BOB DYLAN AT THE UNITED PALACE 11/19: AWESOME

(This photo is taken from bobdylan.com, it wasn't taken tonight).

After a few subpar Bob Dylan concerts in the past decade, I stopped going to see Bob in concert. That ended over the summer, when I had a free ticket to see Bob Dylan with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp, and Dylan was incredible.

So, when I heard Dylan was doing a three night stand at the United Palace, I had to go. Tonight's show was nearly as good as the one I saw this summer: this was the first show I've seen since guitarist Charlie Sexton rejoined the band. The setlist was phenomonal: they opened with a hard rocking, swagger heavy "Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking" (from Slow Train Coming), followed by a loose "The Man In Me" (from New Morning, and also used in the opening credits of The Big Lebowski). The fans loved the semi-obscure picks. Then he played my favorite song from my favorite album of 2009: "Beyond Here Lies Nothing" from Together Through Life. He also played "Jolene" and "My Wife's Home Town" from that album, all of which were great. Dylan is such a '60s icon, and of course he has nearly five decades of material to draw from, I'm glad he still plays so much recent music, which shows his continued relevance: the album he drew from the most was 2006's Modern Times: "Thunder On The Mountain," "When The Deal Goes Down," "Workingman's Blues #2" and "Ain't Talkin'." He played my favorite song from 2001's "Love & Theft," "High Water (For Charlie Patton.)" And I was glad he hit one of my favorites, "Cold Irons Bound," from 1997's Time Out Of Mind. Over 50% of the show was from the past 12 years, which I think is awesome. As you know, I consider Bob to be one of the best artists of the '00s.

Of course, he didn't forget the older stuff, doing amazing versions of "Desolation Row," "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Ballad Of A Thin Man." I actually didn't like his version of "Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine,)" I felt he was not into it. He also didn't seem as into the two big "hits," "Like A Rolling Stone" and even "All Along The Watchtower." A funny thing abot Dylan shows is that, his band is always so great, and the songs are so great, Bob almost just has to stay out of the way and not wreck it. His shows could go any way - they could be awesome, or they could be the pits, and I've seen both extremes. Tonight's show was excellent almost all the way through, and I'd definitely pay to see him next time.

KRIST NOVOSELIC: "HOW I MET DAVE GROHL"

Krist Novoselic wrote a piece called "How I met Dave Grohl," for The Seattle Weekly. I know they have performed together a few times since Nirvana. I wonder if they could ever do it again in a band, or would the ghosts just be too strong? Drummers have been on Krist's mind lately: he interviewed other former Nirvana drummers Chad Channing and Dale Crover also for The Seattle Weekly.

HOLY S*&^! THE VELVET UNDERGROUND TO REUNITE (SORT OF)

I have no idea how this happened, but former Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, Mo Tucker and, surprisingly, Doug Yule, are "reuniting" on stage... at the New York Public Library for a conversation hosted by Rolling Stone's David Fricke. Already sold out!

I'm surprised about Yule - he replaced the much more "avant-garde" violinist/pianist John Cale in the band. More to the point, he continued on as "The Velvet Underground" after Lou, Mo and guitarist Sterling Morrison left the band. I think he actually recorded a VU album where he played all the instruments, but with future Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice. He didn't participate in the Underground's reunion tour in the '90s, and wasn't inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the band either. I hope a video or transcript of this event becomes available somewhere.

THE LATEST FACES RUMOR

Longtime No Expiration readers know that I don't like to bring the negativity, there's too much of that in the world. But this is a stupid idea: Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and Kenny Jones are now talking about doing a Faces reunion in 2010, with or without Rod Stewart. The Faces without Rod Stewart is as weak as Aerosmith without Steven Tyler. I don't blame these guys for wanting to play together again, and of course they'd do Faces songs. But if Rod Stewart is still walking this earth, and they're calling it The Faces, it just comes off as totally bogus. Ronnie: would you do a Rolling Stones tour with a different singer? Billboard reports that they may actually use, of all people, former Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall. I wonder how Mick Hucknall would feel if Simply Red toured without him? Hucknall recently played with Ron, Ian and Kenny at a charity gig. That's cool for a charity gig, not a tour. I understand how annoying it must be for the guys, especially Ian and Kenny, to watch Rod do lame solo album after lame solo album and not reunite the band. But I don't think calling it The Faces is going to go over well.

AEROSMITH: IT *REALLY* AIN'T GOOD AT ALL

It's really sad to watch this all go down. In my last post about Aerosmith, I wrote that singer Steven Tyler's behavior is kind of classic drunk/abusive (ex-) boyfriend. I kind of wondered if he's sober at all these days; it has long been rumored that he has fallen off the wagon. Today, in a preview of a story that is being published in the next issue of Rolling Stone, the other guys from the band questioned his sobriety as well, and said they will not wait two years for him to finish his memoirs and solo album. They're going to work with another singer, at least for the time being. I'll ask the question again: would you guys go see The Stones if someone other than Mick was singing? It's a bitter pill, but one you're gonna have to try to swallow.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: SOME VERY TALENTED LADIES

For those of you who are
new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUSXM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Most weeks I bring a theme, and since "female singers," or "divas" seems to always go over well, I decided to go with that one again, particularly because there are lots of relevant
albums out right now.

First off is Larry's #1 favorite album of the year, Lungs, by Florence & The Machine. He's been talking about it for months, and I only just listened to it for the first time. It's a pretty powerful album. In some ways, Florence reminds me of Tori Amos, but I can't back that up with much, so I'll probably keep it to myself, as Larry is no fan of Tori! My wife Maria grabbed the CD from me, and she loves it. So, I'm glad to say that I like it also. I may even add this to my Best Of '09 series.

Leona Lewis has just released Echo. Larry and I disagreed about Leona last year, he thought she deserved the Record of the Year Grammy, last year, and I thought it rightfully went to Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. Sorry, Larry, I paid my NARAS dues and you forgot to pay yours! Larry felt that Leona's debut was an event on the level of Mariah Carey's debut. I disagreed with that - I almost think it is impossible for someone to dominate pop music the way Mariah did. (I also didn't think a Mariah-level-event would be a positive thing, anyway, as I don't like Mariah.) I did think Leona's "Bleeding Love" was a great pop song, and I don't hate on her because of it. I have only heard one new Leona song, "Happy," which I thought was really good. But she doesn't dodge comparassions to Mariah, that's for sure.

Norah Jones has been a favorite of mine since I heard her debut album, Come Away With Me, in 2002. I just got her new album, The Fall, tonight, and I think it's great. She broke up with her long time boyfriend/bass player Lee Alexander, which pretty much broke up her band. So she started working with new people, including producer Jaquire King, who worked on Tom Waits' classic Mule Variations. I think it is a really successful progression for her.

Finally, Joss Stone has just released Color Me Free!, which sees her fighting with her record label, which, sadly, doesn't usually end well for the artist. I got to interview her before her debut, 2003's The Soul Sessions EP when I worked for VH1. I think it's a good record but not a great one. She has so much talent, it's almost frustrating that she hasn't clicked with audiences in the way that she should. Maybe she needs a new record label. I hope they just don't slut her image up too much.

So call in if you want to weigh in! We'll probably do another week of female singers next month, when Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige and Shakira have released their new albums. Next week: crack. Um, I mean box sets. The Rolling Stones, Dolly Parton, Hall & Oates, AC/DC and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

SLAYER AND MEGADETH CO-HEADLINING!

So, no surprise that "The Big Four" tour - supposedly with Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax - isn't happening. But it turns out that Slayer and Megadeth are touring together, with Testament opening. It's called the "American Carnage" tour! It's too bad that Anthrax can't be on this tour - that would be a reunion of the 1991 "Thrash Of The Titans" tour (minus opening group Alice In Chains) - but they still don't have a singer. Here's the "video press release":