"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue in Stuttgart" - To keep my impressions
of Stuttgart short and to start with the conclusion: Bob's almost
sold-out performance in Stuttgart was not his best. The performance seemed
somehow rushed and played faster than before, as if Dylan was looking for
his flow without really finding it. Maybe it was because of the hall
acoustics? Stuttgart's Porsche Arena is not the ideal place to stage a
quiet concert. It is a multi-purpose hall for ball sports, tennis, table
tennis, ice hockey ordance sports events, which do not take place in the
neighbouring larger Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle due to a lack of spectator
interest. A multi-purpose hall simply does not offer the musicality for a
dignified, analogue-looking and smartphone-free concert by Bob Dylan in
"Rough And Rowdy Ways" mode. The rather uncomfortable sports hall
atmosphere does itspart. The almost 20 staircases, each of which
obtrusively has a bright blue hospital-like emergency lighting on both
sides, give the darkness the artist is aiming for a strange contrast to the
pale yellow of Dylan's sparse stage lighting and distracts from the hustle
and bustle of the stage when one has taken a seat in the stands or in the
back rows. The somewhat indisposed ambience, on the other hand, fits well
with the audience, which is also a little indisposed. Rarely before have I
seen so many people at a seated concert scurrying loudly through the rows
to have their beer cups refilled. But back to the concert: It felt like it
took a little longer to hear the words "There must be some kind of way
outta here". Dylan took three minutes to do so.But Dylan's vocals, which
are much too quiet or badly controlled, don't sound well mixed, which
unfortunately doesn't improve much in the course of the concert. A
circumstance that apparently animates Dylan to less nuance, especially in
the quiet songs. Sometimes the quieter songs sound split by the pounding
piano sounds. Sometimes they sound phenomenally phrased. Yes, the Stuttgart
concert had great moments, but there were still no real highlights. The
seventeen songs sound more like working through a compulsory program.
And Dylan uses almost every opportunity, especially towards the end of each
song, to hit crooked piano solos and cadenzas into his grand piano. Dylan
may also seem to want to make music a little against the ignorance of the
audience. But maybe only the piano was mixed too loud and dominant. And
yes, even though Dylan refined the songs like "When I Paint My
Masterpiece", "Desolation Row", "I've Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To
You", "Goodbye, Jimmy Reed" and the final song "Every Grain Of Sand" with
his harmonica, it always sounded a little weird, occasionally too loud and
just out of place. The more restless it became in the audience, the more
obliquely Dylan improvised on his piano. Sometimes he seemed to
enjoy conjuring up dissonant tone sequences and chords from his keys. His
backing band around Bob Dylan, Tony Garnier (bg), Jim Keltner (dr), Bob
Britt (g) and Doug Lancio (g), sometimes has difficulty following their
boss at the piano. The piano always comes across as too loud to realize
Dylan's desire to recite his lyrics to delicate blues sounds.

On "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", Dylan often communicates with his drummer
Jim Keltner with short shouts, looks and hand signals. Especially with this
song, the two seem to be amused by the fact that everyone in the
audience knows the folk-rock song. The many symbolistic linguistic images
contained in it, which have eluded concrete interpretation since the song's
release in 1965, are only noticed by the concentrated listeners. For
Dylan, it seems to be one more reason to let the song fade out
inharmoniously with the harmonica at the end, so as not to remind too much
of the early, young Dylan. Whenever Dylan picks up the harmonica, it
becomes almost too nostalgic. Dylan seems downright young this evening when
he dances around his piano like a "Song & Dance-Man", only to occasionally
speak to his audience without the protection of his instrument, which he
likes to hold on to with one hand and only speaks to his audience in the
form of his verses. Dylan looks younger than he is this evening. Whenever
Dylan broke away from his piano improvisations, the band managed to create
the usual sound. Nevertheless, it is difficult to hear a completely uniform
sound on this evening. Instead, the many big names hidden in the stories of
the Rough And Rowdy Ways songs stand out: Leon Russell, Jimmy Reed,
Liberace, St. John the Apostle, Sherman, Presley, Martin Luther King,
Calliope, McKinley, Ginsberg, Corso, Kerouac, Buddy,Truman, Anne Frank,
Indiana Jones, William Blake, Beethoven, Chopin, Scarface Pacino, Godfather
Brando, Julius Caesar, Cinderella, Bette Davis,  Romeo, Noah, Einstein,
Robin Hood, Casanova, Nero's Neptune, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and Mr. Poe,
to name just a few of the most important. In his current texts, Dylan knows
how to give the quoted names from the past a meaning for the present. And
he knows how to embed all this in the blues scheme as a basis for the
musical accompaniment. If the concert atmosphere hadn't been one of the
more restless ones, he might have been more restrained in improvisation. As
it was, however, the musicians meandered through a blues, jazz and
swing-laden concert of arbitrariness and, despite the precision they were
striving for, occasionally even played a little past each other. And
whenever Dylan told something from the past that has to be important for
the present, someone went to get beer. Compared to the
contemplative Frankfurt concert trilogy, the Stuttgart concert ultimately
sank into the arbitrariness of a compulsory programme. Nothing was
different from other concerts, nothing was better. Same setlist, 110
minutes of playing, 17 songs,including 9 from the current album that gives
the tour its name and 8 classics from 3 different decades and not a word to
the audience. All this became the warning sign of an interchangeable
concert evening. Nothing was extraordinary, profound or even exciting. The
audience came, drank their beer and left, just as Dylan came, played and
left. The main thing is that everyone was there and can possibly say that
they were able to see and hear the old master in the flesh again with one
or more cups of beer in their hands at what may have been his last concert
in Stuttgart. - "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", whoever this "Baby Blue"
may be, some of the 4000 visitors in Stuttgart didn't seem to care anyway.
Cheers. 

(More Infos and photos from the Stuttgart-Gig (also in German language) you
find in my blog.leonardcohen.de: http://blog.leonardcohen.de/?p=31666
 

I saw alot of Dylan Concerts in the last 20 years
and cannot tune in the rave reviews of this tour.
 
I always liked the dynamics of the always excellent band.
The change from thin to dense in certain songs was
what pulled me in and made almost every concert
a pleasure to hear and watch.
 
For me the clue to this was Donnie Herron on pedal steel
an other instruments who is not arround anymore.
 
To fill the gap Dylan chooses to improvise on his piano
on almost every song in a quite dissonant and of-the-rhythm-way.
 
You could see the band struggling on certain song, looking
at each other to keep the track.
 
Additionally the Piano was mixed to loud and piercing.
 
For me performing that way is a waste of the bands capability.
 
On some songs near the end of the show, no piano improvising
and the magic was back.
 

Concert #33 for me since 1978.
The last time was for two shows in Berlin two years ago,
because Dylan shunned Germany in 2023.
 
The setlist, as expected, didn't show surprises, so I knew what to expect.
But I didn't listen to recordings of the previous shows of the European leg,
I wanted to keep my curiosity.
Overall, it was a perfect sound, even at the spot where I sat, far away
from the stage. The Blues like arrangements fit very well to most of the songs.
One time suddenly, I can't explain, Screaming Jay Hawkins came to my mind,
one of the great Blues man I like very much.
 
I have to admit that I'm still not very familiar with the new songs,
I guess it will take some time. So my two favourite songs of the show
were still 60's stuff, "When I Paint My Masterpiece" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue".
 
The smartphone ban is a good idea, indeed. It creates a sort of intimacy,
even in a venue like this. But too bad that even binoculars were not allowed,
an old man like me doesn't have the very best eyes...
So, several times I closed my eyes and just listened.
Nevertheless, my impression from far behind still was that Dylan's body seems to be
pretty frail, but his voice didn't show any decline, very strong.
And a great band!
 
Let's hope for new shows next year in Germany.
 
Bernhard Roth