[JakeShows] Jug band in Bristol, RI/CMonti benefit/Dylan/video games

[Jacob Haller]

Hey all,

Got a few things I wanted to tell you about, one or two of which even involve me performing:

Number one, I've been asked to play with the High Tone Jug Band (who also run the monthly jug band jam in Providence) on Wednesday October 1 from 6-7:30 pm at the Rogers Free Library, 525 Hope Street, Bristol, RI 02809. It'll be an outdoors show, unless it rains, in which case it will be moved to the Herreshoff Community Room. Should be a hoot, hope to see you there!
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I also wanted to let you know about a fundraiser to help buy a wheelchair-accessible van for my friend and occasional collaborator Chris Monti and his wife Lucy. Their young daughter Josie has a rare genetic disorder, ADNP, which currently means she can't crawl, stand, or walk, and she is getting big enough that it's getting hard to get her and her wheelchair into their cars.

To raise money of the van, a charity named Wheels for Jake is going to hold a fundraiser on Saturday September 20 from 2-8 pm, a BBQ cook-off at Miller's Crossing (43 Old Bald Hill Rd Cranston). If you would like to attend, tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for kids 7-17, and there is no charge for 7 year olds and younger, cash and checks only. If you can't make it but would like to contribute, you can make a donation via Paypal here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=4QS4AJRQ32WCQ
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Completely unrelated to any of that, tonight (and hopefully every Monday at 8 pm US Eastern Time) I'm planning to start livestreaming a new video game at https://twitch.tv/jwghaller . It's a game called Outer Wilds and I am informed that the ending will make me cry. Also I think a robot plays the banjo at some point?
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And finally, me and my niece went to see Bob Dylan play last night and I've been thinking a lot about it. I wrote a kind of a long thing about it which I will include at the end of this message. As a teaser, here's a photo I took of the stage and the accompanying video screens.



That's it for now! Hope to see you around.

-jwgh

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Masters of War

Sunday night, my niece and I went to see Bob Dylan play as part of the Outlaw Music Festival Tour. But, before I get to that, a historical note.

On June 22 of this year, America bombed three nuclear enrichment facilities. That night, I found myself thinking of Dylan's old protest song, 'Masters of War'. When I originally heard it, it felt overwrought to me, and the ending, in a verse that begins "And I hope that you die, and your death will come soon..." seemed to indulge violent desires in a way I wasn't comfortable with. But, on June 22, I felt like I finally got it. I stayed up until 1 in the morning learning it and the next day I played it on a livestream. I later uploaded it to youtube: 

https://youtu.be/VQMOQ_XZbKA
Learning 'Masters of War'
youtu.be
 

What I didn't know was that about a month later (on August 8) Dylan started adding the song to his own live set. He hadn't played it live since 2016 (a significant year!), and before that since 1991 (after the start of the first Gulf war). Was he inspired by the Iranian bombings? The war in Gaza? Ukraine? All of the above? Unknown, but it's interesting to me that, so soon after I thought, "I need this song," the guy who wrote it apparently thought the same thing.

Anyway me and Sadie went to see Dylan play at the XFinity Center, previously known as Great Woods, which is where I first saw Dylan play live in the late 80s. Also on the bill were Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson, with Madeline Edwards and Waxahatchee opening.

There were a few people, a man and two women, behind us talking loudly during the first few acts, and I turned around and apologetically spoke to one of them during the Waxahatchee set. "Oh, do you want us to keep it down?" she asked. I said, "That would be great, thanks!" and sat down again. But they continued to talk into Sheryl Crow's set, and after giving them a few pointed glances I stood up again and started to address the people I hadn't talked to the first time. "Do you mind --" I started, and the woman I hadn't talked to said, "I just learned I'm not going to die." "Oh, that's good news," I said. The other woman said, "We can have a conversation if we want to." Sadie said, "It's just that we can enjoy the music more if we can hear it," and one of the women said, "You've been reading a whole novel on your phone, so we don't want to hear from you." A woman who was sitting next to us said, "You _are_ being very loud," and they didn't like that either. One of them said to me, "I just want to see the back of your jacket from here on out." The man said, "We're Trump voters." I said, "What does that have to do with anything?" while privately thinking, "I mean, sure." It didn't seem like further conversation was going to solve anything, so I sat down again and considered if I should try to get them kicked out, and if so when; but for now I decided to try to ignore them.

A short while later, they all got off and left for around 15 minutes, and then they came back and started talking again, maybe a little bit quieter? It was around the end of Sheryl Crow's set, and I decided to be optimistic and hope that they would be less obnoxious for whoever was on next.

Some music played over the PA when suddenly Dylan and his band got on stage and started playing with no warning or ceremony, not even waiting for the warmup music to stop -- they just played over it, launching into a bluesy version of 'Masters of War'. Previous acts had had cameras trained on the different musicians, so that the people in charge of the video system could cut between them, but not so with Bob -- there was one master shot of the entire stage, slightly out of focus, and with possibly the worst stage lighting I've ever seen. I could hear a piano but couldn't find it on stage, whether because it was being played offstage or just because it was so dark, I wasn't sure. (Looking at videos other people took who were closer to the stage, it was the latter.) Amusingly, twice during the set, someone went up and adjusted the camera very slightly but didn't otherwise make any changes. This whole situation cheered me up immensely and it had the same effect on Sadie, who had been quietly fuming next to me.

I tried to decide why it cheered me up. Partly it was the choice of the opening song, which I hadn't realized Dylan had started performing again. (It was kind of a silly thought, but I thought, "It's too bad the people behind us aren't listening to this.") But also I felt like, Dylan clearly doesn't care about any of the obnoxious drunks in the audience, why should I? (Partway through the set, the guy got into a brief shouting match with another audience member who asked him to quiet down, and he started complaining about 'Karens' who kept asking him to be quiet and sit down so they could see. "What do they want to look at? That?" he said, gesturing to the stage.)

There's sort of a question about Dylan performances, which is more or less: What does he think he's doing? And, I mean, who knows, but I feel like he's 84 years old, he's richer than God, and he probably just wants to go out and play music with people he likes playing music with, and if other people want to watch him do it it's basically OK with him, depending on the day. He played mostly his own songs, and a few covers. From his early years (which is really the only era of Dylan I know much about -- Sadie is more familiar with his more recent stuff), he did 'Masters of War', 'Desolation Row', 'All Along The Watchtower', and a really bananas version of 'Don't Think Twice, It's All Right'. By 'bananas' I don't mean energetic or whatever, I mean, well, here's a similar performance from Hartford the previous day: 

https://youtu.be/43afoMb8fbM
BOB DYLAN - DON'T THINK TWICE, IT'S ALRIGHT 2025
youtu.be

At the end of the set it was around 9 pm, and it was going to take around 4 hours for me to drive Sadie home and then return to Rhode Island myself, so we left after Dylan's set, talking excitedly about what we had just experienced.
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