Reviews

Lund, Sweden

May 13, 2000

Olympen


[Patrik Winquist], [Mattias Davidson]

Review by Patrik Winquist



I'll get right to it. It was a great show with only one disappointment,
the crowd. when Bob did one of his dance moves nobody cheered. The show
started with:

Rovin gambler. Bob sung it well although he didn't seem to enjoy it very
much. in the last vers (now I'm down in prison) he sang "I hadn't been in
frisco" and immediately knew it was wrong. I'll never forget that face. I
liked the way the lights went way down during the refrain.

The times they are a-changin' this was also sung well but Bob seemed
irritated, it had something to do with his guitar. when he got to the last
line he almost shouted "For the times" and the lowered his voice as low as
he could. really nice. Bob also managed to play a good solo.

Masters of war. not much to say about this one.

Mamma you been on my mind. I never expected this. I've always wanted to
here this live. It was tender and i loved every second of it. Bob took the
lead guitarpart again, as most of the evening.

Tangled up in blue. this was the first song wich had the crowd roaring and
bobbing it's heads. he also played harmonica on this.

It's all over now baby blue. It had larry on pedal steel wich added a
dimension to it. Bob agin played great lead guitar. vdery nice indeed

Country Pie. Just rocking.

Shelter from the storm. OOOOHHHH  man what a great song and the
arrangment was to die for. Slow and sweet with great singing from Bob. I
got chills. really hoping to here it again tonight in Gothenburg. actually
he could play it 18 times and leave and I woulnd't mind. they had some
guitar problems through the entire electric set and it seemed as if Bob
was trying to make up for it. 'caus then we got

Down along the cove. a grat version wich had Bob smiling at the crowd and
giving the guitarr technichan the evil eye. he stepped back from the mike
and let go of his guitar and started drumming with his hands in the air
looked really funny. Bob proberbly didn't feel that that way.

Just like a woman. at the time I could heard something else but now as I
think about it it was really nice to here it, Bob also played som fine
harmonica at the end. Larrys guitar seemed to malfunction cause he
switched tree times after this song so Bob stepped up to the microfon and
said "I'll take this oppertunity to introduce the band" and then he did.

Things have changed. The band launced in to this without Larry who still
didn't have a functioning instrument. great to hear it.

Leopard skin pillbow hat.
great rocking version with the lights on the crowd during the
instrumental part.

Encore

Love sick was wonderfull with lyric changes. "Sometimes the silence can be
like thunder / Sometimes I feel like I'm beeing plowed under"

Like a rolling stone. solid with all three playing solos at once.

Forever Young. Always nice to hear

Not fade away. Now Bob really enjoyed himself with some kneebending
activity going on.

I was expecting Blowin in the wind but we got a faboulus Dont think
twice.

Then we got Rainy day women that started with one instrumeltal verse
then bob did two verses then the jamming began. I don't know haw long but
it was a long time and I thought they were going to end it when bob
stepped up and did one moore verse.

In conclusion; graet show with a smilin Bob (wearing a white suite with
black boots)

Patrik Winquist

[TOP]

Review by Mattias Davidson



"Here are the results of the Lund Jury..."

Well, here is the review of the first of my only two concerts from this
leg of the tour, the one in Lund. Three people joined forces to write this
down, apart from, me Hynek Pallas (let's hope I can interpret his
handwriting) and Tobias Levander (the guy who did NOT meet Dylan at a pub
in Uppsala .-). 

First a few things about Lund, my hometown. This time of the year it is a
beautiful town from the 10'th century. However, the venue, "Olympen", is
possibly the ugliest buildings in the world, housing both a concert venue,
student housing (Hynek lived there at the time of the concert, and we also
use to write exams in the actual concert hall..), a resturant etc etc. In
short it's just a pretty surreal thing for him to play there. I sure hope
that he got to see other parts of Lund, otherwize I'm not sure he'll ever
be back. Around 1500 tickets were sold (more than all of them basically)
and we were lucky not to miss the beginning since there was some confusion
about the anounced time of the concert. I should also mention that there
were speculations that Bob would join Van (the so called Man) on stage in
Malmö afterwards, since he was playing there (at basically the same time,
but taxi drivers from Lund to Malmö drives fast as I learned from
experience). However, Dylan and Van was only seen having Lunch at a Hotell
in Malmö, and not on stage. 

At around 19.45 Bob hit the stage together with the band and we were lucky
(event though it was really no major acchievment) that we got to stand
right in front of the stage perhaps two meters from the stage. There was
no preassure whatsoever, and one had even room to stretch your legs. 

"Roving gambler", the sound was great already from the beginning, at least
thats what I thought. Tobias thought the drums were to high, but comparing
with other concerts I found it great. Not to much more to be said, Roving
is just Roving. 

"The times they are a changing". Now we were to hear what would set the
tone for this concert namely the, what I found, inspiring new, sometimes
perhaps weird, but in all great prashing. The chorus line was sort of
delivered, as "cold matter of fact", going up on "chaain..", and then
sinking low down on "..ging". Hynek found it strange but then chewed on it
for some time, and later (after a few beers) he also found it a fine piece
of work

"Masters of war" seemed to suite the mood Bob was in, really concentrated.
Sexton looked scared to death, like as if he's heart was soon to fail him.
He must have gotten the evil eye from Bob for some reason.

"Mama you been on my mind" was stained with some lack of timing and a bit
of mumbling, ie. not the best of versions, but still a great experience
since it's not really the worst song eer written. The band messed up the
ending and Bob had the look that could kill. 

Just like with Roving, "Tangled" was it's good old self, but this evening
it was, in my opinion, clearly above the average performance (something
that I suspect the tape will clearly tell). Some harp (...) with the
guitar on the side followed by a really ragged emphasis on "Tangled". A
brilliant vocal delivery. From this point the Band, Bob and the crowd
fastened their seat belts, and Elvis never left the building until the
show was over. This was the rocket blast. 

At this point it was quite clear that the audience knew their Dylan (apart
from some goonies with requests as likely to be fulfilled as ... (can't
find anything to compare with here.). 

"It's all over now Baby Blue" was simply (here I cannot identify Hynkes
superlative used, but anyway I agree with him) great. Or in Hynek's Words
"mhhh - monk". Nice solo from Bob, and the beatuful steel from Larry).

"Country pie", was good old fashion clean fun, really rocking, and we now
start to realise that this Sexton guy is some guitarrist. After swithing
to electric guitar Bob was now often seen holding the guitar pointing
upwards like a worker on a Soviet propaganda poster holding his tool. But
bob was instead carrying a baby like a proud father, a mischevious all
over his face, even though it was sometimes hidden below the surface. 

"Shelter from the storm" (the cement coloss venue could most probably
stand a nuclear blast) was a slow, gentle version. Simply brilliant.
During the guitarr solo Bob started taking eye contact with several
members of the audience, especially a blond woman in the front row. 

"Down along the cove". Blazing guitar playing and really fun to hear, just
like it looked like Bob and the band had a great time playing it.

"Just like a woman". Never get tired of hearing Bob sing this song. Bob
once again noticed the blond woman in the front row, and delivered the
line; "I was hungry, and it was YOUR world" looking at her with an
undiscribable expression on his face. Pretty good harp playing too.

"Things have changed" was quite like on the cd, even though I personally
found it better. Hynek wrote "autopilot" in his notes. He must have felt
obliged to sing this one since people had been shouting for it a few songs
back, and it is after all a single over here .-)



"Leopard skin pillbox hat". Now all the lights were on the audience and
the best bluesrock guitar-playing you can imagine.

(at this point I would just like to add that on the tv the swedish king
just tapped Bob's shoulder during the Polar prize cermony, pretty surreal
I must say, Bob sort of smiled.) 

The encores started with "Love-Sick", wihch you directly could tell would
be a smashing rendition of the song. clearly above average but perhaps
below the real peaks Solid as a rock. 

Now "LARS" entered the stage. Once again a super solid version of a well
known song.

"Forever Young". Tenderly sung. Really beautiful, although Bob messed up a
few lines. 

"Not fade away", now we were all evaporating. Bob was about to turn us
into hard boiled eggs. The place was cooking. Simply great rock'n roll.

"Don't think x2" was like it usually is, and surprisingly it turned up at
the same concert as "Mama". Maybe the reaction to the intro to that song
made Bob want to play this one. 

On a sunny day like this you need a "Rainy day Woman" to cool off. But
that didn't work. This was by far the rockiest and loudest version of this
song I guess anyone of us have heard, and when we thought there was only
the soloing left, Bob approached the mike and his voice was completely
drowned by the whisteling of guitars and Larrys steel. Pretty amazing in
it's own way actually. 



At some point it might be worth to mention that at one point during the
encores one guy from the crew (the stage manager?) came down to have a
chat with the Blond woman in the front row. What was said? Well not too
many knows I guess. She was seen outside after the concert talking to her
friends anyway. 



Right now I'm too tired to proof-read this, and the spelling on this darn
machine is not workling. So good night, and have a nice concert tomorrow
in Helsinki. The guy providing me with a tape or other format from this
concert will be heavily rewarded .-).


If I find the time tomorrow I'll get back with a "review" of the polar
music prize award ceremony, and the following banquette (without Dylan
though..)


"...Bob 12 points".


/mattias, Lund. 

mattias@mattiasdavidsson.com

[TOP]


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