Old master gives Lewiston crowd his new music

LEWISTON – Music legend Bob Dylan had little to say Saturday but lots to sing.

The idiosyncratic singer-songwriter played for more than 90 minutes to a Colisee crowd, mostly rocking his way through a set of recent music, detouring now and then to old classics such as “Shelter from the Storm” and “Lay, Lady, Lay.”

With a spare stage and a lean five-man backup band, Dylan, who turns 67 on May 24, seemed ready to sing all night.

Talking, of course, was another matter.

Unlike most modern-day musicians, there were no shout-outs to the crowd with greetings of, “Hello, Lewiston!” The old master stood at his electric piano – resembling a South American gaucho in a black suit and flat cowboy hat – and played almost nonstop.

There was only music.

Much of it focused on his recent work on the album “Modern Times,” playing such songs as “When the Deal Goes Down,” “Rollin’ and Tumblin'” and “Spirit on the Water.”

He kept a willing audience on its feet much of the time, dancing on the arena floor.

The crowd fell short of a sell-out, buying about three-quarters of the available 4,800 tickets to the general admission show, according to Colisee spokeswoman Kellie Morris.

However, Dylan die-hards came. About one-quarter of the tickets sold went to out-of-state buyers, Morris said.

Many were intent on seeing Dylan, up close.

The line began forming outside the Colisee before dawn Saturday.

Saundy Cohen of Amherst, N.H., caught Dylan’s warm-up show Friday night in Worcester, Mass. When the show ended, she headed north on the highway.

She even passed Dylan’s tour bus on the highway before she entered Maine. She reached the Colisee at 1:40 a.m.

“It was dark,” Cohen said. “There was nobody here.”

A dozen hours later, a small group of fans lounged outside the main doors. They sat beneath umbrellas and upon lawn chairs. Some slept. Others sang.

Joachin Neumann, from northwest Germany, stood on the cement balcony of the Colisee Saturday, strummed a guitar he bought at a Lewiston pawn shop and serenaded the group with Dylan tunes.

It’s the kind of group that once followed the Grateful Dead, drawn by timeless songs and an always-changing set list.

“I’d follow him a lot more if I could,” said Henry Porter, a Simsbury, Conn., man who immediately bought a ticket to the Worcester show when it was added to the tour two weeks ago.

The Lewiston date was originally slated to kick off the tour, which will move on to Canada’s Maritime Provinces – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island – before heading to Iceland and across Europe, finishing in Lisbon, Portugal.

“We called it the Maine-to-Spain tour,” Porter said. “Unfortunately, work commitments keep me from going any further.”

Friday and Saturday nights would be enough, as long as he could get up close to the stage.

That’s why he made sure he arrived hours early, getting to the Colisee at 6:30 a.m.

“You want to see Dylan’s face,” Porter said. “You want to see what he does when the lights go down between songs. You want to see him laugh as he exchanges a joke with the band.”