a while in pre-production with several different names attached (Arnold Scwarzenneger was even slated to star at some point) and then once it was made it took forever for it to find any sort of release.

Dinklage is Winston Gooze a down-on-his luck janitor who works for a giant, corrupt pharmaceutical company. It is the kid of place that sells nonsense drugs that are suppossed to heal what ails ya, but really just gives you cancer. They also dump all sorts of toxic sludge into the river.  He’s got terminal cancer and a step-son whose mother recently died of cancer herself.

His insurance won’t cover the medical costs of curing his cancer, and one day he goes to the CEO of the company, Bob Garbinger (a wonderfully unhinged Kevin Bacon) for help. He acts nice, says he’ll help, but then has him escorted out of the building, where he’s greeting by some thugs who throw him into toxic sludge.  Yada Yada, Winston is now the Toxic Avenger and he gets his revenge. 

Blair makes this extremely violent with some truly creative and blood-soaked deaths. But the vibe is goofy so it feels more wild and crazy than truly horrific. Elijah Wood plays Garbinger’s younger brother and he’s made up like Danny DeVito in that Tim Burton Batman movie. He’s having the time of his life.

The whole thing is super goofy. I couldn’t quite get into its wavelength, but again Blair is a good enough filmmaker, and there was a bigger budget with this thing than I expect Troma has ever had before, so it looks good. More or less.

I suspect if you love Troma than this will probably work for you (unless you feel it is a little too “good” for their kind of film). If you have no idea what Troma is, and don’t generally like goopy horror films (even if they are super goofy) then I’d stay way. For me, I’m glad I watched it, but I can’t say I’ll ever do it again.

Day of the Dead is the Pick of the Week

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I’ve been debating for days whether or not I should purchase this week’s pick. I’m obviously a physical media collector. I have well over a thousand DVDs, Blu-rays, and UHD discs. I especially like collector’s editions with cool covers, posters, lobby cards, and other collectibles, plus all sorts of in-disc extras.  But there is also a practical side to me. That part wonders why in the world I’d pay $40 for a single movie. A movie I could easily watch for less.  Is a cool cover and some lobby cards really worth that much? Of course, there is also the UHD aspect, and that’s something.

Still debating it.  But it is a fantastic looking set which is why it is my pick. You can read all about it and more over at Cinema Sentries.

Waves of Lust (1975)

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I don’t know why I still watch exploitation movies. I know why I used to watch them – they are filled with exciting action, violence, and naked flesh, but I can get that anywhere now. Certainly in ways that are far better produced and more interesting than what appears in most exploitation flicks.  But when an offer for a film called Waves of Lust appears to me, I immediately say “yes.” 

I guess I’ll always be a sucker for this stuff. You can read my review of the film (which isn’t bad, actually) over at Cinema Sentries.

Solo (1970)

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One day I may stop singing the praises of Radiance Films, but today is not that day. I love, love, love the way they keep bringing to my attention films that I’d otherwise never hear of in nice sets, loaded with extras.

Solo is a terrific little French thriller about a couple of young revolutionaries in over their heads and how a jewel thief winds up lending them a hand.  You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

Grateful Dead – Dicks Picks, Vol. 2 – Columbus, OH (10/31/71)

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While doing a little research for this, the second volume in the Dick’s Picks series, I came across a Reddit thread asking why this volume wasn’t the first one. It is so good, they said. One of the answers was that Dick Latvala was so obsessed with “Here Comes Sunshine” from Vol. 1 that he just had to have it at the start of his series. If that’s true, then it might answer some of my questions concerning that volume, namely why did he choose the songs that wound up on those discs, and leave off the others. If Phil Lesh was as picky as they say he was during this period, then maybe Dick let him have his way with things as long as he got “Here Comes Sunshine.” That’s just speculation, of course, but maybe that’s also why Vol. 2 begins with “Dark Star.”

Actually, Vol. 2 includes the entirety of the second set, sans the encore. I read that they had initially planned on including the first set, but then somewhere along the line they decided it just wasn’t quite good enough. That’s a bunch of hogwash, as Set I is plenty good, especially considering the sets that have been officially released since then. I don’t know what this does to my claim that the Dick’s Picks series took a warts-and-all approach. Maybe they had to warm up to that concept.

This is the only volume in the entire series that’s just one disc. It is fantastic. Don’t skip this one, folks.

In my review of Vol. 1, I noted that while I love the Dead’s improvisational style, I don’t love it when they start exploring deep space. There are moments when a jam loses any semblance of what any normal person would call a song that I tune out. So, it seems funny then that I actually love me some “Dark Star” which is probably their biggest launching pad for exploration.

I don’t really know why that is, except that maybe the “Dark Stars” I’ve heard usually don’t get that wonky. Or maybe I just turn those ones off. Admittedly, I’m not an aficionado, and I absolutely have to be in the right head space.

The “Dark Star” on this is exceptional. It begins with that familiar bass line, then the band picks it up and immediately starts playing with it. An idea occurs to me as I’m listening. When the band started improvising, maybe they were always searching for a song – or like that line says in “Unbroken Chain” (which lends its name to Phil’s book), they were searching for the sound. Where do songs come from anyway, but musicians playing around until they find something.

There is a wonderful video out there of Paul McCartney just strumming his guitar and humming, which eventually turns into “Get Back.” There is another one where U2 are playing around with “Mysterious Ways” and suddenly they invent the riff to “One.” I feel like that’s what the Grateful Dead were often doing in their improvisational jams. Except, they weren’t in a studio trying to write and record an album; they were on the stage in front of thousands of people.

Often the jams went nowhere. Sometimes they led into songs that already existed. Sometimes they invented something new. Jerry Garcia would often play some chords or line up a rhythm and just kind of test it out for a little bit. If it worked, he’d play with it some more, and the band might join in. Sometimes it wouldn’t work, and he’d move on to something else.

He does that quite a bit in this “Dark Star.” He’ll lay down some lines, then move to some different ones. After a few minutes he returns to the song’s themes, then he ventures out a little bit more. It is seven minutes before he actually sings the first verse. Then they take off for a long ride. There are moments that I get annoyed. The notes hurt my ears, but then they always return to something more interesting. At some point the jam turns into something that sounds an awful lot like Archie Bell and the Drells’ “Tighten Up” which goes on for several glorious minutes. That jam alone makes this disc worth your money.

Then it turns into something else, and they try out varying motifs for a while. There is a moment right at the end when you can hear Bob Weir play the first few notes of “Sugar Magnolia” but Jerry doesn’t hear it, and he keeps firing away at something else. But the rest of the band caught it and after a few seconds, they dig in. Then Jerry catches it, and they launch right into the song.

It is a fine, well played version. Then they launch into an incredible “Saint Stephen>Not Fade Away>Going Down the Road Feeling Bad>Not Fade Away” medley that rocks my world.

“St. Stephen” has this great jam just before the final verse. The first second of “Not Fade Away” is just brilliant as well. The transition into “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad” is about as perfect as it gets. They’d been doing that medley for a while, so it wasn’t like the transition was something new, but it still slays. “GDTRFB” has a fun little jam at the end, before turning back into “Not Fade Away.”

All in all, an incredible set of music, and it makes Vol. 2 an essential album.

You can listen to the entire thing here on Youtube.

And you can listen to the entire show over at the Archive.

The Friday Night Horror Movie: Fright Night (1985)

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I talk a lot about growing up in the 1980s and how the slasher genre helped shape my cinematic aesthetics. I loved the Jasons and the Freddys. But the truth is I watched those films at home, edited on basic cable. It wasn’t until years later that I watched them as intended and in order. But there was another set of horror films that I watched unedited even back when I was a kid. These were, well, not family-friendly as such, but they were more palatable to the grown ups allowing us kids to watch them on videotape.

Films like The Monster Squad (1987), House (1985), and my favorite, Fright Night (1985), fall into the comedy horror genre. They are goofy and silly but still provided some good scares. I loved them as a kid. But once I grew up, I more or less forgot about them.

About fifteen years ago, not long after my daughter was born, I rewatched Fright Night and its sequel. I was a little disappointed in both. They didn’t live up to my nostalgia. But the first one has been popping up in my streaming feeds the last few weeks, and I decided to give it another revisit. I seem to be doing that a lot lately – revisiting film I loved decades ago. Trying to see if they still hold up, I guess.

I liked Fright Night quite a lot this go ’round. It is a film from the 1980s that loves classic horror, and even Hammer-era horror. It is fun, and funny, and makes great use of practical effects, and has some very decent thrills.

Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) loves old horror movies. He watches them on a local station hosted by Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), a Peter Cushing-esque old horror star. Whatever happened to those old shows where they show old movies with introductions by goofy, sexy, creepy, hosts?

We’re introduced to Charley as one of those old movies plays in his bedroom. He’s making out with his girlfriend Amy Peterson (Amanda Bearse), but when it cuts to Peter Vincent talking about one of his movies, she stops with the face sucking to tell Charley he should watch. She knows he’s a huge fan. But he’s got other things on his mind. Mainly losing his virginity. They fight over it a bit, but then she finally agrees, takes off her top, and crawls into bed. But then he notices something strange in the neighbor’s yard. Two men seem to be carrying a coffin inside.

Amy feels increasingly insecure and practically begs him to come to bed. But he’s too fascinated with what’s going on out there. She leaves in a huff, and it is only then that he seems to notice her again.

It is a fascinating way to start the film, as it tells us so much about these characters. He’s desperate to have sex with her. So much so that he doesn’t care about catching his favorite show. A show she is quite aware he loves (thus she cares about him, knowing what he likes) and uses it as an excuse to get his paws off of her for a bit. She becomes vulnerable, admitting that she’s just scared about losing her virginity and is willing to finally lose it with him. But then something real and weird and scary happens outside, and he suddenly forgets all about his girl.

That becomes something of a theme for this film. He’ll periodically declare his undying love to her, but then immediately become distracted by oncoming horror.

Anyway, over the next few days, he sees very attractive women entering the neighbor’s house but never leaving. One night he gets a binoculared view of the new owner, Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon), getting sexy with one of those ladies when suddenly he grows fangs. His new neighbor is a vampire!

He tries to convince Amy and his best friend Evil Ed (Stephen Geoffreys) of this, but they aren’t having it. He tries to enlist Peter Vincent to help him destroy the vampire, but he thinks Charley’s crazy. Vincent’s having a bit of a hard time himself. He used to be an important actor. Or at least he was working. Making cult films. Now he’s hosting a cheesy late-night show for local television. And he’s just learned he’s been fired from that. Because these days “all they want to see are demented madmen running around in ski-masks, hacking up young virgins.”

Amy and Evil Ed convince Peter Vincent to lend them a hand. Not in destroying the vampires but in convincing Charley that he’s mistaken about the whole thing. They figure they can visit Mr. Dandridge, give him a few vampire tests, and all will be well.

But of course, Dandrige is a real vampire, and the tests backfire. Now the gang will have to destroy him for sure, before he turns them into bloodsuckers.

Tom Holland wrote and directed the film, and he does a nice job blending the scares with the laughs. It isn’t really scary (or all that funny if I’m being honest), but I found it quite entertaining. It has a very enjoyable vibe.

The practical effects are terrific. When the monsters die, they die slowly, transforming into goopy, bloody corpses. There is a werewolf transition that rivals the famous one in An American Werewolf in London (1981).

Roddy McDowell is great fun. He plays the pathos of this aging actor perfectly, giving him a wonderful vanity mixed with terror as he realizes that all those monsters he fought on the movie screen are real, and that he doesn’t have near the courage his characters did. Chris Sarandon is a bit miscast in my opinion. He’s clearly having fun, which is infectious, but he doesn’t have nearly the sex appeal or menace a great vampire has.

This isn’t great cinema, but it’s great fun.

Birds of Prey (1968)

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Lino Ventura has become one of those actors I keep finding myself watching, almost by accident. He just keeps showing up in the films that I’m watching.  I don’t know why.  But he’s so good I never mind.

In Birds of Prey, he plays a killer hired to assassinate the president of some backwater South American country. Before he can do that, he is forced to wait in a tiny little village for several days, accompanied by a true revolutionary. A kid who will probably replace the president. The kid is idealistic while the killer is old and cynical. Their interactions make up most of the movie, and they are wonderfully played.  The whole movie is great.  You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.