Dylan reshapes familiar material at The Joint

Spencer Patterson

Monday, Oct. 21, 2002 | 8:24 a.m.

As Bob Dylan enters the fifth decade of his epic musical career, few would blame the 61-year-old legend if he took the path of least resistance during his live shows.

A dozen or so greatest hits and a few blasts of the old harmonica would probably be enough to send most in his crowds home pleased they had simply caught another glimpse of their aging hero in action.

But as Dylan showed Sunday night at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, he is still driven by an intense desire to challenge himself, his band and his audiences. He certainly looked the part, clad in a shiny, cream-colored blazer that evoked the spirit of so many Las Vegas showmen before him.

Over the course of a tightly played two-hour set, Dylan threw more than a few surprises at a nearly sold-out crowd of 1,450, varying his set list, altering his usual instrumentation and freshening even his classic tunes with unexpected arrangements.

Best of all, Dylan's voice sounded strong and vibrant, far from a given in recent years. The lyricist extraordinaire enunciated to the point where fans could even make out some of what he sang, though his vocals retained the unique mumblesome quality audiences have grown to love over the years.

At times, Dylan and his band played straight-ahead renditions of favorites, such as "When I Paint My Masterpiece," which essentially mirrored the 1971 studio version.

More often, however, Dylan's most-revered songs sounded little like their original counterparts. That was the case for "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again" and "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," two numbers that were all but unidentifiable save for their familiar choruses.

For the first time in years, Dylan eschewed his beloved harmonica. Instead, he held court at an electric piano, when he wasn't alternating between electric and acoustic guitars.

Although Dylan's turn at the keys was far from the groundbreaking statement he made when by going electric in 1965, the instrument did manage to infuse 20- and 30-year-old music with a welcome modern quality.

And while his current backing band -- composed of guitarists Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton, bassist Tony Garnier and drummer George Racile -- hardly recalls the days when Dylan shared the stage with Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm and the rest of The Band, the four musicians did nothing to detract from their leader's performance.

The angelic "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" stood out as a highlight, an acoustically countrified take on the 1965 classic. "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35," also shined, as Dylan closed his main set with a fully rocked-out version that had fans young and old bellowing "Everybody must get stoned."

From his very earliest days, Dylan has also been among America's most- covered songwriters, with everyone from Elvis Presley to the Grateful Dead delving into the his catalog.

On this night, Dylan reversed the trend, paying tribute to three of his peers with cover versions of his own: the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar," Neil Young's "Old Man" and Warren Zevon's "Accidentally Like a Martyr." The Stones and Dylan songs, in particular, energized a crowd eager to sing and dance.

The encore proved to be the evening's only predictable segment, with Dylan opting for the double shot of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "All Along the Watchtower." The pair came up a bit short, leaving fans holding out for one last memento, which never came.

Otherwise, complaints were relatively few. The Joint's two big screens -- useful tools for those too short or too far back to see the stage clearly -- remained dark throughout the performance. Considering Dylan guards his image so closely that he no longer allows photographers into his performances, that came as little surprise.

Dylan kept his comments to a bare minimum, addressing the crowd only for cursory band introductions at the start of the encore. Given that the ticket prices of $85 to $155.50 were far more expensive than the $38 fans paid Saturday in San Diego (to say nothing of the ridiculously low $10 fee for tonight's show at the Arizona State Fair in Phoenix), it might have been nice to acknowledge the Las Vegas audience with some sort of personal touch.

And novel as the electric piano might have been, the total absence of Dylan's harmonica was ultimately difficult to accept. The instrument -- a trademark on so much of his best work over the years -- could have provided yet one more texture on a night filled with memorable moments.