Bob Dylan Concert Review: E-Centre, Camden, New Jersey July 17 1999
The day started eerily, waking up to the disappearance of JKF Jr’s. plane.
The show at the E-Centre was the first Dylan/Simon show I attended, and my first time at the E-Centre, a huge indoor/outdoor pavilion, built by Sony and Blockbuster in the unlikely city of Camden, N.J. The day started eerily, waking up to the disappearance of JKF Jr’s. plane. When it first opened the E-Centre was notorious for nasty security guards, but major concerts have since been taken over by Electric Factory Concerts and security for this event anyway seemed pretty mellow. But the tickets weren’t the only thing overpriced at this show. Five bucks for a coke is outrageous, and of course they do not let you bring in any drinks or food.
Paul Simon began the show with a fairly lackluster “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Following the song he talked about John Kennedy Jr., and how events like this show how precious life is or something to that effect and that life is to celebrate. Simon was never more than okay despite his huge percussion-laden band. Simon’s hand problems seem to have affected his guitar playing considerably because mostly he used the instrument as a prop and mainly just held it occasionally strumming and rarely playing, even though he switched guitars quite a few times. This is a shame because Simon was at one time a great finger-picker. While his band got a groove going during songs like “You Can Call Me Al” and “Late In the Evening,” ultimately they were just too slick and essentially soulless despite several top-notch players.
I can understand Simon’s exploration into various forms of world music, but it comes at the expense of his songs. Once upon a time he could make his songs mean something, but there’s something about his music now and pretty much from “Graceland” onward that doesn’t really make me want to take the time to figure out what he’s singing about.
Easily for me, the most moving part of his set was when Dylan came out for “Sounds of Silence.” Maybe it was the ghost of another Kennedy tragedy hanging over the proceedings, or maybe it was the arrangement, much slower than the original Simon & Garfunkel single (and pretty much the way Simon’s been doing the song for the last 15 years or so) with Simon playing the melody on electric (finally doing some picking) but a lot of it had to do with Dylan being on stage. Dylan has presence and Simon for all his hand motions during his set just doesn’t -- not at this show anyway. Dylan was singing in one of his spookier voices and immediately you knew that he was singing strongly as well.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Peter Stone Brown Archives Newsletter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.