Reviews
Berlin, Germany
Uber Eats Music Hall

October 10, 2024

[Rechi van Lehen], [Lani Makholm], [Cornelia Grosch and Helmut Mehnert], [Sergi Fabregat], [Werner Kehl]

Review by Rechi van Lehen


It was clear that something was going on when Bob came and didn't sit down at the
piano. He stood a few seconds facing the audience, then turned back and grabbed 
his guitar. Then he played a long intro to "All Along The Watchtower", standing 
before the drum podium and playing with his back against the crowd! (standing 
all through a long intro), then he took seat at the piano and played the first 
verse on piano. Before the second verse he stood up, took his guitar and sat 
down at the piano, this time facing the audio (well, mostly hidden by the piano,
of course). Then he placed the guitar on his knees and played it whilst 
singing second and third verses.
On "It Ain't Me, Babe" Bob played the first verse again on piano, then he grabbed 
a harmonica, but took it back and grabbed the guitar again. He played it again 
sitting on his piano stool and played a long instrumental part before singing 
second verse (I could see this very well through my binoculars from first row 
balcony left side of stage).
Overall the instrumental parts where longer than usual and maked the show exactly 
2 hours long - approximately 10 minutes longer then the first 4 shows of the tour.
Sometimes the playing was very close to chaos. The overall sound was very dark and 
bluesy, the instrumental parts sometimes sounded like a mix between Arnold 
Schönberg and John Cale but they never lost control. The adjectives "rough" and 
"rowdy" are well deserved this evening.

[TOP]

Comments by Lani Makholm


Berlin Oct 11, 2024 Bob Dylan concert.. it was the purity he once had IN 1963 
before as he sang with such anguish&despair of a missed opportunity for greatness..
'I opened my heart to the world and it rushed in'

FALSE PROPHET
"Another day that don't end
Another ship goin' out
Another day of anger, bitterness, and doubt
I know how it happened
I saw it begin
I opened my heart to the world and the world came in"

                                Or
Mother of Muses wherever you are whom he left back there

"I've grown so tired of chasing lies
 Mother of Muses wherever you are?!"

He found that purity and greatness last night in Berlin. It began to surface and 
rise in Austin, Texas. I and many others were there and can bear witness to the 
rise again of such transcendent joy once again released.

          Mother muse returns to center stage

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Review by Cornelia Grosch and Helmut Mehnert


My dearest Conny and I attended our third Dylan concert after 2019 and
2022 at the same venue in Berlin Friedrichshain, only not in the big
Mercedes Benz Arena, but in the slightly more intimate Music Hall, whose
name I won't mention.
And that's part of what another participant said: "...the soulless
ambience of Berlin's East Side Mall surrounds us!" Which we successfully
ignored by having a cheerful Bobcats pre-show at the ALEX restaurant
next to the venue.

When the show started at 8 o'clock, which we couldn't control without
our smartphones ;-) we saw a somewhat disturbed Bob scurrying around
behind a pale black grand piano - I wouldn't call this one a baby grand!
 From our perspective, we could see Bob picking up a guitar and playing
sitting on an amp or something like that with his back to the audience
and looking at Jim Keltner behind his drum kit. As someone posted
afterwards, this could have been kind of lesson to the drummer on how
Bob wanted the new arrangement of All along the watchtower wanted. So we
have to admit that it didn't go so well at the beginning of the night
and people started to wonder what was going to happen next. He put the
guitar down and sang the song in a voice we could barely hear, and so it
was a rowdy prelude to the show. The same happened with the second song
and again the guitar playing it only lasted a short time.
We hold fast: we were there when he started playing the guitar again  on
stage ;-)

This time we won't go into the interpretation of the setlist this time,
because for us it was the production of Bob's performance on stage that
was most important. And we realized that most of the critics of Bob's
last performances didn't quite understand what this was all about. And to
many of our friends, it didn't occur too. But of course, what we have to
say is not a doctrine, but a thesis that some other participants agreed
with when we told them.

Conny and I were very astonished by Bob's behavior in a room of no more
than three square meters in which he performed very impressively this
evening. Our first impression was of a very lively Bob, which we haven't
seen for a few years, when Bob was hiding behind the piano more than
communicating with the audience. That was really different on this day.
Although he sat and stood behind the piano most of the time, we watched
him as much more open to public the whole time than we've seen him the
last few times. And above all, we don't think that he occasionally
looked annoyed at the audience, as some have said. We think that's a
misinterpretation.

So what did he do that leads us to our opinion?

Firstly  he frequently got up and walked to the right side of the piano,
which actually is center stage. This was part of the new arrangement of
the instruments. So these walks became part of his intention to build an
intimate room for his performance with a better chance to communicate
with the audience. And yes he usually had one hand on the piano. But
that's nothing to worry about for a man of his age! He moved his legs
like starting to dance and we liked that. And it showed he is in good
shape and really had fun!

Secondly, he often changed his position on the piano bench and looked in
different directions towards the band, the audience and to imaginary
people who seemed to surround him. This was an important impression for
us: he was sitting at a right angle on the bench so that even there we
could see him in his full figure. But he was more like hanging on the
bench than sitting upright, and he was talking more to one or more
persons in front of him than singing a song. This behaviour was striking
and made us feel comfortable. So he became more and more familiar to us
during the show and we started to smile and loved the way he acted.

And thirdly it was new to us how he was standing behind but leaning over
the piano, and sometimes starring into the audience accompanied by
touching his face or his hair by chance. This reminded us of someone
leaning over the bar talking to the bartender where you relax late at
night like he also expressed it in some of his paintings. And in fact
these were the moments when he recited his Rough and Rowdy lyrics more
than he sang them and omitted playing the piano.
Or as our friend Filip from Prague put in a post about the 3rd concert
over there:
"I love the idea of the baby grand piano with the lights... it really
looks like a night bar where he is telling the stories to the bartender
and whoever is listening, late at night..."

So this is our opinion about the idea behind his current behavior on
these three square meters he is using for his personal performance.
Maybe you like this idea too - but of course it isn't so obvious to
recognize in big arenas like the one in Erfurt and other venues to come.

Cornelia Grosch and Helmut Mehnert
Berlin/Germany

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Review by Sergi Fabregat


Before going to sleep on the autumn of my content I must say, after a
beautiful post show with some lovely bobcats, that again Bob turned around
all expectations. Perhaps the most special thing it has occured me tonight
has been that, during 'Made Up My Mind', 'Mother of Muses' and 'Every
Grain of Sand' I've seen the real him at last, an absolute blurring of any
layer it could exist between my eyes and the most profound meanings of his
words and phrasings.

Tonight, at some points, I could actively glue my vision to him and his
meanderings and demeanours and feel as if there was no such thing as a
performance, as if I was looking at just a body, a voice, sounds, beats,
lights. All felt so basic, so fundational yet at the same time so
elaborated and futuristic. That image of Bob at the beginning, playing
guitar like a statue giving his back to us seemed as much as of a horror
movie than of an ancient prophecy.

Some words contained multitudes, like that one precisely, again igniting
the unknown roads this show is now taking. Again, what has left me
absolutely exhausted with the feeling that I've seen him, it has been even
scary, and I can name the precise moment: "I travelled the long road ...
Of dispair". That one line, something has happened within me.

And a bit later, a 'Mother of Muses' that has had this intangible mood
that has touched me so deeply I'm afraid to reduce its effects to an
specific word. Speaking with the eyes, tired of lies, tired of lifes. Harp
or no harp, one of the best performances in the whole tour...

I could swear he was seeing straight to me during the last 'Grain of Sand'
verse, at least his voice was. We will speak in decades from now that we
were at these shows, they are morphing.


[TOP]

Review by Werner Kehl


Writing a review almost a week after seeing a concert I feel like the
student I was 40 years ago when I would hand in my essays and papers way
past the deadline.  As there were good reasons back then (of course;-))
there are reasons now too that I won't necessarily get into.

What can I add that hasn't already been stated? A few personal
observations that underline the claims others have made similarly already
whether it's the punters here or the professionals (like Ralph Gehrke
whose observations for rollingstone.de and radioeins.de clearly stood out
as far as I'm concerned).

What strikes me most is that I believe Dylan has finally found his
position on stage for good a mere twenty years after having given up
front-man and guitarist position that he had maintained throughout his
entire career up until that point.  In 2003 when I first saw him without a
guitar in his hands he had a wild sounding keyboard he played from the
left side of the stage; after that for a number of years he had an
electric piano and was coming from the right; last time around he had an
upright piano where he was nowhere to be seen from unless you were in the
nosebleed section of the auditorium and could look down on him.  Now he's
center stage looking right at his audience and we can see him  and the
antics he's up to. Really important (imho): his guitarists are real close
to him, right by his side; one is a few feet away on the right, the other
same position to the left.  They are positioned slightly behind him and
thus the three of them make up a triangle; the guitarists look at each
other as they play, checking each other out. They see what Bob is doing
with the keys and Bob can easily catch either of them with whatever eye. 
The rhythm aces doin' drum n bass back up the rear and this unit is as
cohesive as it gets! That thing at the beginning with AATW and IAMB?? They
are in a huddle on the opening drive ready for some serious action!!
(imho: these two new guitarists gelled last thursday like I last witnessed
in the Larry C./C.Sexton).

And Bob? Bob is using his piano like a lectern, a pulpit, or a podium like
he's giving a sermon or a lecture (yes, indeed, I felt like a student
again last thursday in Berlin;-))

Needless to say, this show was a lot better than when Rough & Rowdy Ways
was presented to me almost exactly two years ago to this date in the same
venue. The sound was fantastic back then when I was gazing from the left
side, but it seemed even better now when coming straight at me.  Not every
song and arrangement worked for me but the highs outnumbered the lows by a
mile and a half.

One serious disappointment: no covers. Which meant not a nod to Kris
Kristofferson (Help Me Make It Through The Night at the 3spot would, could
and should have been appropriate imho; on a side note: I saw fellow
Minnesota musician Charlie Paar the night before in a small club where he
paid tribute to Spider John Koerner with one song and I'm still convinced
to this day Bob oughta tip his hat to KK somewhere down the line in his
set).

But this tour is still in the early innings, who knows what's still to
come in the days and weeks ahead...

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