Bob Dylan 971211 at the Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA
Subject: Dec 11 Troc Review (And Much More) From: (trevorh@itw.com) Date: 11 Dec 1997 23:48:19 -0800 Wow...what a night. Where do I begin...well, let's get right to inside the Troc... The Trocadero is tiny. It barely held 1200 people, a very small room indeed. We were about the 5th slab of people back. I was to the right a little, infront of Bucky. It was pretty cool, right before they went on Bucky went on stage, dressed in normal clothing, and tuned his pedal steel, with the crowd going nuts. But enough of the pre-show stuff, here's the concert: Bob walks out on stage, Bob's wearing a long black dress coat, silk white shirt, and what appeared to be a light blue tie. He's got the usual black pants with those braids down the sides, and odd-looking boots. We hear the announcer..."Good evening ladies and gentlemen..." The crowd was screaming so loud that he just stopped right there. When the noise died down a little he resumed..."Would you please welcome Columbia recording artist..." Well you know the rest. MAGGIE'S FARM...Incredible. You can already tell that tonight he's in a great mood. He's looking at everyone in the audience, he opened up his eyes really wide, and then (swear to God) he looked right at me as I was singing along right with him. Great opener. Just seeing him only 15 feet away was giving me chills, even on the first song. SENOR...I don't really love this song to much, but man was this a good performance of it! He's really looking at the people in the front row, and I saw roses already being thrown on stage. COLD IRONS BOUND...Awesome! That's all I can say really. This was really close to the album version, perhaps a little bit more rushed, but still excellent. I could tell Bucky really loved this one. He had the biggest smile on his face during the whole song. This is probably the first time I've ever seen that man smile, I mean, he was grinning from ear to ear on this one. I DON'T BELIEVE YOU...I recall hearing this one in 94, but this version, the band is so much more tight! They really knew what they were doing. Bob did an excellent vocal performance on this one. A highlight for the show, particularly because he doesn't do this one too often. CAN'T WAIT...It was very good. Very much like the album version. SILVIO...The crowd always goes nuts on this one. Very fine guitar work by Bob tonight. Lead for every song, not just 3 note noodling, he's actually doing some work that might just impress somebody. It's not really what he's playing, but the way he looks when he's playing the guiar. He spreads his legs out, holds his guitar like a machine gun, and just lets loose. Tonight he was going for the "look" as well as the sound. Constantly smiling and looking around, very active on stage, just all around good. "Silvio" had the best lighting effects for the whole night. During the chorus, they just had purple lights on the band members, and the lights behind the band on the stage went off. A very nice effect. ROVING GAMBLER...This one has "highlight" written all over it. The band is soooo much tighter on this than in the Spring when this song was intoduced. He does a verse, then him, Larry, and Bucky repeat that verse with him as the drums stop completely. Truely awesome. The crowd went nuts thru this whole song. IT'S ALL OVER NOW...Much better with drums. A fine performance of this song. Bob did some nice guitar work and Bucky did some awesome stuff on the mandolin tonight. TANGLED UP IN BLUE...This is the 3rd time I've heard this song, and I thought I was getting tired of it, but this performance was the best I've seen of it. Crowd was singing along all the way thru, and what I noticed abou this performance was Bob did ALL verses. Even the one about the "music in the cafes at night." Kemper was on tonight with the drums. Truely a fine performance. STUCK INSIDE OF MOBILE...Very good. I actually prefered the 95 version, but this one was a good opener for the 2nd electric set. At this point we see noticable sweat on Bob. WHEEL'S ON FIRE...Actually, this was the only true disappointment tonight. I prefer song #11 to be the real highlight, with a slow, touching ballad, for example "Never Gonna Be The Same Again" or "I'll Remember You," but "Wheels on Fire" doesn't really satisfy the need for a slow ballad. Oh well. At least he's really animated on this one, as well as the others. At this point Bob introduces the band. Larry first, Kemper second, then he gets to Bucky. And when he introduces him I clap really loudly and shout. Bob looked right at me and said "Well, I guess Bucky's fan club is here tonight..." That was pretty cool for me at least. I mean, it's not everyday that Bob Dylan looks at you right in the eyes. Anyways, as usual he introduces Tony last, then right into... TIL I FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU...Just like the one off the album, really great. He's looking at someone to the left of the stage, crouching down, nodding his head at them, I really didn't catch what they were doing to attract his attention, but you could tell he was amused by them. Song was done, they left the stage. We waited for them to come back on...as one of his guitar techs was tuning Larry's guitar....they came back on. HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED...3rd time I've seen this one this year, by far this was the BEST performance of it. It started out with low expectations, mainly because within the first 5 seconds of the song Larry broke a string, so he quicky replaced his Telecaster with a Stratocaster, and continued. Awesome work by Bob on this one, it was really cool to see Bob and Larry's guitars mesh into one hell of a lead solo. Bob is smiling and having a great time. I can't say enough about his mood tonight. He was just in a fine spirit tonight, happy to be there. FOREVER YOUNG...Good performance, lots of cheering on this one. Great backup vocals by Larry and Bucky. Overall excellent. Bucky was holding his cigarette in his right hand as he was playing pedal steel on this one, which gave me the impression he was becoming disinterested at this point with the show. LOVESICK...Awesome. Very much close to the album version again, my one complaint was Bob's voice was a little low in the mix. So what...Bob still was having a great time. At the end of this they didn't leave the stage, they just started the usual.... RAINY DAY WOMEN...Well, the crowd loves it. What more can I say. Bob was all smiles and towards the end of it and is looking at a group of people right in the middle. At the end of the song, he takes off his guitar before the song is done, walks towards them, says something, only God knows what, and then does his normal bow and off the stage. Truely an incredible show. I can't say enough about it. But it doesn't end there... I got to see a couple of people upstairs at the bar, I've met Robin (a regular RMD user) before at the Wayne show, and it was nice to talk to her again. We then left the Troc and arranged to go to some Mexican resturant on South Street. So we get there, but I don't have ID, so I can't get in. Damn. So then my friend and I are walking up and down South Street for a place to get a bite to eat, and who do we pass? Mr. Tony Garnier himself. I shake his hand, and we get into a 10 minute conversation. Instead of asking him about Bob and being nosy, I just decide to take it easy and talk to him about bass guitars. I asked him why he's not playing his usual Rickenbacker bass, and he said he likes the 5 string one he's playing now, and it struck me as being awkward, but he said that because he's been playing upright bass all his life, he has all of his guitar's action raised really high. I mean, that's pretty strange. But hey, he's Tony Garnier for Christ's sake, he can do whatever he wants. Just when we started talking about Bob, some homeless guy approached us, hands us LifeStyles condoms, says he's HIV positive, and asks for a donation. I didn't feel like giving the guy money, I mean, he was inturrupting my conversation with Tony Garnier, that's just not right. There outta be a law...anyways Tony looks at him with a smirk and says "Listen, we're in a deep conversation right now about the meaning of life, so if you want money...HERE!" He takes out a five dollar bill, gives it to the guy, and he walked away. So we talk for a little while longer about how he got the idea for the bass riff for Cold Irons Bound. He said that bass riff was inspired by something he heard Paul McCartney do. He also said he played on a couple new Paul Simon songs, and we just talked for a little while longer, and he casually left. I got another handshake off of him and told him I'd see him in January at Madison Square Garden, he asked for my name, and then he walked away....Wow. That just made a good night better. Well, in conclusion, it was a fine show and a great night after. I can go on for another two years about tonight, but I think I'll end it just by saying, see Bob whenever you can. You will be in for one hell of a treat. Trevor
Subject: random thoughts off the top of my head - Philadelphia, 12/10,11 From: Seth Kulick (skulick@linc.cis.upenn.edu) Date: 12 Dec 1997 05:17:51 GMT 1. Dylan's voice usually sounds stronger during the acoustic than the electric sets. Sometimes it's like he needs to struggle too much to get heard above the noise to really cut loose with some good phrasing. Well, not at these shows, and probably not at any of the recent shows. Incredibly, his voice actually sounded stronger during the electric sets, with better phrasing - the acoustic sets were actually a letdown (although I loved Roving Gambler). 2. This is *easily* the best band that I've ever seen him with (I never saw him with The Band). Songs that I had written off as stuff that I never wanted to hear again were reborn. Hiwy 61, which I've always hated in concert, since it's just been a lot of senseless noise, was just impossibly good, as Kemper's drumming sounded more like the record than any other live versions I've ever heard, and Campbell's guitar just crunched it out, although never with any tasteless flashy solos like G.E. Smith. 3. I'm amazed at how good the TOOM stuff sounds. Cold Irons Bound I like on record, although it has no tune at all. But the bass and drums set up a groove that was irresistible, and Bob sang the hell out of it, especially the first night. Although tonight the way he sang the "I thought some of them were friends of mine, I was wrong about them all" line was particularly great. Can't Wait is my favorite of the "lesser" songs on TOOM (that is, aside from the big four of Doorway, Heaven, Not Dark Yet, and Highland), and the sound of it is a bit different in concert, but works quite well. "Till I Fell in Love With You" is the biggest surprise. On record, this is a real nothing song - it's okay, and sort of has a nice feel to it, but nothing special. To my amazement, it was just astonishing in concert, deserving of set-ending status. Campbell's guitar had some sort of real piercing sound to it that was almost painful, but great. Painfully great. As somebody else wrote I think about this song, hearing this in concert made him/her realize how 65/66 psychotic-like this song is, and that was my impression. It kept reminding me of "Long Distance Operator". I never would have expected that song to be one of the concert highlights. Lovesick is probably the least successful, I think - it was fairly close to the album version, and I'm not particularly crazy about it on record. 4. Regarding the house lights going on intermittently during the show - I think that it is to catch tapers, as somebody else said. Toward the end of the show, the lights came on briefly and the guy in front of me got busted right after. I hadn't even realized he was taping - it was one of those setups with the mikes attached to his ears, I think. Looking back at the previous night, I was wondering about why the guy in the tiedye next to me never took off his wool cap. It was probably because he was taping, and was covering up the chords the mikes or something - he also didn't move around much and was pretty quiet. Too bad the guy tonight got busted. There goes my chance for a tape of the show with me yelling out "Yeah!!" when Roving Gambler started. 5. Security was unfortunately tight. Someone I know who tried to tape the show the first night got busted bringing the deck in. I'm sure both shows got recorded, but hopefully the tapes won't be too hard to come by. 6. I was surprised that he repeated Wheel's on Fire. Figured that would be the song slot that he would change, especially since he did Memphis Blues Again. Still, it's one of his greatest songs, and the version the second night was really spooky, better than the first night. 7, I Don't Believe You was great to hear, but he never quite wailed on it like I was waiting for. 8. Do other people experience this strange sensation of looking at Bob when he's on stage, and then when the lights are dim and he's standing in profile or something, realizing that he looks just like he did on the 74 Tour? Hey, it's the same guy! 9. And most importantly, somebody near the stage front right (Bob's left) held up some sort of small sign, which I think Bob read at the end, and then actually said something to whoever was holding the sign. Does anybody know what the sign said, and what Bob said? -- ------------------------------------------------------------ Seth Kulick "There are no kings inside the University of Pennsylvania gates of Eden" - Bob Dylan skulick@linc.cis.upenn.edu http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~skulick/home.html Nothing has been delivered.
Subject: Dec 11 Troc Review (And Much More) From: (trevorh@itw.com) Date: 11 Dec 1997 23:48:19 -0800 Wow...what a night. Where do I begin...well, let's get right to inside the Troc... The Trocadero is tiny. It barely held 1200 people, a very small room indeed. We were about the 5th slab of people back. I was to the right a little, infront of Bucky. It was pretty cool, right before they went on Bucky went on stage, dressed in normal clothing, and tuned his pedal steel, with the crowd going nuts. But enough of the pre-show stuff, here's the concert: Bob walks out on stage, Bob's wearing a long black dress coat, silk white shirt, and what appeared to be a light blue tie. He's got the usual black pants with those braids down the sides, and odd-looking boots. We hear the announcer..."Good evening ladies and gentlemen..." The crowd was screaming so loud that he just stopped right there. When the noise died down a little he resumed..."Would you please welcome Columbia recording artist..." Well you know the rest. MAGGIE'S FARM...Incredible. You can already tell that tonight he's in a great mood. He's looking at everyone in the audience, he opened up his eyes really wide, and then (swear to God) he looked right at me as I was singing along right with him. Great opener. Just seeing him only 15 feet away was giving me chills, even on the first song. SENOR...I don't really love this song to much, but man was this a good performance of it! He's really looking at the people in the front row, and I saw roses already being thrown on stage. COLD IRONS BOUND...Awesome! That's all I can say really. This was really close to the album version, perhaps a little bit more rushed, but still excellent. I could tell Bucky really loved this one. He had the biggest smile on his face during the whole song. This is probably the first time I've ever seen that man smile, I mean, he was grinning from ear to ear on this one. I DON'T BELIEVE YOU...I recall hearing this one in 94, but this version, the band is so much more tight! They really knew what they were doing. Bob did an excellent vocal performance on this one. A highlight for the show, particularly because he doesn't do this one too often. CAN'T WAIT...It was very good. Very much like the album version. SILVIO...The crowd always goes nuts on this one. Very fine guitar work by Bob tonight. Lead for every song, not just 3 note noodling, he's actually doing some work that might just impress somebody. It's not really what he's playing, but the way he looks when he's playing the guiar. He spreads his legs out, holds his guitar like a machine gun, and just lets loose. Tonight he was going for the "look" as well as the sound. Constantly smiling and looking around, very active on stage, just all around good. "Silvio" had the best lighting effects for the whole night. During the chorus, they just had purple lights on the band members, and the lights behind the band on the stage went off. A very nice effect. ROVING GAMBLER...This one has "highlight" written all over it. The band is soooo much tighter on this than in the Spring when this song was intoduced. He does a verse, then him, Larry, and Bucky repeat that verse with him as the drums stop completely. Truely awesome. The crowd went nuts thru this whole song. IT'S ALL OVER NOW...Much better with drums. A fine performance of this song. Bob did some nice guitar work and Bucky did some awesome stuff on the mandolin tonight. TANGLED UP IN BLUE...This is the 3rd time I've heard this song, and I thought I was getting tired of it, but this performance was the best I've seen of it. Crowd was singing along all the way thru, and what I noticed abou this performance was Bob did ALL verses. Even the one about the "music in the cafes at night." Kemper was on tonight with the drums. Truely a fine performance. STUCK INSIDE OF MOBILE...Very good. I actually prefered the 95 version, but this one was a good opener for the 2nd electric set. At this point we see noticable sweat on Bob. WHEEL'S ON FIRE...Actually, this was the only true disappointment tonight. I prefer song #11 to be the real highlight, with a slow, touching ballad, for example "Never Gonna Be The Same Again" or "I'll Remember You," but "Wheels on Fire" doesn't really satisfy the need for a slow ballad. Oh well. At least he's really animated on this one, as well as the others. At this point Bob introduces the band. Larry first, Kemper second, then he gets to Bucky. And when he introduces him I clap really loudly and shout. Bob looked right at me and said "Well, I guess Bucky's fan club is here tonight..." That was pretty cool for me at least. I mean, it's not everyday that Bob Dylan looks at you right in the eyes. Anyways, as usual he introduces Tony last, then right into... TIL I FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU...Just like the one off the album, really great. He's looking at someone to the left of the stage, crouching down, nodding his head at them, I really didn't catch what they were doing to attract his attention, but you could tell he was amused by them. Song was done, they left the stage. We waited for them to come back on...as one of his guitar techs was tuning Larry's guitar....they came back on. HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED...3rd time I've seen this one this year, by far this was the BEST performance of it. It started out with low expectations, mainly because within the first 5 seconds of the song Larry broke a string, so he quicky replaced his Telecaster with a Stratocaster, and continued. Awesome work by Bob on this one, it was really cool to see Bob and Larry's guitars mesh into one hell of a lead solo. Bob is smiling and having a great time. I can't say enough about his mood tonight. He was just in a fine spirit tonight, happy to be there. FOREVER YOUNG...Good performance, lots of cheering on this one. Great backup vocals by Larry and Bucky. Overall excellent. Bucky was holding his cigarette in his right hand as he was playing pedal steel on this one, which gave me the impression he was becoming disinterested at this point with the show. LOVESICK...Awesome. Very much close to the album version again, my one complaint was Bob's voice was a little low in the mix. So what...Bob still was having a great time. At the end of this they didn't leave the stage, they just started the usual.... RAINY DAY WOMEN...Well, the crowd loves it. What more can I say. Bob was all smiles and towards the end of it and is looking at a group of people right in the middle. At the end of the song, he takes off his guitar before the song is done, walks towards them, says something, only God knows what, and then does his normal bow and off the stage. Truely an incredible show. I can't say enough about it. But it doesn't end there... I got to see a couple of people upstairs at the bar, I've met Robin (a regular RMD user) before at the Wayne show, and it was nice to talk to her again. We then left the Troc and arranged to go to some Mexican resturant on South Street. So we get there, but I don't have ID, so I can't get in. Damn. So then my friend and I are walking up and down South Street for a place to get a bite to eat, and who do we pass? Mr. Tony Garnier himself. I shake his hand, and we get into a 10 minute conversation. Instead of asking him about Bob and being nosy, I just decide to take it easy and talk to him about bass guitars. I asked him why he's not playing his usual Rickenbacker bass, and he said he likes the 5 string one he's playing now, and it struck me as being awkward, but he said that because he's been playing upright bass all his life, he has all of his guitar's action raised really high. I mean, that's pretty strange. But hey, he's Tony Garnier for Christ's sake, he can do whatever he wants. Just when we started talking about Bob, some homeless guy approached us, hands us LifeStyles condoms, says he's HIV positive, and asks for a donation. I didn't feel like giving the guy money, I mean, he was inturrupting my conversation with Tony Garnier, that's just not right. There outta be a law...anyways Tony looks at him with a smirk and says "Listen, we're in a deep conversation right now about the meaning of life, so if you want money...HERE!" He takes out a five dollar bill, gives it to the guy, and he walked away. So we talk for a little while longer about how he got the idea for the bass riff for Cold Irons Bound. He said that bass riff was inspired by something he heard Paul McCartney do. He also said he played on a couple new Paul Simon songs, and we just talked for a little while longer, and he casually left. I got another handshake off of him and told him I'd see him in January at Madison Square Garden, he asked for my name, and then he walked away....Wow. That just made a good night better. Well, in conclusion, it was a fine show and a great night after. I can go on for another two years about tonight, but I think I'll end it just by saying, see Bob whenever you can. You will be in for one hell of a treat. Trevor
