Bob Dylan 2001.04.29 in Blacksburg
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan Subject: Blacksburg Review From: Doug Evans tramfan3@MailAndNews.com Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 11:15:40 -0400 All in all, this was a very "professional" show for Bob. It did not have the same set list highlights or knockout vocal performances of my 2000 shows at Columbia and Towson. The crowd was very high energy and the venue very nice (and relatively small), but Bob either was not or could not quite respond to the The most extraordinary occurrence that I noticed on this particular leg of the Neverending Tour is the ferocity and invention that Charlie Sexton is putting into his guitar solos. I haven't seen a sideman play like this in Bob's band during the 12 years that I've been attending shows. His solo on "Down in the Flood" was brilliant, and he pulled Larry and Bob into guitar duels on more than one occasion. This is what I hoped to see when Charlie joined the band two summers ago, and it looks like we're finally getting some of his truly amazing guitar work. I hope that it continues. Highlights for me included the aforementioned "Down In the Flood," "Drifter's Escape," "If Dogs Run Free" (which was much better than the Towson version, in my opinion), a wonderful "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (with backing vocals! Bob flubbed it at the beginning of the second verse, but quickly caught himself) and÷surprisingly enough÷"Tangled Up in Blue". I've gotten very tired of this song live, but the performance Sunday night was quite inspired, and definitely brought the crowd to a very high excitement level. I've now heard the jazzy version of "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" twice in person, and it still doesn't do much for me. Charlie played some nice guitar on it, but I just don't like the arrangement. It makes it sound less weighty than the lyrics suggest. Best, Doug Evans