Thanks to Tampa Steve for the following review: I don't know if it was a one-off thing, or if Dylan has turned the corner on a way of finally re-connecting with his audience and band, but this was by far the best show I've seen him play in the 90's. The word for the evening was focus, with Dylan almost constantly squinting and observing the audience, like some kind of animated gargoyle surveying the countryside. If you've seen the video "Hard to Handle", then you know what I mean. I'll bet you his eyes made contact with everyone in the place at least once. His singing was as impassioned as I have seen it, with downright beautiful harmonies from the band on many of the acoustic songs. The band itself was very sharp, and onto almost all of Bob's unsignaled changes. The opener for this tour, "Gotta Serve Somebody", was served up as a straight-ahead blues, with a simplified 1-4-5 arrangement. He went nowhere near the name-calling verse, of course. (I wouldn't call him Zimmy, even if he said I could anyway.) Very powerful. Other highlights included "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", with the steel-guitar licks lifted note-for-note by Bucky Baxter from the Byrds' "Sweethearts of the Rodeo" version. This one ground to a shaky halt, seemingly to the delight of everybody. "Ballad of A Thin Man" had one of the characters in the song crossing himself, which, I think, is a new twist. The acoustic set was played by the full band. Everything clicked, even "Tangled Up In Blue", which could be in danger of getting tired. The lyrics have been returned mostly to their original ("Blood On the Tracks") state, and the crowd really ate this one up. Dylan ditched his guitar for the harmonica break on "My Back Pages", and did his stumbling, finger-pointing Vegas thing all through the solo. He looked exactly like a marionette under the control of a drunken puppeteer. This man really loves to entertain! Lefty Frizzell's "You're Too Late" punctuated the remainder of the electric set. A straight-ahead country rendition worked perfectly for this band, who probably had little or no rehearsal on it. It is this kind of thing that keeps these shows fresh for everybody. The singing on this was beyond anything I thought Dylan capable of. It may have even been played in a key he was uncomfortable with, but he hit all of the notes, some of them quite a bit higher than his usual range. A cacophonous "Highway 61 Revisited" ended the set on a high-energy note, with Dylan clearly pleased with the show. A three-song encore followed, and Larry Campbell was finally allowed to stretch out a bit on "Love Sick". Up to this point, Dylan had hogged almost all of the lead breaks. His herky-jerky lead guitar style is like that of a backcountry bluesman in a way, and can result in either great or awful guitar solos. He'll relentlessly worry a few notes around the middle of the fretboard until something gives, and then the solo either soars or plummets. This kind of musical danger is one of the things that makes these shows so great. "Not Fade Away" was the perfect vehicle for Dylan to kick the show into overdrive. His singing was just stunning on this one, and the band was right on , with the exception of one missed change, which earned Tony Garnier an evil scowl from the boss. This misstep was forgotten by the next verse, and they drove it home perfectly. I hope they play this one every show so eveyone can witness it. "Blowin' In the Wind" closed the encore, and was sung and played beautifully. (Bob was a little unsure of the first few words, but recovered nicely.) I thought that was it, but the crowd wouldn't let them go. They came back and launched into "RDW 12&35", which gave me a big head start on the traffic leaving Daytona Beach... - Tampa Steve
Return to Current Tour Guide page
Return to Bob Links
Go to the Set Lists (by city) page
Go to the Set Lists (by date) page
1998 Tour,
1997 Tour,
1996 Tour ,
1995 Tour,
Pre 1995 Tours
Go to the Cue Sheet page