At the Wang, though, Dylan’s vocals were relatively clear and forceful. Better yet, he was fully engaged during the two-hour set that drove hard and deep into his catalog, from “Girl From the North Country’’ (featuring Dylan’s only performance on guitar) and a particularly charged “Highway 61 Revisited’’ to newer songs such as “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ ’’ and “Jolene.’’ (Mercifully, he didn’t play anything from his new holiday confection, “Christmas in the Heart.’’)
True to form, Dylan was as enigmatic onstage as he is off, and it was hard not to read too much into his body language. Was that a faint smile during “Just Like a Woman’’? Such are the frivolous questions you ask when the man never addresses the audience, aside from “thank you, friends’’ during the band introductions.
Dylan locked into a muscular, junkyard-blues-rock groove early on, courtesy of a tight, five-piece band that, despite some stellar solos from guitarist Charlie Sexton, never stole Dylan’s spotlight. When he left his Hammond organ to play harmonica or take the microphone, there were flashes of Dylan as carnival barker (replete with rasp), striking poses with outstretched hands.
Rather than give “Like a Rolling Stone’’ the usual anthemic treatment, he brought it down to earth with a freewheeling arrangement that you could appreciate without having survived the ’60s. And “Spirit on the Water’’ gave Dylan his best line, which doubled as a mantra: “You think I’m past my prime/ Let me see what you got.’’
James Reed can be reached at jreed@globe.com.
