The organist Al Kooper once said that Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde is

the sound of 3 a.m. Dylan himself referred to the album’s tone as “that thin, wild mercury sound.” Either way, Blonde on Blonde sounds like nothing else you’ve ever heard. You don’t really listen to it so much as you experience it. Over two LPs, Dylan presents a world of such dizzying emotions it’s impossible to come out on the other end having any clue what just happened. It’s a world of wonky characters and a world of wonky American sounds: Salvation Army bands, guilty undertakers, blues riffs, railroad gin, country croons, cowboy mouths, jazz, leopard-skin pillbox hats, balladry, Shakespeare hitting on a

French girl, ragtime, and even Mona Lisa wracked by the highway blues. It’s a big, wine-and-amphetamine stew Dylan has concocted here. And who would have the gall to tackle such insanity in its entirety in tribute form? Well, North Twin, Sean Nelson, the Tripwires, and others, that’s who. No matter the outcome, these brave souls deserve our support for trying to cover what surely must be painstaking.

Sat., Dec. 8, 9 p.m., 2007