Bob Dylan 2000.07.28 in Camden
Subject: Camden, NJ 7/28/00 review. From: Don & Linn Carpenter newpony@home.com Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 03:34:24 GMT I have to start off by saying that this was an unbelievable, incredible and unforgettable show. Dylan was in very fine form this evening. He seemed to be having a great time onstage tonight. He smiled, laughed and made silly faces throughout the night which only accelerated the excitement level of the crowd. He was doing his little dance steps, squats and Bob-like moves, and that brought about very positive vibes from the masses. The E-Centre was packed, and even though it was a warm, muggy night weatherwise, the predicted thunderstorm never came and everyone was happy. Bob's voice was very clear and on the mark tonight. He just seemed as though he wanted to do this show and do it well. Do it well he did. Larry, Charlie, Tony and Dave were outstanding, too, as always. He started off with a great Duncan and Brady. I was glad I finally got to hear this one live after reading previous reviews of how good he performs this one. Song to Woody was sung with so much heart and feeling that I think Woody was smiling down on Bob tonight. Then Bob did Desolation Row which just blew everyone away. His phrasing and the expressions on his face just told us that he was having a blast singing this. He then sang Ring Them Bells with so much feeling that you were swept away. I stood there mesmerized as he sang this. Tangled Up in Blue never fails to bring an uproarious response from the crowd, and tonight he gave it all he had. Searching for a Soldier's Grave nearly brought tears to my eyes, but the solemness of that song was quickly replaced by the upbeat and fun Country Pie. Bob had a good time with this one, and the crowd loved it. However, the highlight of the show for me was Senor. This is one of my favorite Dylan songs, and when he uttered that first "Senor", I just froze. I couldn't believe I was hearing him do this song live, and it was the best I've heard since Street Legal. As soon as he started Stuck Inside of Mobile, the crowd went crazy and so did I, but that was nothing compared to the reaction to Dignity. This is another song I'd never heard live, and it was quite a treat. Cold Irons Bound had the audience in a frenzy. Of course, Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat was a lot of fun and Bob was having a wonderful time singing it. The encore, much to our delight, included Things Have Changed (I was praying he'd do this one), and he did it well. As usual, Like a Rolling Stone got a tremendous reaction. Mr. Tambourine Man brought about cheers and screams from the crowd. He then ripped into a fantastic Highway 61 which never fails to please, and Blowin' In the Wind was a beautiful ending to an outstanding show. I really don't know if this show can be topped, but if it is, wow! The only downers to the whole evening were 3 guys in front of us who never stopped talking (and I mean loudly) throughout the entire show. One of them was playing air guitar all night and swaying back and forth in front of me (he even jabbed me once or twice), and another couple of people were forcibly escorted out (don't know if it was for drugs or what), but they didn't go willingly and that scene was distracting during LARS, but other than that, this show was unbelievable. Linn
Subject: Re: Camden, NJ 7/28/00 review. From: mshachtman@my-deja.com Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 04:28:25 GMT ... It was indeed a fine show. Dylan is playing at a consistently high quality these days. The acoustic set was wonderful. Song To Woody was quite moving. If you're going to sing a song about a communist, it can't be better than this one. Ring Them Bells was of course a perfect choice for a show in the Philadelphia area, and Searching for a Soldier's Grave was emotionally devasting. These two songs must have been influenced by the presence of the Republican convention. I know that there were more than a few delegates at the show, and they were particularly touched by Dylan's performances of these two songs. Max
Subject: Re: Camden, NJ 7/28/00 review. From: DChodos dchodos@aol.com Date: 29 Jul 2000 04:43:47 GMT Here, here. I'm not much of a reviewer and I've only been to about 6 shows but this was by far the best and most enjoyable one I've been to. We had row 16. His voice was really sharp & magnificent. The highlight for me was Cold Irons Bound which was arranged like I've never heard -- it had heavy emphasis on the first few words of each verse. Desolation Row & Senor were great to hear. Dignity was sung more clearly than in the studio. As the set progessed the band got louder and louder. (He looked like he had a little nasal drip which was kind of cute). The only downside of the show was all those filthy, smelly hippies I had to stand around. I, of course, wore a tie out of respect and made my friends wear nice skirts. When I was waiting to park I turned up LIVE 66 and someone yelled out "Dylan Sucks!" I cranked it up. Thankfully, the majority of people in the front were Bob fans. There was a cute girl who put on a leopard-skin hat when he sang the song and held up a license plate that said "DYLAN 1." If you know her, tell her I have a crush on her. Most of the Lesh fans requested lawn and I'm assuming they like it there so they can smoke their special cigarettes and make that awful music sound more bearable. I don't mind hippies, I just prefer to only see them on old TV news clips. I'm happy Lesh helps to pack a big house for Bob, but it's just embarrasing to see people go with their families and have to deal with that trash. It'd be cool if he toured with someone a little more classy. I guess it's hard though, the Simon tour tix prices were pretty ridiculous. Who would you like to see him tour with? Great show. Dan danchodos.org
From: "Peter Stone Brown" psb51@earthlink.net Subject: camden Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 02:10:56 -0400 First off, let's get one thing straight geographically. When Bob Dylan plays Camden, New Jersey, he's really playing Philadelphia. The E Centre, an essentially hideous venue for a number of reasons is one river away from Philadelphia, a quick five-minute ferry ride. And so as fate would have it, Bob Dylan played Philly just as it was being invaded by its first political convention in over 50 years. Yes the Republicans were having their somewhat overblown party in one of the country's staunchest Democratic cities and Philly's been building to a fever pitch for practically the entire month of July. Dylan's appearance was barely mentioned in the press, a stupid sarcastic pan in one of the alternative weekly, and a decent preview in a major daily, while the other alternative weekly (which blared a huge "Go Home!" front page with a cartoon of a sanitation worker sweeping up elephant shit underneath. The Convention and Visitor's bureau was none too happy about that. Major streets are closed, flags are everywhere, traffic is terrible, protestors setting up homeless tent camps on Muslim parking lots, the national guard and stage police hiding out on local college campuses and the thing doesn't even start for two days. At the E Centre, I wasn't allowed to bring the soft pretzel I was eating inside. And Dylan, compared to every other show on this tour, came out late, at 7:27, and the place was not anywhere near being filled, though it ended up being full by the end of Dylan's set. The yellow-shirted security guards were quite present, looking up the aisles of seats for what I'm not sure, either tapers or dope smokers. The audience stood up as the band came on stage led by jump=suited roadies who happened to be women, and Bob blazed into "Duncan and Brady," his voice strong, confident, the band remarkably sure. And then, "Song To Woody," but wait, there's no Larry playing and no Charlie playing, and no bass and no drums, they're all standing there, holding their instruments, and its is Bob Dylan totally solo, just his voice and guitar for the first verse, and then they all kick in right on "Hey hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song," and the girl in front of me starts shimmying and clapping her hands out of time. And then a rocking "Desolation Row," and even though this song has been played quite frequently this tour, at this show it was never more appropriate with the circus being in town, complete with blind commissioners in a trance, and restless riot squads who need somewhere to go. And Dylan was spitting out the words, "I know them, they're quite LAME!!!!" And then one of the first surprises of an evening fairly fully of them, a beautiful, intensely gorgeous "Ring Them Bells." "Ring them bells, ye heathen From the city that dreams," and the guys behind me were having a conversation, and the security guys are still looking up and down the aisles and people are coming in. "Oh the lines are long And the fighting is strong And they're breaking down the distance Between right and wrong" "Oh the lines are long And the fighting is strong And they're breaking down the distance Between right and wrong." And I'm wondering if anybody but me, and the three heavy-into-Dylan people I 'm with and the six others I know are there is really listening. And then it's into "Tangled," and now two other guys are having a big conversation and they're both twice as big as I am, so I just shoot them my Michael Corleone stare and don't say anything and try to hear "Searching For A Soldier's Grave," and wham they're into "Country Pie," which is over way too fast, and then it's into "Senor," and again I'm wondering, why tonight. "Can you tell me where were headin'? Lincoln County Road or Armageddon?" This song is 22 years old, and there is a trainload of fools bogged down in a magnetic field, and the gypsies with a broken flag were busted last week by License and Inspections, and this place still don't make sense to me no more, except it ain't a dream no more, it's the real thing, and three girls in front of me are eating a Domino's pizza mad talking about something, but it sure didn't have anything to do with what was happening on the stage, if they were even aware there was a stage, let alone musicians on it, not to even factor in who those musicians were. And then into "Memphis Blues Again," the first real why is he doing this song of the night and he didn't even sing the Senator verse, but it led into an astonishing rendition of "Dignity" with Kemper doing the drum part right off the record and then the band is making strange noises and Dylan's sort of wandering around, and there's almost feedback guitar happening and I'm wondering just which song it's gonna be and, "I'm beginning to hear voices" WHAM! "and there's no one around" WHAM! And it's different and it's strange, and a helluva lot better live than any CDR, and maybe the original arrangement wasn't quite used up yet, but tonight on the Camden Waterfront this version is SMOKING. "Up over my head nothing but clouds of blood." And then the band intros, this time with some David Kemper joke that I can't remember, and then "Leopard-Skin Pill-box Hat," and then they just stand there for a good long time, and my friend, Fielding is watching it and cracking up hysterically, and they're back and it's hits time, "Like A Rolling Stone," a sad, slow "Tambourine Man," and I'm not all that entranced by the way he does it now, except he really *is* singing in that way that only he can and "To dance beneath the diamond sky" tonight really is echoing down the foggy ruins of time, except now we're ripping down "Highway 61," and they're putting bleachers in the sun, and all of a sudden, we're back where we started, a folksong or one that will surely be one a hundred years from now, and then we're back on the ferry looking at the Philly skyline where this night any way there's four-million-and-forty red white and blue shoestrings. "Where the angels' voices whisper to the souls of previous times." --Bob Dylan Peter Stone Brown e-mail: psb51@earthlink.net http://store.yahoo.com/tangible-music/petstonbrowi.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Path: Norway.EU.net!EU.net!npeer.kpnqwest.net!newsfeed.esat.net!diablo.theplanet .net!209.249.123.236.MISMATCH!xfer13.netnews.com!xfe11.netnews.com!netnews .com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail Subject: Camden Concert Set List From: geozipper@my-deja.com Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 17:05:49 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. i got in late & missed the first two songs, but i saw him on the video monitor in lobby, he was playing an acoustic, but didn't recognize the song in the few seconds i had. Set List: 1. ? 2. ? - acoustic 3. Desolation Row 4. Ring Them Bells (good) 5. Tangled Up In Blue 6. "cover" of something (traditional?) 7. ? (missed it, trouble w/ushers trying to get back to my seat) 8. Senor 9. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again 10. Dignity 11. Cold Iron Bounds (fantastic performance!!) 12. Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat ENCORE: 13. Things Have Changed 14. Like A rolling Stone 15. Mr. Tambourine MAn 16. Highway 61 17. Blowin' In The Wind the first half wasn't his best, he seemed kinda disinterested, a little out of it, unlike when i saw him in 1998 in Bethlehem, PA. thru numbers 7 were acoustic, w/backing band (2 other guitars, upright bass, drums). 8 thru 14 electric. 15 was acoustic, 16 electric, 17 acoustic. he got more fire after Senor & the crowd response (probably cuz he went electric, i'm not sure if the song itself would elicit that reaction). Dignity & Cold Iron Bounds were good & fantastic respectively... CIB had a bit of different arrangement from album, w/real quiet passages into this big brash splash going into a funky groove then back again... it also started w/spacey improvisation so you didn't know where they going to go. quite effective, really great. overall he seemed more interested in his 80's & later material... even Tangled Up In Blue seemed a bit dull, by rote. tho he did emphasize "tangled" by stretching the word then singing "up in blue" quicker. LARS sounded more like the Newport version, stately and prancing, not like the 'in your face' recorded version (i have the Newport on CD). Highway 61 was good. Wind was an anthem, w/all 3 guitarists singing on the chorus, like he did it in Bethlehem in 1998. seems like he shortened his set by omitting the first electric part of the show, making the middle acoustic section the beginning, then ending with all electric. he was better '98, a great performance, better sound. my advice, don't go to the E Center. Camden sucks. parking was outrageous, streets were blocked off, the ushers were nazi's & the sound was a bit muddy & faraway. that sums it up. the lil stadium in my home town gets a better brighter sound. i was in the 200 row of seats, that may have had something to do w/it, but beware: if you get those seats yr treated like second class citizens ! :-) T o n y Z
