Bob Dylan 980123 in Boston, Massachusetts - FleetCenter
FleetCenter
Capacity: 19,600
Double bill with Van Morrison
Seating Chart
Seat Locator
Subject: Fleet Center 1/23 notes
From: O'B (dylpluck@ultranet.com)
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 12:32:19 -0500
Fleet Center 1/23/98
The trip began at 4pm, with an hour-long drive across Worcester, a ride
that should have taken ten minutes. It snowed all day, and by four, it had
begun to turn to sleet. I was supposed to pick up a friend at 4:30. At
4:45, my car was sideways in the middle of the road, sliding down the hill
backwards, still miles from his house. Six months worth of clutch wear
later, seven running-start, aborted attempts up the short steep hill later,
I pulled in the driveway and we got headed towards Boston finally. The
start of the trip in didn't look promising, the roads were awful, we passed
a half-dozen cars that had spun off the highway. The temperatures climbed
though, and it had switched mostly to rain by the time we pulled onto the
Mass Pike at 495. It was pure rain by Newton, pouring, messy, tough to
see, but no longer threatening our chances of making it to the show on time
and intact.
The Fleet Center is a a 20,000+ seat arena, easily the biggest indoor venue
I've seen Dylan perform in. What a contrast. Four weeks or so ago, I was
on the other side of Boston at Avalon, a tiny nightclub, watching him, with
about 19,000 less people in the audience. Most of the other times I've
seen Bob have been in much more comfortable settings than the Fleet Center,
great, small, intimate theatres. I've seen some great old buildings in the
course of tracking down Dylan shows, buildings with character, character
that plays a part in the night's performance. Not much character to the
Fleet Center, however. Corporate steel, plastic and concrete block. No
ornate woodwork, no friezes on the ceilings, no handcarved balcony facades.
No, tonight, it would be up to the music to provide the atmosphere--no help
from the surroundings.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, would you please welcome Columbia recording
artist...Bob Dylan" Who is this guy, does anyone know? Is it the sound
guy? I've been seeing Dylan for years, and it's always that same voice
giving that same introduction. It's tradition now, it used to seem like an
odd introduction. Of all the things you could say, or not say about Bob
Dylan, "Columbia recording artist?".
Absolutely Sweet Marie, solid opener, as openers are: get your feet wet,
everyone is feeling the night out still, trying to settle in, performers
and audience both. The lights haven't been down long, people are
scrambling to find there seats, spilling beer, arguing with ushers. Dylan
is open from the start, eyes up and looking out at it all, which isn't
always the case, but seems to happen more frequently now. I can remember
plenty of shows, not so long ago, where he wouldn't take his eyes from the
tops of his shoes all night, where from the audience, you could feel how
uncomfortable he was, how much he was locked deep in his head. No eye
contact with the audience, none with band members either, he'd walk on
stage and do the whole show with a head-down, eyes-averted grimace, playing
well, but keeping it all hidden. On the best of those nights, you could
see the moment it clicked for him. Out of nowhere, usually near the end of
the show, after an hour of staring straight ahead, appearing to be focused
on an area just a few feet in front of him, you'd catch him glance up and
take a little peek around, head still down, but his eyes would peek up and
you'd see the tiniest hint of a smile, only for a second though. Those
days seem far away now. For whatever reasons, I'll leave it for you to
speculate, Dylan's current stage presence is open and outgoing. He appears
to be having fun, appears very comfortable, shows little if any signs of
stage fright, and actually appears quite the ham, if you're sitting close
enough to catch his facial expressions.
He can be a pretty funny bastard, something which seems to surprise a lot
of people but shouldn't. Sit a dozen rows back and watch him mug to the
people in the first few rows some night. It's hilarious, and he knows it.
There was one point last night where he pulled off a great guitar break
and the people up front responded with a little mini-ovation, and Bob
looked the few people who had jumped to their feet in the eye, one at a
time and gave 'em each a nod. The lighting guy, catching this, killed the
backlighting and switched to footlights, essentially leaving the stage in
blackness except for Dylan who had taken a few steps to the front of the
stage. The moment had a cliched, arena-rock feel to it, it was too much of
the "grand gesture" that makes concerts in hockey halls so shitty most of
the time, so artificially large. Dylan's response was perfect. As soon as
the lights behind him dimmed, he turned, looked up at the just darkened
lights, looked forward again into the lights focused on his face, put on a
fake horrifed look and did a double-take than a triple-take back at the
black bank of lights, gave an amused shrug, stepped back to the microphone
to deliver the next lines, laughed, then delivered each of the next lines
with hilarious, exaggerated expressions, posing, goofing, "so you want to
see a rock star, huh?" then looking down at the people in the front rows
and cracking up. A little moment, but funny.
I was going to go through the show song by song, but I'll be here all night
if I do. What the hell can you say about music anyway? Lester Bangs, I
believe, gave the famous quote that says it all: "writing about music is
like dancing about architecture". The show was excellent, Dylan was on,
the band was right there with him. Larry Campbell, the new guitar player,
has improved by leaps and bounds from the summer '97 tour, the first time
I'd seen him. He seems more comfortable with his role, seems more a part
of it than a hired player. This band is now hitting heights comparable, if
not higher, than the peaks with JJ Jackson and Winston Watson, back in late
'94 and '95.
Dylan improvises with his voice, reinventing the songs each night with
inflection and delivery. On the good nights, he stretches lines,
compresses lines, pushes the band with his unexpected vocal twists. This
was one of those nights.
The middle block of the show was as good as any I've seen: "Cold Irons
Bound", "Simple Twist of Fate", "Silvio", "Desolation Row", "One Too Many
Mornings", "Tangled Up In Blue." I would have picked something other than
"Ballad of a Thin Man" and "Highway 61" at the end, but I needed something
to bitch about and that fills that need. Another trek in tonight, let's
see how this one plays out, hoping for a "Not Dark Yet", "Shelter From the
Storm", or maybe a "Friend of the Devil". If it's played well, it won't
really matter. If it's not, it'll never be worth all the hassle, but you
can say that about anything, I guess.
--
O'B
( dylpluck@ultranet.com ) ( http://www.ultranet.com/~dylpluck )
"I can tell your future: just look what's in your hand"
From: Jishman
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 20:37:00 EST
To: karlerik@monet.no
Subject: Dylan Review
Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com)
Didn't see any reviews of Jan. 23 Boston show so I thought I would send one:
It's the day after the first of two Dylan/Morrison shows in Boston, and all I
can say is last night was an amazing performance by both, and if I wasn't 15
(and under limited money resources), I'd be right back at the Fleet Center
Tonight to see them again. This was my fifth Dylan show, but the first time I
had seen him in a big venue, so I was a little worried about how he would
sound, but needless to say he didn't disappoint! It was pretty evident that
Dylan would be opening the show after seeing the simple stage setup that has
become so familiar. The crowd was a definitely a late-arriving one as a result
of the storm (much older than regular Dylan shows, probably because of
Morrison), so the show didn't get started until 7:25. Customary "Ladies and
Gentleman, please welcome Columbia Recording artist, Bob Dylan!"
Dylan came
out wearing the standard "kernel outfit" and black pants with what looked like
buttons running down the sides. He immediately broke into "Absolutely Sweet
Marie", a average version in my opinion and one I've heard all too often. What
followed was the soft chords to "Lay, Lady, Lay," and it was the first hint
that this was going to be a great night.
Then Dylan moved into his Grammy nominated- doesn't that sound great- song:
"Cold Irons Bound." This was the first time I had heard the song live before,
and it started out very "funky" by Dylan standards, and just kept pounding
throughout. By this point I had gotten used to average sound that I had
expected from the Fleet Center, but Dylan's vocals sounded as clear as I can
remember. Next came one of my favorite songs, "Simple Twist of Fate." I wish
he had played this acoustic, but beggars can't be choosers. He sung the first
three verses the way only a great storyteller can, and then skipped to the
last one- alternate lyrics for much of this (ex. "Instead of he woke up, the
room was bare..." it went something like "He got and found the letter she had
left behind...") Still, I loved every minute of it, and so did the crowd.
"Silvio" was the best version of the song (out of three) that I had ever
heard the band play. The guitar solos were FABULOUS, and it is amazing how
much Dylan has improved his skills on the electric from 1995. But the high
point of the night followed, the acoustic set and spell-bounding "Desolation
Row." I had been hoping for this song ever since I saw it on the setlist
earlier in the month, and the die-hard fans recognized the beginning of the
classic and they cheered like crazy. Bob sung this like he really meant it,
and left everyone gasping for air. "Everyone is either making love..." just
got me laughing, and the RMD crowd front and center was going crazing by the
time he slowly let the song go with his solo guitar efforts. I couldn't
believe how amazing this song sounded, and it made "One Too Many Mornings"
seem like nothing, although not a bad performance on this one either. Acoustic
set ended with a long jamming version of "Tangled Up in Blue," a crowd pleaser
that brought everyone to their feet.
After Bob shook up his wavy hair, and slid on the electric, he started into a
very good version of "Million Miles," and moved into "Stuck Inside of
Mobile..." where he performed his best "dance steps" of the night on the
solos. "Ballad of a Thin Man" closed out the regular set, with the incredibly
powerful guitar chords of this song ripping through the venue. The crowd went
ballistic, Dylan came back out, and to my disappointment, played "Highway 61
Revisited" and Forever Young," both average but the second a crowd pleaser
that brought everyone to their feet. "Love Sick" was great, fun to hear the
memorable opening lines from TOOM live, and familiar "Rainy Day..." had
everyone, baby boomers and young alike on their feet dancing.
No duet with Morrison, who put on a great show himself (although second to
Bob), performing classics like Cleaning Windows, Moondance, Gloria, Have I
Told..., Jackie Wilson, and Days Like These, my highlight of his set. All in
all it was a incredible night, and if anyone else was also there and wants to
talk about it, or has comments, please feel free to email me. And if anyone
was lucky enough to get a tape, I'll DO ANYTHING for a copy. Go see Bob NOW
before its too late, and pray that he plays Desolation Row.
Jishman@aol.com
Subject: Boston, MA 23 January 1998 - a review
From: Carsten Wohlfeld (happyjaq@confetti.ruhr.de)
Date: 31 Jan 1998 19:46:00 +0100
Bob Dylan
Boston, MA 23 January 1998
FleetCenter
A Review by Carsten Wohlfeld
After taking the quick and easy route from New York City to Massachusetts
(a 45 minute plane ride that is), I had a day to chill out and watch the
snow fall in Cambridge before it was time to see our man and THE man
again. Dylan was due to open on the first night and when he took the stage
at around 7.30pm in the shockingly huge arena (normally the home of the
Boston Bruins and almost four times as big as the MSG Theater in New York)
at least 1/4 of the people were still ordering drinks outside.
Absolutely Sweet Marie
Even though the sound was horrible all night where I was sitting (Section
E on the floor) Bob's delivery was great from the start on.
Lay Lady Lay
Good choice of song if you're a casual Bobfan, but your worst nightmare if
you do the whole tour. Standard version of a song that doesn't do much for
me. Enough said.
Cold Irons Bound
Ironically, the only songs of the whole night that made Bob smile were the
dark "TOOM" songs. Nice to see him grin so much during an especially harsh
version of this track (or maybe it was just the bad sound?), though.
Simple Twist Of Fate
A welcome return to the setlist with some nice guitar work courtesy of
Larry. The cuesheet's first choice "Baby Tonight" fortunately went
unplayed.
Silvio
Smoking as usual.
Desolation Row (acoustic)
Personally I don't think it's a good idea to ruin the "treat" status of
songs like "Desolation Row" or "Hard Rain" by playing them too often.
Larry H. said "I don't mind, I could hear him play this song 1 h 40 mins
every night", but I don't wanna reach the point where I think "oh no, not
THAT again" when they start this beautiful song. The version was
excellent, but not as spectacular as the NYC or New London ones.
One Too Many Mornings (acoustic)
Nice guitar work from Bob on this always welcome gem.
Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic)
The usual crowd pleaser but without the usual stage rush tonight. The
security Nazis in the FleetCenter pushed everybody back to their seats,
even the people standing next to their seats in the aisles. Unfortunately
those bastards confused this rock concert with a concentration camp. Very
unfortunate.
Million Miles
Went down very, very well with the audience (who was otherwise very
quiet!) and sounded as hard and edgy as "Bound" due to the bad acoustics.
Bob smiled nevertheless...
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Yet again! Unfortunately, they didn't top the great NYC version.
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Rocked as hell and Bob's singing was really stunning: "do yaaaaaaaaa...
Mistaaaaaaaaaaaa Jones???" (he was even singing the ??? - incredible!).
The highlight of tonight's set for me. The band intros prior to this song
included a few inaudible jokes and lots of laughing and smiling on stage.
(encore)
Highway 61 Revisited
It's time for a change in this slot I'd say even though the song rocked as
usual.
Forever Young (acoustic)
Was played as expected. Nice vocal delivery and a guitar solo that fit in
perfectly with the music this time, making this version much better than
the NY attempt :-)
Lovesick
Still one of my favourites, even though or because it doesn't change much
from night to night.
Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 & 35
Considerably worse and less playful than the last NYC version :-(
Anyways, another very solid show, that lacked some of the excitement of
the NYC shows (and a Van/Bob duet as well). Still a very enjoyable
evening. There's one more review left for me... Boston #2. Thanks for
reading and not minding my bad english :-). See you there!
--
carsten wohlfeld
"i'm caught in a trap and i can't get out cause i love you so much, baby!"
(elvis presley)
