Reviews

No, I am not the guy to write reviews regulary, but I'll give it a try.

You get shivers twice a week, when your are a 17yr-old-male. In case you 
are about 50, you get shivers once in three months. It's a happy life 
that way, really. :-)

Yesterday ... a friend of mine gave me the ticket as a kind present (thx 
GV), ... I travelled 700mls to get to the show in Dornbirn's 
ice-hockey-arena. I never ever did such a mad thing before, travelling 
by car, by underground, by plane, by train, by bus and by foot ... I 
arrived 2 minutes before Bob opened.

Shivers? I got shivers nearly all over the night. Was it Bob, was it me? 
Who knows?
I fear that may have been the last shivers for me, ... maybe there are 
not that many left for the rest of my life. ;-)

Why? I do not know why.

About 12 yrs I for the first time did NOT listen to the recordings of 
the previous shows shared, happy to have done it this way this time.
You are more open to Bob and you do not think about the setlists of last 
week. I will do that again.

Fall 2003 and spring 2004 have been incredible shows with Bob ... and I 
had my doubts to see him again in such fine form. 2005-2008 are not the 
yrs I listen to a lot. ;-) I listen to compilations tttt.

Time is an ocean.

You only can deal with times you live in, you only can deal with Bob in 
times you share with him.
Sometimes that's has not been easy in the past ... but looking back he 
often did it the right way for himself and .... for us finally as well.

What do you think?

What are the reasons why I am impressed?

I will not go into a song-by-song-review, sorry.

-You can't keep a good man down. :-) Never. Never for a long time. Bob 
is a good man.

-He was open-minded and so was I. He laughed, he moved, he changed from 
piano to guitar to center stage with the harmonica. He looked like 
*preaching* to the crowd in wonderful moods. He has got much more 
pressence on-stage over the years. don't get me wrong: he always has got 
presence, but nowadays he lost some of his voice but he replaces the 
loss with sth I never would have expected. He moves like a entertainer 
of the 50s, he preached, he moves, he dances.

-The crowd (general admission on the floor, which is the best to 
happen for Bob) "moved it high" ... this is a quote by someone from 
Dylan's stuff and I share that point of view.

-Charlie Sexton is back and .... can give shivers too ... some 
mannerisms too much, but hey, I do not care.

-Things started to gel with JLAW ... the crowd singing along.

-Four minutes into Desolation Row he found a new phrasing he kept until 
the end ... and his rough voice OPENED up incredible. Reminded me of 
2000's Tambourine Man in Towson. Did kill me for the comparision, only 
trying to describe the feelings from my back. :-))

Do you know about feeling drunk when leaving a movie or a show?
The show has ended, but it goes on and on in your heart and brains.
That is what happend yesterday.

Shivers.

Go and see him.
He and his band deserve it.

Cheers
m.

They sold postcards of the hanging. YES!
And they even painted passports brown.

I was just praying that he would treat us with this masterpiece. Desolation Row:
What should I add?

Well, first of all, somebody is playing lead guitar again. What a change Charlie
Sexton makes! Even in - on Bob's standards - mediocre songs like Leopard Skin
Pill Box Hat the difference to the mellow muddling through of the last years was
striking. Nowadays Charlie sometimes bows down and gets nearly on his knees.
Suddenly songs like High Water recovered the drive I had missed for so many
years.

After a wonderful version of Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues it was obvious that
this time Bob was really on top of it. I could understand every single word and
the maestro seemed to enjoy his work.

My wife Maribel loved the variety of the show: There were sweet moments,
protest, tex-mex stuff and sometimes she felt like in an Al Capone movie. My
personal highlights were Hollis Brown, If You Ever Go to Houston, Workingman's
Blues and Ballad of a Thin Man. But even the obvious Like a Rolling Stone was
great.

What I did not like was a too nice version of Hattie Carroll. What was kind of
weird was that Picasso-like deconstruction during the last verses of
"De-so-la-tion Row". Any views on that?

The greatest thing, however, was that I had the chance to attend a Dylan concert
together with Maribel, Victoria (11) and Sara (7).

May you stay

Forever Young

Though in my personal opinion not as consistently good as Prague and Linz the
weekend before, Dornbirn was a highly enjoyable show. My fifteen-year-old son
and his friend were at the rails and eagerly expecting to hear All Along The
Watchtower this time - maybe they were the only ones. But once again it was
Forever Young, a great, great version of Forever Young, that closed the set.
Highlights were plenty and Bob was apparently having a good time. Smiling and
laughing to the girls in the front row. The presence of Charlie Sexton seemes to
make all the difference in Bob's interacting with his band.

Throughout Desolation Row it felt like getting into a car with an unpredictable
driver at the wheel. Smooth cruising through the first three verses until
suddenly the driver turned into a madman, driving crazy and fast as hell on a
bumpy road. All just for the sake of being crazy, it seemed. The manic
driving/singing-style did not stop until the very end of the song. Well, even if
this ride ended in the ditch. It was a remarkable experience with Chauffeur Bob.
Keep it up!

Erhard

... at these days when the Linz concert is still lingering in my ears
and I'm reading the reviews of the Dornbirn concert, El-Chupa and Martin
Zielke bringing me to break a promise I gave myself one year ago - not
to write any review again ... and as the foolish woman I am sometimes,
I'm writing this review without beeing there ... so, once again - pardon
me!
... there's a slogan about Linz - "in Linz it begins" (it's a rhyme in
German, but it works in English also) ... don't know what begins, it's
only a promotion slogan I think, and I never was much interested in Linz
... but I still feel Bob's rhythm on the keyboard during Forever Young,
and still hear his What good Am I when he sang the last tone of the
refrain up and then in last verse singing the refrain twice, and at last
then going down with his voice ... blues with a feeling... The Man In
Me, Ballad Of Hollis Brown, Not Dark Yet - a real marvelous, special
concert! ... would have been on tour with him to live to see all
following concerts, but the duty calls and I had to work, wanted to be
in Dornbirn too, but had to work on Saturday too ... at last I was sick
from Linz on and I neither worked nor was at the concert, what a shame!
...
... I will never understand people who are making movies the whole
concert and take always pictures ... when I'm in a concert I want to
catch all I can get at that moment, don't want to stand still because
only then you get good pictures, just want to listen, listen, listen -
the better the concert the more I don't want to loose any attention by
doing other things ...
... that's the one side, on the other side I am so thankfully for what I
could see and hear on YouTube from the Dornbirn concert so that I got a
glimpse of that concert that gives me an impression what I've missed -
you lucky one who were there! ... do I hear it right, he's playing
acoustic guitar on Working Man's Blues #2 on the beginning??? oh, I love
that song - no, I hear also the keyboard, so it's Charlie? ...
Desolation Row, what an interpretation! somebody wrote that he didn't
like his staccato singing, but I really do (it remembers me of the
version on the unplugged album), the band, so great - that lucky men and
that lucky man on the stage - I envy you all on the stage and in front
of - The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll like Desolation Row -
breathtaking (thanks El_Chupa for this word!) - The Ballad Of Hollis
Brown, beautiful as in Linz, Don't Think Twice It's All Right, really
only a glimpse on YouTube but thanks for that piece also ... some other
songs I didn't find not at all, a pity ...

my heart's a-burnin'

Forever Young - thank you so much for the gesture, Bob, would like to
hear more!!!!!!!!

keep it up!!

Anita Pravits