Review

(This is a few days late, but since "Theme Time Radio Hour" is putting me in 
the mood and no other reviews are posted, I suppose I may as well add 
something to the record --  even though I'm sure it will be only an overview.)

Monsoonal evening at the Snow Park Amphitheater.  Drenched to the bone 
by thunderstorms from both above and onstage.  Crowd both ecstatic and 
thunderstruck.  

Set list for the ages.  Bob glowed - frequent smiles and sly grins accenting the 
moments.  The boys looked a bit road weary from the outset but got more in 
the groove with each rearranged selection from that quite singular canon.  
First show with this current outfit except for Tony and George, of course, but, 
as has been the case in recent decades, there is an overwhelming dance band 
sensibility.   It may have been way too wet to take notes but nothing could 
keep the faithful from rockin' the Bob world on this quite soggy and muddy 
night.

Onstage communications were as subtle as ever as breaks were passed around.  
Donnie seemed to be locked-in to Bob's hands on the keyboard all night but 
the why of it never surfaced.  Actually, everyone seemed to be watching 
everyone else with Tony, as usual, interpreting the "bobby language" for the 
others.  None of them did all that much except to perfectly serve each song 
with exquisite nuance.  Stu, flaunting a Tom Waits' visual shtick, allowed his 
body and facial expressions to join in on his few lead breaks… which he nailed!  
In that his bandmates were somewhat more stoic in providing their impeccable 
riffs, it was refreshing.  Denny's guitar neck never budged.  Bob, whodda 
thunkit, might well have been the most animated of the bunch.  Good 
though!

The set seemed a couple of songs short, more like you might get when other 
acts share the bill.  It may have been Bob's nod to the weather gods but there 
wasn't a soul present who would have traded a moment of this kind of musical 
bliss for one in a drier, more physically comfortable, setting.  But after "Like a 
Rolling Stone," the sole encore, the boys lined up with Bob in the middle 
continually gesturing his appreciation to the crowd for both the rapturous 
ovation cascading over the stage and the delirious reception they accorded 
each word and each note of each tune throughout this most memorable 
show.  

(Bob just did the longest radio voice-over "walk-up I've ever heard on the intro 
to Neil Young's "Old Man" as part of TTRH.)

Sure I miss Charlie and Larry… but that doesn't mean this wasn't my favorite 
show ever!  Bob is soooo on his game!  As are his mates!  

Jay Meehan 
Heber, Utah

For more on the line ambience, here's a link to my 
weekly column in The Park Record newspaper:     
http://www.parkrecord.com/jaymeehan/ci_10364325