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News

Published: 2012/09/05

Dylan & Shapiro Reopen The Cap

Photo by Ahmir Questlove Thompson

The Capitol Theatre officially reopened last night with a sold-out performance by Bob Dylan. “It’s been a long strange trip and for me it began at a Grateful Dead show at Rosemont Horizon in Chicago on March 11, 1993,” the venue’s leader (and Relix publisher) Peter Shapiro told the crowd shortly before the music started. “My experience that night led me to the front door of a great, dingy, beautiful rock club in Lower Manhattan called Wetlands and that was where I learned everything I know about putting on shows.”

Originally opened in 1926 and designed by the architect Thomas W. Lamb (who also designed the United Palace Theater in Upper Manhattan), The Cap’s elegance is a far cry from Wetlands’ dingy-but-amazing basement vibe. While Wetlands served as a launching pad for artists such as Phish, Dave Matthews Band and Blues Traveler in their early days, The Cap saw such rock and roll luminaries as The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Joe Cocker and others in their prime grace its stage until it went (mostly) dark for music in the late ’70s.

Throughout the last six months, The Cap has undergone extensive renovations from replacing carpet and repainting walls to adding state-of-the-art light, sound and video systems to a tune north of $2 million. (We also recommend taking a closer look at the wallpaper.) The 1,835-capacity venue is a mix of general admission seating on the floor and reserved seating in the balcony.

“If we could pick any musician to re-open The Cap we got THE ONE,” said Shapiro after thanking a laundry list of people who helped reopen the venue. “He was the first to plug in at Newport and since we hope that this room will set a new bar for live music venues, we are thrilled to have Bob Dylan be the first to plug back in at The Cap.”

The performance, slightly more than 90 minutes in duration, saw the legend running through recent material like “Watching the River Flow,” “This Dream of You” and “Shooting Star” as well as a number of older numbers that had been reconfigured into new forms ranging from “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” and “Tangled Up in Blue” to “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” (For those looking to hear music from Dylan’s forthcoming album, you can stream the whole thing for free for a limited time.)

Since this wasn’t Dylan’s first time to The Cap—he’s used the theater as a rehearsal space in preparing his band for tour—he seemed particularly comfortable onstage. Whether pounding out melodies on piano and keyboard, strapping on a guitar or simply singing unadorned by instruments save an occasional harmonica, Dylan played the part of mischievous old man adroitly as he punctuated moments with calculated dance steps and hand gestures.

If Dylan’s instruments were initially turned up too loud in the mix, then they found more even footing with the rest of the band halfway through the show as did his growling vocals which became clearer.

Bob Dylan continues his tour tonight at the Artpark Mainstage Theater in Lewiston, NY.

The Cap continues its opening celebration this weekend with performances by The Roots and Bob Weir. For a full lineup, click here.

To read all of Shapiro’s speech, click here.

The setlist is as follows

Watching the River Flow
Love Minus Zero/No Limit
Things Have Changed
Rollin’ and Tumblin’
This Dream of You
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Shooting Star
High Water (For Charley Patton)
Visions of Johanna
Highway 61 Revisited
Can’t Wait
Thunder on the Mountain
Ballad of a Thin Man
Like a Rolling Stone
All Along the Watchtower
E) Blowin’ in the Wind

Via Bob Links

Comments

There are 4 comments associated with this post

ChardRomes September 5, 2012, 13:01:37

Looks like a set list error – he definitely played Tangled up in Blue 3 or 4 songs in, don’t recall a Rollin & Tumblin Great times last night, the staff at the Cap were the real stars IMO. Too bad Dylan likes the lights simple, I know they had some new tricks they were looking forward to showing off

Blaine September 5, 2012, 13:31:52

“Watching the River Flow” is not new Dylan material.

UMmmm September 5, 2012, 13:38:17

How is ‘Watching the River Flow’ recent?

Violeta October 1, 2012, 06:32:15

Warning to Dylan haters, the folwoling comment will make you gag.Bringing it All Back Home: that’s the chronological start of the Dylan I love. Electric Dylan. It’s the music you love when you are 17 that sticks with you all your life.I used to think that too, but not so much any more. And that’s because of Dylan. I’m a latecomer to Dylan. Which is surprising, because (as a Generation X-er) I used to fancy myself quite the music geek/ connoisseur, but for some reason never got into Dylan. Didn’t even broach him really— I guess because I had some idea of “Dylan” (the folky “political” Dylan) that put me off. It’s only in the last few years— my mid to late 30s— that I’ve delved into the Dylan canon. And have come to love his music more deeply, I think, than any music I ever loved in my youth. It’s an interesting experience, because my relationship to his music (as someone about 2 decades past 17) is one I haven’t felt for many years— something like the kind of intense intimate involvement I felt for my favorite music between the ages of (say) 14-21. I didn’t think I would ever feel like that about any musician again. And I feel like Dylan’s music is likely to be a companion to me for the rest of my life. Whereas much of the music I loved in my youth no longer speaks to me, no longer deeply moves or touches me. Let me amend that: it does move and touch me, but much of that is due to nostalgia, the Proustian rush, the poignancy of reembodying (remembering through the bodily experience of listening to that music) what it felt like to be the girl I once was (and in some sense will always be). It’s difficult to put into words what the relationship to certain music— music that serves as something like the soundtrack of one’s inner life— is like. It’s as much a meditation with/ into oneself as listening to the voice of an external other. Some verses of Wallace Stevens’s on poetry come to mind. In a way I’ve only just begun with Dylan. Started with Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde: these 3 albums were pretty much all I listened to, compulsively, for almost a year. They made me a Dylanophile for life. Then I got into late 60 to mid 70s Dylan: these are the albums I probably listen to most often these days, especially John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, Blood on the Tracks, Basement Tapes, Desire. But love the others too: Self Portrait, New Morning, Pat Garrett, Planet Waves, some of the concurrent live albums. And that’s as far as I’ve gotten. Late 70s and 80s and beyond, all that awaits me. Looking forward to listening to it all. (That’s such a great feeling. It’s like falling in love with a prolific novelist, poet, film maker, whatever, and having a great deal of his/ her oeuvre still before one, yet untapped.)As a longtime Althouse reader, I have to say, her love for Dylan probably played a part in my my decision to seriously check him out. That, and my love for Luigi Ghirri— one of my favorite photographers— who deeply loves Dylan too. So, thank you Althouse. Even aside from your blog (one of my favorite blogs), I owe you so much— just for playing a part in my discovery of Dylan, at a time in my life when that’s just what I needed and just what I wanted.

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