POP REVIEW : Deciphering Dylan: Ever-Changing Same

On a modern Bob Dylan tour, the famous words are set in stone, but everything else about the songs--the arrangements, the tempos, the chord changes, especially the phrasing of those famous words--is completely up for grabs.

His show at the Pantages Theatre on Wednesday, the first of seven there, was more of the ever-changing same in his continuing effort to resist fossilization by making the familiar as unfamiliar as musically possible. Even for hard-core Dylanologists--never mind the more easily perplexed--there’s a sort of quizzical anticipation produced at the beginning of virtually every song that’s an almost game show-like experience:

Yes, Bob, I can name that tune in five slurred lyrics or less!

Those with a taste for this game will almost certainly desire to attend more than one night, to see which obscurities Dylan might pull out of the less-remembered albums in his three-decade oeuvre or which classics played only at random shows have been the most radically reappropriated for 1992.

Those without this taste will sit patiently, or not, waiting for the climactic “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ” and the handful of other perennials Dylan performs most (if assuredly not all) nights with a recognizable faithfulness. In their patient waiting, this fussier camp may just miss the better part of a fairly terrific, if not terribly topical, rock ‘n’ roll show.

Anyone who saw the oft-lamented Dylan appearances on the Grammy Awards telecast of ’91 and the more recent David Letterman 10th anniversary show will have an idea of what not to expect: enunciation. But there is still modulation, and volume and certain characteristics that suggest that it may not be a matter of (as some have speculated) his just not caring anymore. To be sure, fans who once hung on every word and still wish to may find that there are few words to hang on here, often just streams of syllables, sometimes hurried out at a clip that suggests a let’s-get-it-over-with recitation, other times sung with what would pass for a kind of inarticulate passion.

In any case, it pretty much goes without saying that these shows are bigger on form than content, and for those willing to allow Dylan the heresy of being possibly outshined by his own band, and to let the shared memory of the meaning of the songs inform the enjoyment of their current subversion, this tour nearly guarantees a good, noisy, raucous time.

Dylan’s last couple of trips through town, both at the Greek Theatre, were with small combos roaring through his back catalogue with all-out, garage-band fervor. This time, he’s got a bigger backing crew (five, instead of three) that evidences considerably more finesse in plowing through the hits but is capable of generating just as much excitement on the almost-inevitable barn-burner “Highway 61 Revisited,” especially with two full-time drummers on board.

There was a different wrinkle too, at least during a good portion of the show’s quieter, highly satisfying midsection: the frequent employment of steel guitar and mandolin that made a song like “Idiot Wind” sound something like “Nashville Skyline” with members of the Stones sitting in, getting almost bluegrassy at moments, if never remotely akin to the “Blood on the Tracks” rendition (or the “Bootleg Series” one, for that matter).

Amid all the volume, for post-Newport Folk Festival offendees, Dylan (who doesn’t like photographers at his shows, including this one) also appeared alone and acoustically for a few numbers.

Opening the show with brief sets were Peter Holsapple and comedian Steven Wright.

* B ob Dylan, Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. $27-$32; (213) 580-3232 .