Like the title stone of his encore song, Bob Dylan and His Band rolled through Bender Arena Saturday night and played a two-hour set to an age-diverse, hip-swaying, sold-out crowd of 5,000 people.
"It was the biggest concert that's been done in the past four or five years, people-wise," said Jason Geisinger, assistant director of the Student Union Board, the campus organization that brought Dylan to Bender.
The line for general admission ticket holders began to form more than three hours before the show and, by 7 p.m., it stretched through the Tunnel and snaked up five levels of the Butler Pavilion parking garage.
Many parents and children attended the show, and the crowd waiting in line ranged from senior citizens wearing Dylan concert T-shirts from yesteryear, to wide-eyed freshmen experiencing their first SUB concert, to infants who would rather nap than clap.
"Bob Dylan was the only person older than me at the show," said Stan Zemler, 54, father of Eagle music co-editor Emily Zemler and a resident of Boulder, Colo. "It was worth flying 1,600 miles to see."
"The average age was, like, 50," said junior Brendan Lindsey. "A lot of people sat down, but that probably had more to do with the age factor."
Dylan opened with "Maggie's Farm," wearing black pants, a black shirt and a black cowboy hat, his characteristically raspy voice almost unintelligible. He also played "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum" and "Ballad of Hollis Brown," and, in two encores, played "Like a Rolling Stone," a nonstandard arrangement of "All Along the Watchtower" and closed with "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35."
"In the end, despite the unusual demands and despite the prima donna attitudes ... the show was a big success," Geisinger said.
Though the show ran smoothly, Dylan and his entourage made some very specific and peculiar demands, according to Geisinger. Dylan requested that SUB duct tape the vents closed in his dressing room so there would be no incoming air, and also wanted the circulation shut off in the entire building. All photography was also banned at the event as well. No one could enter the building with a camera and no press photography was allowed.
"Bob's an arrogant a-hole," Geisinger said. "He immediately left for his hotel after the show ... He didn't want to see us, he didn't want to acknowledge [SUB's] presence."
But attitude was secondary to the product. Many students cited the sheer novelty of seeing a music legend live as validation for paying and going.
"I'm kind of an old-school Dylan fan, like I think most people there were," said freshman Anne Zeal. "He was playing a lot of his new stuff and it was interesting, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't the stuff I was used to. But it was great to see ... a cultural icon."
"It was awesome," said freshman David Safdie. "It was great to see Bob Dylan"
