Going to your first concert can be one of the best experiences of your life; however, it can also be one of the worst, and if you are going to see Bob Dylan, it will be both.

Seeing Bob Dylan for my first concert was almost indescribable, I was never more excited in my life. As I walked through the huge concert hall to my seat I found the stage was right in front of me. I was going to have an amazing view of my favorite musician, or at least that’s what I thought. The first problem at the show was due to the man in the seat next to me. He had a horrible stench to him, only comparable to a skunk, but I quickly forgot about him when the overhead lights went out and the stage lit up. We all stood up as Elvis Costello, who was opening for Dylan walked onto the stage with a guitar and a stool. He sat and played for forty-five minutes and every so often he would stop and talk to the audience. When he was finished he introduced Dylan and everyone cheered.

Dylan walked onto the stage wearing black pants, a black shirt and a black brimmed hat that covered his whole face. The crowd, and me were going crazy when he walked up to his microphone, but instead of saying hello to the audience or even acknowledging us he started playing. I thought it was odd and was a little disappointed, but did not care when he opened with “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.” It was one of my favorite songs, but I couldn’t make out any of the words. The only thing I heard was an old voice that sounded like someone was scratching the microphone with their fingernails. I thought the next song would sound better, but most of them sounded the same and some were even worse. The only two songs that were not painful to the ear were “Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues” and “Positively 4th Street.” When Dylan was finished playing he turned his back to the audience and walked off the stage, no thank you, no goodnight, just a black backside of a thin man. Even after all of that I found myself cheering and screaming with the entire crowd and after a minute or two Dylan came back onto the stage and immediately started to play “Thunder On The Mountain” followed by “Blowin' In The Wind.” After his encore he said a quick thank you and the show was over. On the way home I thought to myself, “How did Dylan get to be such an icon and be called the voice of a generation and how is he still so famous?” I knew his voice was never great but now it is just awful. I was so disappointed that I wished I never spent the money to buy the ticket. However, I did feel a little better when my dad said, “At least he played the whole show. Last time I saw him he played one song and stumbled off the stage.”

Three years after the concert I did a research paper on Bob Dylan and learned that he became one of the most musical geniuses in the world through lies and cons. This made me appreciate the man more than I ever did. It also made me realize that even though Dylan sounded terrible at the concert I got to see the man who outsmarted the world through fake images and deceiving lies. Even after seeing artists like Springsteen and Aerosmith in concert, nobody can come close to compare with the show Bob Dylan put on for me and when people ask me how the concert was I say, “It was the worst best thing I’ve ever seen.”