Review

It was another good, though not transcendent show at the brand new 
rehabbed Met in Philly. As he did in Atlantic City, Bob came out vocally
strong and stayed that way throughout the night. Again the first few songs
were pretty much warmups with nice harp on “Simple Twist Of Fate”  The
“Rumble” version of “Cry A While” was fun, but I’m still not
sure this arrangement is better than the original. “When I Paint My
Masterpiece” seems designed to be a highlight, but in this version, it
comes a little short of hitting the mark. The song really needs the beat
it originally had, and the lyric changes seem like changes simply for the
sake of changing. That said, one of the thing happening on this tour and
“Masterpiece” was a fine example, is Bob’s developed a cool habit of
answering his vocal with what he’s playing on the piano.

“Scarlet Town” was one of the key high points of the show with Bob
standing at center stage using the microphone stand as a prop, with
Charlie Sexton adding guitar punctuations, and Donnie Herron sort of
playing Chinese music on the banjo. Dylan has changed the melody slightly
so the very last line of each verse now goes up instead of staying the
same which makes the verses more effective, and the way he stands there
hand on hip during the brief between verse interludes is simply fun. The
lyrics of “Pay In Blood,” easily the nastiest of any of Dylan’s more
recent songs are diminished by the current arrangement, though he put a
lot into the line, “Show me your moral virtue first.”

“Like A Rolling Stone” was quite good with the emphasis going to the
last word of each verse with him stretching out meal, deal, steal and
conceal as long as he could and putting a lot into it as well. It was the
one song where the incessant talker sitting in front of me shut up and
tried to clap along until she realized it was useless.

The second high point of the show was again “Don’t Think Twice, It’s
All Right,” with Dylan on piano backed by bowed bass and very subtle
pedal steel with the full band only coming in at the very end. It is an
astoundingly beautiful arrangement that truly brings out the sadness
inherent in the lyrics.

“Thunder On The Mountain” was quite good and a lot of fun, as was the
revved up “Gotta Serve Somebody.”

The third highlight was the first encore, a slow simmering, “It Takes A
Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry” that found Charlie Sexton playing
a Les Paul Gibson, taking his best solo of the night. That said, there’s
something missing from the band right now I can’t quite put my finger
on. The easy answer would be Stu Kimball. But there’s a force that was
there that’s missing, though one of the people I went to the show with
who saw some of the shows on this tour in the South said it didn’t
happen in the smaller theaters.

At the same time Bob Dylan is singing a hell of a lot better than he did
ten years ago and I’m trying to figure out how he pulled that trick off.

As at the Beacon last Thursday, at Monday's Philly show, Bob and his four
band mates were as tight as ever.  The concerts are remarkable not only
for musicality, concept and execution, but also for the way each --
George, Tony, Charlie and Donnie -- of the band shines brightly. This is a
team sport.

They've all adopted "the look" and "the stare" and suit up in nifty, tidy
togs, betraying no emotion on their faces, a la Bob. But they were working
their fingers to the bone and keenly eyeing each other. The one break from
character I saw in Philly was when Tony broadly smiled at George's
beautiful solo.

Charlie brings the Thelma to Bob's Louise as partners in crime. I missed
him dearly during his "hiatus" and his presence in the past two passages
in the area is greatly appreciated. They seem to calibrate each other.

Don't get me started on Donnie. There seems to be no instrument he doesn't
completely "own." Of note were his playing on the electric mandolin on
Thunder and violin for the Blowin' encore. The way he punctuated --
playing one note, one note, one note -- was reminiscent of many a Bob harp
solo.  And there were quite a few of those last night in Philly, too, in
case we weren't spoiled enough.


Before I say something about a couple of highlights, I'd like to observe
that this series of shows is high on conception. If you haven't read
Johnny B.'s "There's a rumbling in the skies" blog post about the Nov. 24
show, start there.  The 1950s Link Wray is the unifying element at the
heart of this show's conceit. Most obviously, it's there verbatim in Cry A
While -- in true BD fashion subbing in a completely different tune, in
this instance Wray's "Rumble" and setting it to well known lyrics in his
catalog. And Rumble+Wray are there in spirit throughout the concert with
Tony's ambient bass, the low Recile rumbling that permeates the evening,
and the incredible tension that Bob builds up tinkling, tinkling, all
night long either in high or low registers of the piano. There are times
when all this ambiance makes you ill at ease or want to burst with the
release that comes with a kind of West Side Story rumble.

Dylan, never one to bore or be bored, did that little career-long trick of
transposing lyrics and melodies many times throughout the evening. In
Philly, he subbed in the tune of Simple Twist when he sang Make You Feel
My Love. Interesting mash up if you think about both songs' lyrics. And of
course, Make You Feel My Love was not recognizable tune-wise for a long
minute.

The way the band winds up LARS is a perfect example of this
tension-setting agenda. This time warp they introduce, throwing on the
breaks til it gets to an impossibly slow build up and then letting it
loose after Bob's steam whistle signal -- his loud and nasal double E
sound in "FEEEEL" "DEEEEL" "STEAL". It's just like a spring that's being
slowly compressed and once that double E sounds, the spring is released
into the explosive and rollicking chorus where the band regains velocity. 

It is completely exhilarating.

Thunder -- continuing in under the flag of Rumble + Wray -- was easily the
pinnacle at the Met. The band leaned into it, each with a moment to shine,
and it was a state of grace on the last night nearing the end of their
last set of this leg of NET.

How does this show hang together so completely and beautifully as a whole?
It is concept theater from start to finish! In his own NYC residency, I
felt very possibly that Bob was delivering a response to Bruce
Springsteen's residency on Broadway. Yet where Bruce was stripped down,
solo and loquacious, the Sphinx was still kitted out with the best band in
the business letting his carefully stitched together catalog both tell his
personal tale and be the "book" of the show.  Maybe Conor McPherson's play
(at the Public Theater now and moving soon to Broadway it is rumored) also
gave Bob some inspiration about going back into the catalog, picking
thematic plums and arranging them cohesively but in their juxtaposition
and in their scoring.

But what does it all say?

It occurs to me that something a little deeper may be going on, too. He
took from early and late albums and arranged as they were I walked out
with a sense of quite a dark commentary on the state of our world -- and
our country -- yet pierced with hope. It's no mistake they kick off with
Things Have Changed and end up with Blowin' in the Wind.  This is Bob's
commentary on the current and scary morass of our country's making--a time
warp back to the 1960s upheaval that Bob knew so well. And buried in many
a song song are dark thoughts about bad politicians and leaders. You might
tell me that this is just the timelessness of the bard at work. And I
would agree. You can put a lens to anything he stitches together and come
out with a road map of humanity.

To traditionalists and folks coming to Bob for the early chestnuts, this
concept and the changing up of the songs is clearly mystifying given the
reaction, and, for many, it's a royal turn off.  But if you've stayed with
the Dylan program, you know one thing: expect the unexpected and come
ready to ride that genius Bob wave. 

In our nation's first capital, I can't think of a better fanfare to herald
the Met's new life than a performance by our national treasure declaring
his independence. As indeed he does every time he goes on stage.

That's Dylan. "Always on the outside of whatever side there was. When they
asked him why it had to be that way, 'Well,' he answered, 'just because.'"

Maybe the 41st time? Maybe the 42d? Whatever - I have been going to see 
Bob since the days of Gerde's Folk City in NYC in May 1963, and hope I can 
keep doing this for many, many more years. And last night - in Philadelphia at 
the rehabbed opera house a/k/a, The Met - was certainly the best in at least 
the last six years (most likely, eight years since Terminal 5 in NYC). Hi voice was 
strong, clear, each word enunciated, on pitch. The band continues to be the 
best back up group he has ever had (and for those who know me, I love and 
always loved The Band, but as a backup group [which The Band never wanted 
to be], this group (should they be called the Tony Garnier All-Stars? Yeah, I 
think so) is absolutely perfect in the way it supports and meshes with Bob, 
upfront where needed, receding into the background where needed. I had 
thought I would miss Stu, and a couple of times, I truly did, but as part of the 
one-door-closes-one-door-opens philosophy of life, Donnie's soaring musical
instrumentalism shone in this new set-up in ways that added so much to the 
band's propulsive force.

First, the venue. Oscar Hammerstein pere built it for the opera well over 10 
years ago. It fell on hard times in more recent years, having been used as a 
basketball arena, a vocational school and a church. It has been restored to 
unimaginable luster with brilliant acoustics (I have always said that the NJ PAC 
in Newark had the best acoustics of any US concert hall I had ever been in; 
that may have moved to second place), so much that half the time, I expected 
to hear Nessun Dorma or Celeste Aida instead of Things Have Changed or 
Scarlet Town. The downside at being at the opening show in a new arena:  
the tickets map didn't quite tell us that the seats we had purchased (with my 
friend Len, with whom I went to the Tower/Mavis show last year), Loge, C1 
and 2, were obstructed view (couldn't see Bobby, the piano or Donnie and his 
passel of instruments). A chat with the box office manager (it was a sell-out, 
but, right, a sell-out is never really a sell-out) brought us down to the orchestra 
next to the sound board, which gave us perfect sight lines. Thank you, Erin!

And the music, No surprises in the set list, that included two lifers for me, 
albeit lifers with very different lyrics than the recorded versions (or 
earlier-recorded bootleg versions) [When I Paint My Masterpiece, and Gotta 
Serve Somebody] along with a second-time ever, It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It 
Takes A Train To Cry (in case anyone was wondering - the other time was also 
in Philly, the Mann, 8/97, in the downpour, for those who had been there). 
There were songs I had seen over 25 times, and songs I had seen a handful 
(all those from Tempest). But, they all meshed. The flow was seamless. And 
the 1:50 passed like it was 15 minutes. I could have stayed and stayed and 
stayed. 

I was one of those who groaned when Bob went Great American Songbook 
on us, and mostly tolerated it when I saw the shows that included those 
songs (and he did a sorta decent job on them, but each time I thought - he 
has SO MUCH OF HIS OWN TO OFFER. WHY THIS??). Thrilled that he has 
abandoned this (sorry, Mike S.!) and hope he never returns to it. So, when I 
kvetch about his singing Honest To Me later in this post, ask me rhetorically, 
"Would I rather have seen that or Melancholy Mood"?,  it's not a close 
question…

Some thoughts on the songs:

Things Have Changed. Go ahead. All of you who, in 2000 said, "Oh, by the end 
of 2018, Bob will have performed this live nearly 1000 times," raise your hands. 
Right, What I thought. Who would have ever?? This was the last song on the 
second disc of The Essential Bob Dylan, and has, of course, been the opener 
forever for many years. I have always thought it was a great song but have also 
wondered how long it will stay in that slot (remember Jokerman? Crash on the 
Levee? Absolutely Sweet Marie?). Well, it stays because it works so well. 
George's use of mallets on the drums gave it more of a kick than I can ever 
remember; it seemed as if Charlie was almost playing along w Tony on the 
lower end of the register. Bob's enunciation of "wheel [pause] barrow" was 
priceless. Great beginning.

It Ain't Me Babe. My least favorite performance of the night. A rigid, march-like 
4-4 (am thinking he did this last year at the Tower show as well). OK, he's 
entitled.

Highway 61 Revisited. I have heard this at least 25 times (no set lists from 
most of my concerts in the 60s, alas), and really, how much more can there 
be? LOTS more. A scorching version over a rolling beat (almost calliope-ish in 
construction). So clear now that Bob is in great form tonight.

Simple Twist of Fate. Languid. Two harp solos. Some more piano improvisation 
than usual.  And the song always does bring a "tingle to [my] bones."

Cry A While. Delivered in full-on declamatory style with the homage to Link 
Wray's Rumble. (Fun fact: The night after Link Wray died, Bob played, as part 
of his intro, Rumble. That night, I saw Bruce do a solo show in Trenton, and 
he started with Rumble. How many other times have they both played the 
same cover on the same night?)

When I Paint My Masterpiece. My first lifer (I may have seen The Band do this 
in their Trenton show in 94, but, alas, no set list for that show is available 
anywhere). Many new lyrics (I am assuming that someone who has seen 
many shows in this series has transcribed them; would love to see them). On 
"seeeeeeing double", he held on to the first syllable for that long. A 
longer-than-usual solo by Donnie on pedal steel. Truthfully, I had never thought 
I would see this one (before this tour, it had been 7 years, and 10 years ago 
for a one-off in the US), and now, of course, am speculating whether this will 
be it.

Honest to Me. In past reviews, I have always kvetched about the concerts that 
had this and/or Summer Days and/or Tweedle Dum. Why these? (Alex, my son, 
speculates, "Maybe he like to play them?", and he may be right). Musically, it 
was OK, but, again, there is so much in his songbook that I would rather hear. 
Do I have the right to be a bit harrumphy about this? Not sure, actually.

Tryin' to Get to Heaven. I so love Tony's stand-up bass (first time all night; 
missing from set list posted yesterday). The words "before they close the door" 
have been in mind ever since (one of my best friends passed away a week ago, 
so anything with an image like this is going to stay with me longer than it might 
have otherwise). Great rendition.

Scarlet Town.  One of the high points of the night. One of the high points of 
this decade's Bob concerts. Bob center stage. Donnie's banjo sounding 
quasi-Asian in the opening lines. Bob holding the mike in that 1930's-40's way 
he did during the crooner period (that I liked, actually). Perfect voice. What a 
great couplet to think about in current times - "The evil and the good livin' side 
by side/All human forms seem glorified." Bob's hands akimbo. Bob walking with 
the mike. Bob doing a bit of prancing (haven't seen that for years). Bob, 
owning the crowd, the room, the city. A partial standing ovation. I was on my 
feet.

Make You Feel My Love. I read a while ago that someone had posted on 
Facebook, "Gee, I never knew Bob Dylan would cover an Adele song!", and 
that has stayed with me ever since. Is this his most covered song since 
Watchtower? Most likely. I know the "highway of regret" line comes right from 
a Stanley Brothers song, but… so what? Still one of his best, most on-point, 
most Bob-bish lyrics of the post-Desire era. The band seemed to be playing 
faster than Bob was singing, and I couldn't figure out at first if that was 
planned, but realized after eight bars that Tony would have slowed them down 
if it hadn't been what Bob had wanted. A couple was dancing in the aisle near 
where we were sitting and that was fine. More harp. Certainly not on my all 
time set list, but it certainly worked.

Pay in Blood. I didn't play close enough attention, knowing what was coming 
next, and have the fewest notes for this than for any other song. The march 
tempo seemed to me to work better than it did for IAM,B, but this isn't one 
of the songs that I will spend lots of time thinking about.

Like a Rolling Stone. My first one since Barclay's 2012, and my 24th of all time.. 
Opening had a Hawaiian feel not unlike Scarlet Town (tho Donnie was on pedal 
steel here, not banjo). Absolutely brilliant version. Staring with the "Now you 
don't talk so loud/ Now you don't seem so proud" line, he slowed down to 
about a 1/3 speed, and on each of the words rhyming with steal-feel-conceal, 
he drew out the "eel" syllable for what sounded like more than a full bar. 
Brilliant (did I say that already?). Again, a creative piano solo. Terrific interplay 
with the band. Total standing ovation. Totally deserved.

Early Roman Kings. When I heard this on Tempest and then the first time that 
I saw it in concert, I thought it was a silly throw away. Oh, was I wrong. The l
yrics sound better with every hearing (I vacillate between "sluggers and 
muggers" and "ding-dong daddy" as my favorite lines). Kinda a call-and-response 
between Bob and the band.  Tony's stand-up bass again a stand out.

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright. When I listened to the Beacon concerts (and 
some of the earlier ones) on YouTube, I felt this was almost a dirge, that it 
dragged a bit, and was too mournful for a song about - let's face it - a 
teenage breakup. This was, again, brilliant, and going back thru the set lists, 
the best of the many times I have seen him in the current era (I was at the 
Halloween concert in 1964, and can't remember if that was the first time or 
not). Great staging. Bob's piano was all that was visible for the first verse, in 
the second the lights started to go on. I had almost thought - from my seat I 
couldn't be sure - that they had moved the scrim behind him (that was just an 
optical illusion). "I give her my heart but she wanted my soul" is, to me, one of 
greatest lyrics of my lifetime. Stunning stunning version.

Love Sick. (I looked at my watch at this point to see how much more was left 
(6 songs!), but I also thought Dayenu!  (from the Passover service; "it would 
have been enough"), though of course, I greedily inhaled the rest of the night. 
The point was that these first 14 songs gave me more hope and inspiration and 
sense of creative force than most other concerts by almost anyone else I have 
ever seen in my 55+ years of concert going). Opening chords always blow me 
away, and this was no exception. What is more ominous than the "silence can 
feel like thunder" line? Again, Bob's diction and pitch perfect. Band is so 
cohesive, so together, so coherent (not sure I have ever used that word in a 
music review before). This is one of the many Bob songs that I have drawn on 
for titles of law review articles I have written; this one was "my brain is so 
wired," and this is the first I heard this since the article was published, so that 
was a bonus.

Thunder on the Mountain.  I expected, pre-concert, I was simply going to type 
"Yawn" here. Wrong. It started like a rockabilly burner, and then continued to 
explode. George's drum solo was worth !!!! on my note pad. Winston remains 
my favorite Bob drummer of the modern era, but this performance by George 
was spectacular. Having said that, there are lots of other songs in the BD 
corpus that could be just as explosive, rock just as much, and give room for an 
equally great solo. Maybe next year? (I checked; this is only the 11th time I 
have heard this; feels like 30 (g)),

Soon After Midnight. I saw this as sort of a filler on this set list, and again, I was 
looking ahead to my upcoming 2d new lifer. But again - strong vocals, excellent 
band back up (Bob gets stronger as the night goes on; they get stronger. 
Think of a basketball player who explodes for 15 points in the 4th quarter).  In 
Charlie's solo, I was pretty sure I heard the melody of Blue Moon; curious if 
anyone else picked that up? My favorite line remains "two timing slim/who's 
ever heard of him."

Gotta Serve Somebody. Lifer #2. I remember missing BD's concert at the 
Palace in NYC 10 years ago, when he sang this, and thinking, "Damn! There 
goes my one chance!" But there's always a second act on life (in Bob's case a 
7th or 8th, I guess). Another 60's rocker (sorry I missed the Peter Gunn 
versions that he did at the first few shows in this series…), lots of new lyric, 
and mostly, lots of fun. For Bob and the audience. At one point, it seemed to
me that Tony, Charlie and Donnie (playing lap steel on this) were playing the 
same notes (above the chords; maybe even no chords?) and I had never 
heard that before. Again, hoping the new lyrics have been transcribed.

It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry. Again, only my 2d time ever, 
first in 20 yrs. I had been so excited when he brought Watchtower back to 
this slot, as I haven't seen that since the Dawes-opening-act concert in 
Delaware in 13. Though, truth be told, the ones I had heard were kinda 
desultory. Then the Johnny Mercer> James Brown > Albert King covers. Then 
Long and Wasted Years. And finally this. Yowza! A basic 12 bar blues, but with 
such feeling, such balladic intensity. Such great great guitar work by Charlie. 
Wow.

Blowin' in the Wind. Did I first see Bob sing this at Gerde's in 63? I - this is so 
embarassing!- am not sure if I were at the Town Hall 4/63 concert? Certainly, 
at the latest, at the March on Washington in August 1963. And those versions, 
of course, were of course, musically so different from the current waltz version 
(6/8? 12/8?) led off by Donnie's beautiful and mournful violin solo, But  it is
impossible (well, for me at least, a veteran of the civil rights and anti-war 
movements) to hear this song in 2018, without my mind reverting to what it 
was like to hear this song in 1962 and 1963 and 1964. Will we ever be that 
hopeful again? Sigh… The perfect song to end the tour in the opening night 
of a building that had seen so much history.

So, a brilliant concert. I now only go to one Bob show per tour because of the 
static set lists, so lots more rides for me on each one than it used to. This one 
shone like an eruption of stars in the sky. I am, as always, grateful, that Bob 
has been part of my life for 55 years. May he be so for many more…

Michael Perlin
mlperlin@gmail.com

The 10th concert (50th overall) in my seventeen day Dylan odyssey came to
a grand finale at the magnificently refurbished and re-opened Met
Philadelphia opera house. Ain't it just like Bob to close his tour by
opening a new venue. The grand opera house was full to the rafters with a
restless crowd, many a Bobcat to be found, ready to greet our hero. And I
was one lucky soul who somehow managed to cop a front row ticket (at face
value) directly where Bob stands to play piano... pinch me! From Atlantic
City — to Waterbury — to the Beacon residency, I had been blessed to see
some great performances (Friday Dec. 1 at the Beacon being the high point)
and I was as anticipatory as the crowd for another good night. 

And a good night it was, as Bob and the Cowboys put the finishing touches
on the 2018 U.S. tour with a top shelf performance. The crowd was not yet
settled in when the intro music started... no time to hesitate... 'I'm a
worried man, with a worried mind'... Bob intones in fine voice on the
opener THINGS HAVE CHANGED. No, no, no, it don't matter if you talk or if
you walk behind me tonight, as I will only hear Bob and his very sweet bit
of piano during a lovely IT AIN'T ME, BABE. The Band is in glorious form
as drums, bass, slide and guitar drive a pulsating HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED.
They follow that with a soft, sweet SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE with beautiful
harp work by Bob. Next, bile replaces beauty... a mean and nasty bit of
guitar from Charlie dominates a venomous CRY A WHILE. Then a wonderful
WHEN I PAINT MY MASTERPIECE where Bob elongates his phrasing with
exquisite timing... 'my cup is runneth ooooooooooo, ooooooo, ooooooo,
oooooooo, ver'. Wow!

So far, so good. Six excellent songs in the book. The next five songs in
the show are always a challenge as the audience members who are there for
the hits usually start to lose focus. When Bob and the boys nail these
songs, as they do tonight, it takes the show up a notch. Bob does his best
Little Richard/Jerry Lee Lewis impersonation as he stands banging the
piano for a rocking version of HONEST WITH ME. The band is up for the task
of keeping time with Bob's quirky and wandering piano in TRYIN' TO GET TO
HEAVEN. Bob flubs the beginning of the next entry, SCARLET TOWN, but
nevertheless delivers to a standing ovation. This song featured Charlie
and Donnie doing the front work and George and Tony filling in the voids.
The crowd immediately recognizes and then appreciates a sweet version of
MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE. This song had very cool piano work and fantastic
harp play.

Song #11, PAY IN BLOOD, is a thorn in the setlist. It is not the fault of
the song, it is the fault of the upbeat melody. But although the song
suffers initially, it is rescued after Dylan utters the line... 'I got
dogs, could tear you limb from limb'... the song changes character to
become more ominous (as it should be). The second half of this song
rescued, it propels the balance of the songs in the concert to a higher
level. And this was the pattern throughout the 10 shows I saw. The shows
would open fast and excel for the first six songs, then settle into a
varied pace for the next five, and then finally finish on a roll through
the encores. 

Tonight Bob and the boys run the table to finish with superior versions of
LARS (crowd pleaser), ERK (slow and mean, wave those handkerchiefs), DON'T
THINK TWICE (beautiful, even with the people talking behind me), LOVE SICK
(moody, Charlie cooks), SOON AFTER MIDNIGHT (pretty as pie) and GOTTA
SERVE SOMEBODY... 'you may be on the borderline, holding down the fort,
you may be a lawyer, headin' for your day in court'...you gotta serve
somebody, yeah!!' (outrageous performance). One of the best set closers I
can recall!

For our first encore, and the penultimate song of the tour, we are once
again treated to a fabulous reading of IT TAKES A LOT TO LAUGH, IT TAKES A
TRAIN TO CRY. Bob shows off his timely vocal delivery while the band
explodes forth like uncaged animals. Stunning! Our second encore ends the
tour with a typically great BLOWIN' IN THE WIND where Bob closes it out
with gorgeous harp work. Bravo!!

My take away from all of this... Bob is once again at the top of his game
and we just witnessed one of his best tours in years. Whether it is his
newly found voice, inflection, delivery and phrasing... his exploratory
piano... his transcendent harp play... or his idiosyncratic manner, Bob
has found a magic potion that works. Add to that a band that is able to
run the gamut from americana to zydeco and we are witnessing one of the
epochal runs of Bob's career. We can only keep our fingers crossed that we
get to see a repeat next year.

Thanks to Bob and the Cowboys.

PS1. It was really nice to see all of the happy Bobcats this tour.. too
many to remember... cd Ed (you are the man), always nice to see the
radiant Mangala (and her pal Asha), Canadian Sue (don't be so aggressive ;
} ), L.A. Kathleen (we need a lower stage), Downtown Ben (we will smoke
again), Greenpoint Phil (via England), English Ian and his girl Amber (I
owe you a drink), Swedish Victor, Wessel from the Netherlands, Jan from
Norway, Laurette (everyone knows her), Barry and Dylan, Rick and his girl
from Massachusetts and many, many more. Hope to see all of you again on
the next tour. 

PS2. To all of those who commented nicely about my high spirits and
energy... thank you. To all of those whose view I may have temporarily
blocked while dancing and prancing... I apologize. To all of those that
asked an usher to ask me to sit... I pity you.

PS3. Thank you Bill Pagel for your website