Bob Dylan 2002.04.24 in Nürnberg
From: "Carsten Wohlfeld" office@carstenwohlfeld.de
To: billp61@execpc.com
Cc: webmaster@expectingrain.com
Subject: dylan nŸrnberg review
Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 11:17:01 +0200
Bob Dylan NŸrnberg, Frankenhalle April 24, 2002
A review by Carsten Wohlfeld
Don't you hate it when people
look at you like a freak when you tell them that you went to see Dylan more
once? Well, I certainly do. I've travelled far and wide to see Bob play, but
on the train to NŸrnberg (well, WŸrzburg actually, where Gunter picked me up
at the station and we travelled to the venue together in the car) I kinda
realized: 'Yeah, you are sort of a freak', when I hit Frankfurt - a town
roughly 200 miles from where I live - for the third time in just nine days!
Anyway, we had a nice and easy drive to NŸrnberg, arrived early and secured
a free parking space just a few meters away from the offical car park of the
Frankenhalle (situated in a Convention Center complex), where they were
charging you six bucks - wahey! We didn't care to be right in the front, so
we enjoyed meetingsome of the regulars before the show and even had a quick
walk through the neighbourhood (probably named Bronx). The venue looked as
if they only built it a few years ago from the outside, but once you were
inside you noticed that only the marquee outside was indeed new and the rest
of the 7 000 capacity venue still had its original 70s flair. Not the nicest
venue on the tour, but since about 5 000 people turned up, it didn't look
too bad by the time the show started at 8.10pm.
Halleluljah I
'm Ready To go (acoustic) I spend most of the song looking at Jim Keltner.
wow, it was really him! I hadn't seen him play live in almost nine years
(when he toured Europe with Neil Young And Booker T & the MGs), but he still
looked the same. With that beard and those huge glasses he still looks like
as if he's auditioning for a leading role in a shabby 70s porn movie. Sorry,
it had to be said : -) His drumming was pretty unremarkable on this song
(well, there's not much to do for ANY drummer here really) as was the song
itself. A typical warm up number. I guess we all had high hopes of hearing
ANYTHING but "Times" next, after Bob had ditchted the song and had replaced
it with the first ever acoustic "Senor" in Innsbruck. Gunter had predicted
that he would do "I'll remember you", only because Jim Keltner drums on the
"Empire Burlesque" original, but even he didn't expect the song to be played
ACOUSTIC and in the number 2 slot.
I'll Remember You
(acoustic) But of course that's exactly what we got. A very pleasant
surprise. Even tough Keltner plays drums on the studio version, he had no
clue whatsover what to do on this song and his playing was way too loud and,
well, let's say: uninspired. Like on many other numbers tonight, he hit his
floor tom very heavily every time he lost the plot and that was especially
annoying on the acoustic numbers. Then again, we all were glad that he was
there and the shows didn't get cancelled. The band seemed to be pretty
nervous as well. All in all, a nice surprise but not a very good
performance.
It's Alright Ma (acoustic) Lost a little due to
Keltner being unfamiliar with the tune (or at least the arrangement) but it
was pretty cool to see Tony DANCE around in an attempt to show Keltner what
he was supposed to do. So basically whenever Tony was twitiching a leg,
Keltner was supposed to play a drum roll and whenever Tony shook his head,
that indicated the use of the cymbals. It was dead funny, I wish I could
describe it more accurately. The song was the first highlight - despite the
fact that it was less uptempo and aggressive than before - mostly due to Bob
's concentrated vocal delivery.
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
(acoustic) Same as it ever was. Nice twin solo from Bob and Charlie at the
end.
Tweedle Dee Hey! My first new song tonight. MUCH better
than I thought it would be! I was surprised though how quiet the song was
played, it had a really dark moody vibe, with Keltner playing the drum beat
perfectly. The band's playing was very subtle and Bob managed to underline
that with his strongest vocal performance of the night so far. Still think
it wouldn't have hurt if they had played a more rocking version, but it was
a fine start to the electric set nonetheless.
Can't Wait Two
years ago, I couldn't stand the slow and quiet arrangement they do by now,
but even though I don't know what was different, I liked it a lot this time
around. Again, a very moody sounding rendition that worked quite well in
back-to-back with "Tweedle Dee".
Subterrean Homesick Blues
Gunter hadn't heard this one before and he looked as if he enjoyed it
immensely. I think despite his quite energetic performance he mixed up the
lyrics a lot more than in Munich the week before and the band wasn't as
"together " as it should have been (Keltner was surprsingly good though),
but it was still good to hear. If they keep playing (and rehearsing) this it
could turn into one of the highlights of the set this fall.
Moonlight Not as good as Frankfurt, simply because Bob's voice was a little
shot throughout the night and if there's one song that only works with clean
and tender singing it's this one.
Tangled Up In Blue
(acoustic) What? I wasn't too surprised to hear this one again (like so
many times before), but it was odd to hear it as the opening number of the
acoustic set - Keltner turned the song into a real mess, missing most (if
not all of his cues) not to mention that he ended the song was too early,
when Bob turned around and nodded - okay, I guess in any other band on this
planet that would mean "okay, the song is over", but in Bob's case it
obviously only means "back to the verse" and only the second time Bob turns
around the song is supposed to end. It was funny to see the shocked faces of
Tony, Charlie and Larry, who actually started playing the opening riff again
in an (failed) attempted to restart thesong again. Bob noticed that it wasn'
t gonna work and he decided to just give in. Interestingly enough, not a lot
of people seemed to have noticed this and the crowd reaction was as
enthusaisatic as usual.
Boots Of Spanish Leather (acoustic)
Awesome. Together with the 13-minute "Cat's In The Well " from Munich
probably the highlight of "my " tour so far. Very slow and gentle, Bob just
delivered a killer vocal and the band strummed along quitely and perfectly.
A real treat.
Masters of War (acoustic) Did he play it
because it was NŸrnberg, or just because it was time to play it again?
Either way, the rendition was very intense, with Keltner's drumming
highlighting the lyrics very good. Solid.
Summer Days As
good as before.
Standing In the Doorway Every bit as good as
the Hamburg rendition a couple of weeks ago. Very emotional, heartfelt
singing and great playing from the band as well. The new (!?) line
appearently goes "I'm riding on a train, and I'm swallowing my pain".
Wicked Messenger Keltner did a surprsingly good job, even though he clearly
didn't know what he was supposedto do - Tony basically signalled all the
rolls and breaks while Keltner was playing the song. They call it learning
by doing, I guess. Bob had to put some extra engergy in into the harp solo,
as Keltner didn't realise that he was supposed to play quieter when the
harmonica kicked in.
Leopard-Skin Pill Box Hat Sounded the
same, even with Keltner. Boring, boring, boring, save for the short solos by
each band member after the band introduction. For some reason Bob introduced
Keltner off-mic, so you couldn't hear his name. They returned quickly for
the encore though, Bob's arm on Jims shoulder (first time I've seen that, I
guess it's a big difference if you have "musicians" or "friends" in the
band) and while Larry, Charlie and Bob were opicking up their guitars, Tony
explained to Jim what he should play on the following tune! It was:
Country Pie And it sounded every bit as dreadful as before. It was fun when
they started doing the song in 2000, butnow they just seem to have lost
interest in it alltogether. Why they still play it is a mystery to me.
Like A
Rolling Stone Solid. But not more than that.
I Shall Be Released (acoustic) Pretty good performance from everybody
onstage including Jim. Bob still decided to sing a different chorus medlody
than the one Charlie and Larryhad rehearsed, but it sounded mighty fine
nevertheless. Different ending than in Stuttgart the week before. hmmm.
Honest With Me Rocked as usual, with lost of extra fills from Jim, who didn'
t play the bongos like Receli, but you didn't really notice the difference.
Blowin' In The Wind Same as before. Once the song had ended you could
clearly notice that Bob was in a great mood tonight. Not only had he looked
back at Keltner several times, smiling at his new drummer (even whe Jim had
made some mistakes), but after the last song he picked up a rose somebody
had thrown on to the stage and threw it back - apparently he had spotted a
young lady in the front row that he thought deserved the rose more than him
: -) The crowd went wild but Bobjust pointed at his (non-existant) watch
several time, indicating that there was no time for any more songs! They did
however come back for an more than welcome:
All Along The
Watchtower Still in the very cool apocalyptic arrangament they started
playing late last year that also features a few lines from the movie
soundtrack "Exodus" played by Larry during the intro. It's still my alltime
favourite song and always a pleasure to hear it. Keltner was not as good as
I expected him to be on this number, but oh well! So in the end we got yet
another very strong 2 hour 20 minute show, that was fun BECAUSE it wasn't as
perfect and polished as the previous concerts with Receli. You can't really
say that Keltner added a lot besides some amusing mistakes tonight, but even
that was welcome. The plan for me was to travel to Strasbourg by train,
while Gunter was gonna drive back to WŸrzburg, but fortunately the prospect
of a possibly rendition of "Sugar Baby" in France made him change his mind.
That means: More from Strasbourg soon. Goodnight.
Carsten Wohlfeld
--
http://carstenwohlfeld.de
"your girlfriend can leave you, but the rolling stones are there forever" ~
alan mcgee
