Last night I journeyed to lovely St. Paul, MN to see the festival with 14,000 other people. Generally, I am not a Jam Rock fan but the tickets went on sale when it was snowing, and the last time I was at Midway was in the 90s when Wilco opened for REM, and the heavens opened up as Michael Stipe started “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” and nobody who was there has ever forgotten it ever.

Also, I figure there aren’t going to be too many chances to see ol’ Bob. Now, onto the observations.
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• I do not care for the music of My Morning Jacket. They do nothing for me at all. I hear them and there’s no quickening of my pulse or stirring in any region music ought to stir. My favorite parts of the MMJ set was when they brought out Trampled By Turtles and did Wonderful and TBT’s Alone.
• Even so, MMJ’s “Wonderful” felt really Clapton-y to me. Perhaps he’s ruined the word wonderful for all the other singers.
• After Dylan shirts and Wilco shirts, there seemed to be a high preponderance of Old 97s shirts, which I thought was kind of rad.
• My niece, Jaycie, who went to the concert with me thanks to Robin who couldn’t make it, took that picture up there.
• Incidentally, she enjoyed Bob’s set way more than I did.
• I think that’s because she had no expectations and little knowledge of Bob’s catalog and so had no shattered hopes and dreams when he busted into an unrecognizable rendition of “Tangled Up in Blue.”
• Also, I was totally ready to bail halfway thought the Dylan set, especially after the Wolfdogg pack had to leave so Wolfdogg could get to work. However, I remember back sometime in the 90s when I went to see Dylan & Paul Simon with my mom and Sister #3 and they made me leave before the show was over which I thought was totally bogus and unfair and I dragged my feet for at least two songs until they rose up and kicked my lollygagging ass.
• My favorite thing: While Heather was off flitting about the front of the stage with Delilah and Jaycie, Wolfdogg confessed that “Impossible Germany” got him right in the heart. A little while later when Heather came back she confessed how the song made her cry. I swooned a little with the adorableness of it.
• This show reminded me of why I have such a hard time quitting Wilco — they did “New Madrid,”At My Window,” and “I’m the Man that Loves You.” In fact, this show was so good it erased the Northrup show where I kind of decided to break up with Jeff Tweedy because there were entirely too many boring guitar solos.
• Every time I see Jeff Tweedy, I have flashbacks to that dream I had about him having a vagina.
• At a concert headlined by Bob Dylan you think the audience would have been rife with Faux Hippie Hipsters, however it was not. Or at least not within my field of vision. There was one hoola hooper, but I cut them some slack because it was, after all, Dylan.
• Dancing white-haired Baby Boomer hippies are kind of cute.
• After the concert I nearly had to beat down a 20something BroDude who was trying to hit on my 15-year-old niece. He totally freaked her out, but then he apologized for freaking her out and it was okay.
• People who smoke skunk weed, why? That stuff smells so bad I can’t imagine it’s doing much for you.

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