Review

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
US Cellular Arena
October 28, 2001


[Gerald Glocka], [Adam Pelzek], [Rodney Podd], [Gary Baughn], [Jeff Gerdin], [Christopher Dunn], [Jim Doran]

Review by Gerald Glocka



Bob and band played at Milwaukee's U.S. Cellular arena Sunday night. The venue 
is an old sports arena that seats around 12,000 for music. It has recently been 
renovated, providing somewhat improved acoustics.  The main floor was all 
"general admission" with reserved seating for the remainder. The place was maybe 
three-fourths full at show time - billed at 7:30 but actually starting some 
fifteen minutes later.

Song by song, the show went something like this…

"Wait for the Light to Shine" the currently favored opening number got things 
started on a nice, up-lifting note.  Good harmonies and playing on a tune most 
of the crowd hadn't heard before.  This was followed by a somber "My Back 
Pages", made more so by Larry's fiddle accompaniment.  The line, "…I'm younger 
than that now" got an immediate response from the crowd. A strong, energy 
feedback loop was developing here.  Bob pulled out the harp early for a nice 
solo at the end of this one.

"Desolation Row" was next.  For some reason, I don't tire of hearing this one.  
Good thing too, cause I've seen him do it for the last couple of shows I've 
attended in recent years. One of these days I'll be fortunate enough to hit a 
show that delivers "Hard Rain" or "Alright Ma" but for now, Cinderella, 
Einstein, Ophelia, Dr. Filth and all the rest are a welcome sight.  Good 
guitar interplay by all with Bob holding on to the last syllable of each  
"…Desolation Rooow"  chorus.

"A Soldiers Grave" was next.  A solid version with nice mandolin from Larry.  
This one, I am getting tired of.  I assume it remains in the "core" set because 
of its topical lyrical content.

Patience was rewarded quickly though, as a hard-driving, electric "Lonesome Day 
Blues" came next.  This is such a great new L&T song and it really got the crowd 
going.  Done live, the band really takes it up a notch and injects some needed 
guitar solos to break up the steady stream of verses - something the album
version cries out for.  Charlie was really on fire for this one.

Then, surprise of all surprises, Larry sits down at the pedal steel and proceeds 
to coax out  the familiar yet totally un-expected, twangy, country intro to - 
yes, "Lay, Lady Lay".  The guy behind me goes - "Holy Sh*t, do you believe 
this?" Believe it. The amazing David Kemper even laid down percussion reminiscent 
of the original version.  

More pedal steel to follow, with "I'll be Your Baby Tonight". Why quit now when 
you're on  a roll.  It's great to hear Bob featuring a lot of his JWH and 
Nashville Skyline material of late.

The ominous "Highwater" is indeed something to hear live.  With Charlie playing 
a menacing electric and Larry on banjo, the song is absolutely riveting.  Bob 
carefully phrases these compelling lyrics that I'm still trying to digest even 
after many repeated listenings.         

Then out of left field comes "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll".  An early 
sixties acoustic classic and apparently, new addition, to this tour's ever 
changing set-list. This one has never been on of my favorites but here, now, 
with a re-invigorated Bob intent upon re-visiting and re-working his 
back-catalog, who would dare complain?  

The opening notes of the next song did sound like "Don't Think Twice" was on 
the way but it turned out to be "Mama, You've Been on My Mind" - simply a joy 
to hear.  Bob sang tenderly and capped it off with a nice harp solo.  Another 
joy is watching Tony G. totally get inside this music as he anchors this band 
while switching effortlessly between stand-up and electric bass.

Current world events have made "Masters of War" part of the core set of songs 
for this tour as well. A hypnotic reading, with Bob emphasizing every word of 
the potent lyrics which are just as frightening today as they were when we 
first heard them on "Freewheelin" nearly forty years ago.  

The mood then shifted abruptly as two more new songs are un-leashed.  The 
first, Summer Days absolutely rocked the house with a three-guitar assault 
that swung hard with rock-a-billy abandon.  What to do here?  Pay attention 
to crazy-fun lyrics or lose oneself in the guitar frenzy.  Tough choice. 
"Moonlight" slowed things down as Bob crooned  as only Bob can croon, 
accompanied primarily by himself on guitar and a nice harp break at the end.  
Has Bob ever played harp in the beginning or middle of any song in the last 
ten years?

No "Sugar Babe" tonight as the band plugged back for two more rockers to close 
out the first set. "Drifter's Escape", a tune that moves further and further 
away from the quiet JWH original each time I hear them play it, took no 
prisoners and also finished with it's customary harp attack from Bob.

Highway 61 returned to set-list tonight and provided more guitar mayhem.  
Kudos to the sound crew who consistently manage to keep the guitars sounding 
clean and mean, whether acoustic, electric or a combination thereof.      

A driving "Things Have Changed" began the second set.  Electric and acoustic 
guitars took this one to new heights. Tough to keep this off the set-list I 
guess and I'm glad we got to hear this one.  "Love Sick" is great but this is 
one tune that definitely needs to be heard these days.

"Like a Rolling Stone", as always, worked the crowd into near-madness. Dramatic, 
white stage lighting helped drive home each soaring chorus of  "…how does it 
feeel…".

Back to acoustics again for a quiet version of  "I Shall be Released".  More 
great harmonies from Bob & the band.   From there we go to "Honest with Me". 
Talk about dynamics!  This new L&T song seems to have become firmly entrenched 
in the core set at this time.  No problem there, for it freshens up the finale 
and gives the band more opportunities to trade fierce guitar licks before giving 
way to this tour's closer of choice. 

"Blowin'in the Wind" brought the proceedings to a dramatic close. This 
newly-reborn  classic slowly builds and builds as Bob lays out the verses. 
Tension builds. Then the three-part harmonies on the chorus kick in for the 
knock-out, emotional punch that either glues you to the back of your seat or 
makes you stand up and cheer.  

So what more do you need from a Bob Dylan concert?  Oh, maybe just a second 
encore of  "All Along the Watchtower", done electric and loud, to send everyone 
home happy.  

Twenty-one songs, two-plus hours of some the best words & music you could ever 
hear - sung and played with care and intensity by the man who literally wrote 
the book on forty years of popular music.  Still gettin' it done at age 60.   
Eight carburetors and yes, boys, he's using 'em all!!

[TOP]

Review by Adam Pelzek



Sometimes, it’s hard to put reverence into words, and it’s these times that
eyes and expressions say everything.  Everyone in the audience on Sunday in 
Milwaukee went home smiling, grinning, sharing secrets with their friends 
and lovers, themselves, and just smiling.  I can’t explain the beauty of 
these shows.  I’ve been lucky enough to see two of them on this summer 
group with my friend Jimmy Scimmia.  The first was in Perugia, Italy, 
heart-wrenchingly stark, faithful, amazing.  Some of the Italians next 
to me were so happy to be there, they hand clapped to every song though 
they didn’t know all the words, and the symphonic energy translated so 
easily into every language, some that aren’t even technically languages: 
ones of love, and mourning, and of equality, youth, and growing, of 
redemption, and you didn’t even need to know English, though it would 
have helped you sing.  Jimmy just plain got down.  But energy is only 
half of what Dyl! an does.  He filled the entire soccer stadium there. 
People watched the show from their balconies across the street, soft 
light of the blue moon bathing him, and they clapped and kissed the night 
away as he swept them off their feet. 

He looks like he belongs on sunset strip in a caddy, cruising for an 
empty hotel room, reaching for a woman who’s out of reach, trying to catch 
her by the toe.  We’ve come to see a fantastic preserved relic, a lovelorn 
spirit, a fellow in being at once alone and together, proud, intelligent 
enough, and for his own good.  A dream from our former, and hope for our 
latter.  He’s as young inside as the smallest child, and as old as a centurion.
 
He’s worked hard, and it shows.  His honesty shines.  After so much time 
playing with our minds, jumping through hoops, through time, he’s a proud 
Smith of song, and suffering aside, would like to show us what he’s been 
working toward all these years.  And so here he was: new, rollicking, and 
free, with air inside him that’s sweeter and full of more magic than I’ve 
ever seen.  I went away from last night’s show refreshed and hyper, drooling,
and feeling like I’d learned something true.  He’s stoically free, if that’s 
possible, and exists as a dichtomy: he lives in a place where it’s always 
summer and always winter, cuddled within Midwestern arms but on some cliff 
edge in some exotic world.  In Milwaukee last night, we arrived off 794 on 
the heels of daylight savings time, on a pretty warm night for october, the 
days getting shorter, the nights longer. 

The lighting was beautiful all night, some strange clouds drifting past the
operahouse curtain inside, illuminated in strong blues and magentas, olive 
greens and dark reds.  The sound was just right.  My Back Pages was a 
wonderful second song, some harmonica moments when he seemed lost in the 
music, painting it new.  Other brilliant things were the sweetness of I’ll 
Be Your Baby Tonight, Lay Lady Lay, the darkness in Masters of War, 
brightness of Summer Days, and the lemonade kool relaxation of Moonlight: 
"I know the kind of things you like...," he swooned the crowd.  Then we 
twisted and revisited highway 61, and he and his marvelous band bowed their 
first.

He came back thoughtfully shouting I Shall Be Released!!, rocking gently to 
Blowin’ in the Wind, captivating with the phrasing of Like a Rolling Stone. 
Honest with Me and Things have Changed just rocked hard.   A second encore, 
All Along the Watchtower, closed the show, with Sexton and Larry doing the 
Hendrix-tribute style guitar.  Just wonderful stuff.  I'd like to think these 
were completely unique shows, the best ever played (and they were!), but 
still i can't help thinking about what i'm going to miss, every night after.

We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our 
backs and look up at them and discuss about whether they was made, or only 
just happened. 
–Mark Twain, Huckle-berry Finn.

Adam J. Pelzek

[TOP]

Review by Rodney Podd



Milwaukee October 29, 2001


This was my first Dylan show this year. He's been coming to the Milwaukee area 
around the same time every year. It was worth the wait.

1.	Wait For The Light To Shine.. The show was scheduled to start at 7:30pm but 
we had to wait until 7:50pm until we heard the familiar "Please welcome 
Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan". It was worth the wait. Harmonizing was 
a little bit off at first but a good song to open with. This stands right up 
to Hank Williams version.

2.	My Back Pages.. This was a surprise for me, and a good one. Real nice 
arrangement. Bob even broke out the harmonica for a real good ending.

3.	Desolation Row.. Nothing special here just a straightforward performance.

4.	Searching For A Soldier's Grave.. After hearing this song we felt Bob and 
his band are ready for the Grand Ole Opry. And there's nothing wrong with that. 
I could listen to a whole show of country music.

5.	Lonesome Day Blues..  First one from Love and Theft. A little rougher 
sounding than the studio version but still was good to hear.

6.	Lay, Lady, Lay.. This was the biggest surprise. I didn't expect to hear 
this one. Nice slide guitar work by Larry.

7.	I'll Be Your Baby Tonight.. Another good delivery and slide by Larry.
8.	High Water.. This song really came alive compared to the studio cut. 
Bob's voice and the instruments sounded much bigger. Another country song. 
Maybe we were going to get an all country show.

9.	The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll.. This isn't one of my favorites until 
I hear it live. Bob really puts a lot of emotion into it that just doesn't 
come across on the recordings.

10.	Mama, You Been On My Mind.. Another one that Bob really puts a lot into 
emotionally and with his harmonica. It was one of the highlights of the show.

11.	Masters Of War.. A very different delivery on this than what he gave the 
Grammy Awards 10 years earlier. This one was acoustic and took on a different 
meaning today as compared to 10 years ago or 30 years ago.

12.	Summer Days..  First real rocker of the night. Everyone took turns doing 
guitar solos great sound. Tony played standup bass, had a 50's look and sound.
 
13.	Moonlight.. The smooth sound and Bob's gravelly voice were a perfect mix 
for this one.

14.	Drifter's Escape.. Great rockin version.

15.	Highway 61 Revisited.. Another great rockin song to end with. Bob's 
voice started to give out a little though. He announced the band, which was 
the only time he spoke to the audience. Well not really you just had to 
listen to the words of the songs. He spoke a lot.

16.	Things Have Changed.. Yeah they sure have. Bob spit out the words with 
a choppy sound and the band followed. Some great guitar work too. This was the 
first encore.

17.	Like A Rolling Stone.. Not much to say,  a great Bob Dylan Song. Had to 
include this one.

18.	I Shall Be Released.. I had to look hard, I thought The Band was up there 
with Bob. Mike and Larry added some nice harmonizing.

19.	Honest With Me.. They turned up the volume for this one. Blows the album 
version away.

20.	Blowin' In The Wind.. Good song to end with. Harmonizing was a little 
rough at the end. Bob finished this with some nice guitar work.
 
21.	All Along The Watchtower.. Another surprise. We got a second encore. 
I think this song could have brought Hendrix back to life.

All in all this wasn't the best show I've seen but it ranks right up there. I 
didn't feel the audience was into this show until the end. There was polite 
applause after each song but not the real excitement that I've experienced at 
other shows. I thought Bob and the band are really working well together this 
time around. There were some songs I would have liked to have heard (Tweedle 
Dee & Tweedle Dum, Sugar Baby) but then there were surprises that I didn't 
expect to hear (Lay Lady Lay, My Back Pages) but that's what a Bob Dylan show 
is. I'm always amazed when Bob plays a song that might not be a favorite of 
mine. Hearing him do it live is like a brand new song only the title remains 
the same. Total 21 songs the show lasted over 2 hours. Thanks Bob hope to see 
you again next year.

Rodney Podd  rodecoys@wi.rr.com

[TOP]

Review by Gary Baughn



When I was young, it seemed the other kids always had shinier bikes, bigger 
yards, and neater toys, but I was never as envious of them as I have been, as 
an adult, of those fans who happened to be present at a Dylan show where the 
set list said "Bob on harp" more than once.  Well, now I've seen a show with 
"Bob on harp" four times, and it's a revelation.  How can one guy get all 
those sounds out of two rectangles of silver?  Why would someone who can do 
that even bother with a guitar solo?

The answers to these questions were blown with great wind, and maybe that's 
also the answer to how his voice could have gotten better.  Maybe he just 
feels better.  Whatever it is, in the last three years his voice has 
improved steadily.  Tonight it was strong and clear.  He hit some highs 
and stayed there.  He caressed words, spit them, teased them, he made 
fun of the underlying poetic rhythm, he celebrated certain syllables, it 
was like he was speaking in comic dialogue ballons that floated over us, 
only to be shot down by the guy who created them, because he just came up 
with something better.
	
	Love and Theft is something better.  Maybe the creative milestone of two 
hit CD's after all these years has removed the millstone around his neck of 
doing a greatest hits show by doing your greatest hits, only differently.  
To have written the songs he has written, and to find new things in them night
after night, is an achievement, but if you're Dylan, that's nothing to doing 
it all over again.  The high of being able to pick three or four songs from 
your new hit CD, throw in a hit from your last CD, and mix it with all those 
other hits which you have reworked, makes for an interested showman and a 
damned interesting show.
	
	I admit disappointment in not hearing Mississippi (imagine, I'm at a concert 
where the guy is 60 years old, has written over 500 songs, has hits almost as 
old as I am, and I'm pissed he didn't play a song from his most recent hit!) 
but Summer Days is as alive as a middle school lunchroom, and Bob seems to be 
a kid again, that short one who is always doing something to get noticed (like 
singing a half step in front or behind everyone), who sits real close to the 
teacher because that's where you have to sit, if you want to learn.
	
	And that's another key, something it is easy to forget:  as big a talent and 
star as Bob Dylan is, he is still the consummate student.  He soaks up musical 
genre and history and puts them in that blender brain of his and makes the house 
shake.  He's a history lesson, but not just about himself.  That bratty kid 
wants us to pay attention to others as well.  Pay attention to Fred Rose, the 
father of country music publishing (Wait For The Light was beautiful), notice 
that lives are ruined when we have wars (Searching For A Soldier's Grave) and 
that the people who start them are distant and uncaring (Masters of War), wasn't 
swing music kind of cool (Summer Days), weren't 1940's love songs a hoot 
(Moonlight), and, by the way, injustice and our reaction to it is timeless (The 
Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll).  This speculative list could go on, and I 
only pretend to know the reasons for his song selections, but I do know he has 
reasons for what he plays, and one of them is for us to pay attention to what 
has come before.  In school you only have to repeat history if you flunk it, but 
a creative artist must pass history before he can surpass it ("what do you mean 
you can't, of course you can").  The single most creative artist in popular 
music history was criticized by many in his early years for being imitative, 
derivative, and a 'sponge.'  Guess what, he still is, and whenever he plays 
someone else's songs at his concert (causing on to question why the creator of 
500 songs devotes as much as 1/10th of his concert to the songs of others) 
he's showing us he has stood on the shoulders of giants.

	Back to a great concert.  This was my first hearing for the new songs.  	
Lonesome Day felt like one, High Water's banjo sounded like the constant 
trickle of water that has become a flood, and Summer Days is funny and the 
first Dylan song that I can think of as dance music.  Finally, the kids on 
bandstand could give him a 98.  Honest With Me is a good song, but I don't
 see it in the encore, but he does, so does it mean something special to him?
	
	What did I hear that was new in the stuff I've heard before?  Back Pages 
was beautiful.  I've always loved the lyric "I'm younger than that now," but 
I've never liked the recorded version (sorry, Marty).  In concert it has 
evolved into something precious.  It was a treat to hear Hattie Carroll in 
concert.  An early, seldom-performed song like that takes us back in time to 
the young Dylan.
	  
	It's rare that a song that broke artistic barriers as Rolling Stone did can 
also become an anthem that people chant at concerts, because anthems have to 
be universal and mainstream (R-O-C-K in the U-S-A, for instance).  That's 
another tribute to Dylan's genius, he went so far away from the music of his 
day that it had to follow him, but ironically it was following him back to 
its own past, the opening chords of "La Bamba."
	  
	Which brings me to my concert highlight, another song that reaches into the 
past and is therefore timeless:  I Shall Be Released.  I've always thought of 
this song as Dylan's Midnight Special, his tribute to all of those I'm-in-the-jail-lonesome-train-whistle-representing-freedom songs.  This classic 
was superbly done, with Charlie and Larry adding that beautiful harmony that 
many have heard in the last year or so when they do Blowin' in the Wind.  That 
moment was special in this concert.
	
	I think that's something else Dylan knows, that music is momentary, and if 
you recognize that, it becomes timeless.  Artists who keep trying to sound like 
their records, are not turning back the clock, they're reminding us of it, and 
the fleeting nature of their observations.  Someone like Dylan (I know there 
isn't someone like Dylan, that's just a rhetorical device) can last so long 
because he has not enshrined anything he has, is, or does.  He acknowledges 
his influences, masters, predecessors, and tries to whip their creative butts.  
He will not be trapped or tripped by his success, failure, or our expectations.
	
	Each concert is a record of what matters to him and us in that moment.  He 
is true to how he feels.  He is not true to a recording some other version of 
him made twenty years ago (or six months ago, the new ones are already evolving).  
He didn't play Blowin' in the Wind for a long time.  Maybe Paul Simon made him 
see something in it again.  The harmonies on it are new, beautiful, and they 
are his and ours in that moment.
	
	To live in the musical moment, Dylan must have a talented, patient, flexible 
group of musicians around him who care about all music as much as he does.  
Love and Theft  is a monument to the eclectic approach they have practiced for 
the last few years in concert.  My big worry is, every time Dylan builds a 
monument, he walks away.  That in-concert version of Tangled Up In Blue was 
just about perfect last year, and now it is gone.  I hope he doesn't walk 
away from Larry, Charlie, Dave, Tony, and the approach they represent.  But 
if he does, it will allow him to renew and reinvent.  There's only one Dylan, 
but there's been a lot of Dylans, and he has invented them all, usually when 
someone said he had to keep being the old Dylan.  So, hush my mouth, forget I 
said any of the above, and go and see him.  The music is good, he is interested 
and interesting, and you never know how long it will last.  I'll be in Madison 
in three nights, and I'll see something new and good,  I know I will.
	
--Gary Baughn
gbaughn@execpc.com

[TOP]

Review by Jeff Gerkin



  I've see Dylan every year for the past 6 or 7 years when he comes 
  through Wisconsin and Illinois in the Fall.  I thought this was the best
  so far, primarily based on the strength of the great new songs and the
  fact that the band was just really tight.  The sound was really good
  from where I was sitting in upper section stage right.  I was so
  disappointed with the sound at the United Center a couple of years ago
  that I have tried to see Bob anywhere else within reason.

  I think Wait for the Light to Shine is a better opener than Duncan and
  Brady or I am the Man Thomas.  It really had some great harmonies. 
  Charlie and Larry did not hold back.  I loved the Desolation Row.  The
  pace of the song and the arrangement is similar to Eric Clapton's
  version of She Belongs to Me from the 30th Anniversary Celebration.  Bob
  changed his delivery just enough so that no one could quite sing along. 
  And with few shouters in the crowd, it made the impersonal concrete
  arena feel pretty warm and intimate.  His vocal seemed to have
  understanding instead of indifference or contempt  Lonesome Day Blues
  rocked pretty good and Lay,Lady,Lay was very sweet.  Larry's pedal steel
  added just the right amount of color without getting overly weepy.  High
  Water was the high water mark of a great set.  It is one of my favorites
  from the new album and it sounds terrific in concert following pretty
  true to the recorded version with banjo and all.  A quiet version of
  Masters of War had just the right amount of tension conveying that
  feeling we have all had about not knowing just what might happen next. 
  Summer Days rocked out and fits great in the line up.  Charlie was
  playing some cool rockabilly and I wished he would have had the solo,
  but it was a smoker non-the-less.  One interesting thing about this set
  was the number of times Bob played harp!  He played a nice melodic solo
  on  a beautiful version of Moonlight (vocal miscue and all).  After a
  superb heavily acoustic 13 numbers, the band laid down a stomping
  version of Drifter's Escape complete with wailing harp solo and Highway
  61.  

  The first encore was predictable but good.  I really enjoyed the new
  arrangement for Things Have Changed. It's a just a little brighter and
  lighter.  It seems in the vocals he is more embracing the "change" than
  wearied by it.  Last year I could have swore he was singing "things
  haven't changed".  Honest with Me rocked the house.  That slide part is
  so simple but it just propels the song along and sounds great on stage.
  I Shall Be Released was a nice treat in the middle.  The true encore All
  Along the Watchtower surprised me.  I have been to shows where the crowd
  was going nuts and Bob didn't come back.  Last night it was pretty
  subdued and he came back.  Go figure. I'm glad it was Watchtower and not
  Rainy Day Women.  All in all a great show and a great value for the
  entertainment dollar!

  Jeff Gerdin  

[TOP]

Review by Christopher Dunn



As my friend's 13 year old girl stared at Dylan from our incredible seats
(thanks, Columbia, for the freebies!), she said, "I didn't know he was so
old!"  She knows all his songs, listens to all his CDs, but only knows his
face from the album covers.  At the end of the 2.5 hr show, she said, "I
guess he's not THAT old!"  No he's not!  Bob is is definitely "younger
than that now."  And we are all a little older and wiser.  Does this man
straddle generations, or is HE a generation?  His body shakes, his feet
move, his eyes dart around because he doesn't belong in one place or one
time.  He is a fire.

And he played and sang like he was on fire, like he had something to say. 
And say it he did, and listen WE did.  The crowd, which at times was
quietly respectful or reverential, seemed to hang on every word, waiting
for the light to shine.  And it shone mightily, as Bob and the band
riffled through his back pages, serenaded us at the minstrel show on
Desolation Row, took us on his search for the soldier's grave, and
despaired of finding peace, harmony, or good will on this lonesome day. 
And a lonesome day it was, as some tobacco-scarred voice, with an edge of
rusted barbed wire, snarled and growled a promise to tame the proud.  

Weary from this, he invited us to lay with him on his brass bed, as he and
we dreamt of love and death and war and those summer days that have passed
and may not come again.  And of those moonlit nights together.  But he
woke us up from this dream world of ringing guitars and soft jazzy
harmonicas to remind us that evil still lurks in the hearts of men, that
there is still destruction and killing to be suffered as we drifters
escape down Highway 61.  For things have indeed changed.  And whether we
care or not, we roll like a stone, we become released, especially if we
are honest and let our hearts, souls, and minds blow in the wind.  Yet,
keep one eye open from the watchtower.

Christopher Dunn

[TOP]

Review by Jim Doran



     Well its sunday morning and I'm still wired from last nights show. On
     the road to Milwaekee at 10 am .Got to get there before the bears
     game starts . After watching the bears amazing comeback victory I
     could not help but think if bob could come back with another great
     show tonight . The venue (us cellular arena) is similiar to Chicagos
     United center only smaller . Was it just me who thought it was nuts
     to keep all the general admission people herded in the lobby until 45
     minutes before showtime? Also , did anyone try to buy a poster or
     t-shirt after the show ? There must have been a hundred people trying
     to spend their money and they had one guy working the stand . Well
     enough of  my complaints , lets get on with the show . Bob and the
     boys came out at around 7:45 . Twelve different songs from last night
     . Ah but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now . Truer
     words were never sung. Everytime  Bob sang that verse the crowd let
     out a yell . There were two firsts for this tour . Lay, lady, lay ,
     done with a country twange . And then one of my all time favorites ,
     William Zanzinger , killed poor Hattie Carrol . With a cane that he
     twirled round his diamond ringed finger. Bob really slowed this one
     down bringing every word and emotion to the surface . On Moonlight
     Bob and Charley got crossed up on one verse causing Bob to flash a
     glare at him . Three more Love and theft songs in the opening set ,
     Lonesome day blues , summer days , and high water. The ladder is fast
     becoming one of personel favorites .The first set ended with an
     energetic Highway 61 . During the intros of the band Bob repeated
     what we all already know . THE BEST BAND IN THE WORLD !  Things have
     changed ( sans the oscar) started off the first encore . The always
     crowd favorite Rolling stone ( with rolling stage lights), followed
     by a heartfelt rendition of I shall be released . The always hard
     rockin Honest with me was followed by another rousing Blowin in the
     wind. Only one more encore tonight but Bob and the band put all they
     had left into All along the watchtower . If last nights show in
     Chicago was a 10 (which it was) tonights was a 9 1/2 . A little more
     harp tonight but Bob was a little less animated than the night before
     . A few times tonight it looked as if Bob was going to talk to the
     crowd but he backed off . But thats okay, Bob does his talkind thru
     his music.  Just a few comments about the crowd . If you want to talk
     while Bobs singing do it out in the lobby . And between the encores
     please lose the lighters . Well , it was a wonderful weekend , my
     next show won't be until nov. 11th (Columbus) but I'm already excited
     and one can only hope that the never ending tour trully never ends . 
            PS  ,   A special thanks to Bill Pagel for all the time he
     puts into this site so we all can keep up on Bob . Keep up the good
     the good work Bill !   

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billp61@execpc.com

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