Bob Dylan 980523 in Anaheim, California
Subject: May 23 Set List/Review From: (spjohnny@earthlink.net) Date: 24 May 1998 08:59:42 GMT 1. Absolutely Sweet Marie 2. Lay Lady Lay 3. Cold Irons Bound 4. I'm Not Supposed to Care 5. Silvio 6. Cocaine 7. The Times They Are A-Changin' 8. Tangled Up in Blue 9. To Make You Feel My Love 10. Highway 61 Revisited 11. Forever Young 12. Love Sick 13. Rainy Day Women Hopefully that's accurate. Anyway, it was an excellent show from start to finish. Maybe the best "Rainy Day Women" I've heard. It seems to be getting more of a country feel with each performance lately, and I was reminded a lot of Joe Ely's live recording of "Johnny's Blues." "Love Sick" and "The Times" were also very strong. There really wasn't a weak moment in the show, though "Lay Lady Lay" was a bit less tuneful than I'd have liked and I don't think I'll ever be too fond of "Cocaine." Bob acknowledged Gordon Lightfoot as one of his favorite songwriters. And while it may have been my imagination, I think he also said "Happy birthday everybody" after one of the encores. Van and his group were first-rate, too, doing good versions of Tupelo Honey, Cypress Avenue, The Healing Game, In The Garden/Real Real Gone, etc.
Subject: Anaheim Review From: TIMHRK (TIMHRK@AOL.COM) Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 15:04:28 EDT A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE WENT TO THE ANAHEIM SHOW, AND SENT ME THIS REVIEW/IMPRESSIONS IF THE DIGEST IS EVER DOWNLOADABLE AGAIN FOR ME, MAYBE I WILL READ IT TOO :-) OK, I'll play this game. I thought I would fill in the culture club on the show we went to on Saturday. First, from the net, the Bob set: May 23, 1998 Anaheim, California Pond of Anaheim Arena 1. Absolutely Sweet Marie 2. Lay, Lady, Lay 3. Cold Irons Bound 4. I'm Not Supposed To Care 5. Silvio 6. Cocaine Blues (acoustic) 7. The Times They Are A-Changin' (acoustic) 8. Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic) 9. Make You Feel My Love 10. Highway 61 Revisited (encore) 11. Forever Young (acoustic) 12. Love Sick 13. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 We sprung for the long term babysitter, so that Donna and I could both go. We got to the parking lot about an hour early, so we had a quick tailgate featuring champagne and sushi, which seemed appropriate for this event, and ticket price. We listened to a tape of Blood on the Tracks. He'll probably do something from this, I said knowingly. It made me feel somewhat young again being around all the geezers at this show. We went inside and were seated about 15 minutes before showtime. We had floor seats, but they were around 40 rows back, right around the mixer boards. I should have brought binoculars, but I figured that this is the late 90s, they'll have a video screen - wrong... Van was due to be up first. His band and warmup singer came on a little before the scheduled showtime, which the net had prepared me for, so we were ready. He had a huge band of about 10 or so, with 3 or 4 horns, a couple percussionists, a bunch of guitars and singers. He even played some harp, the only harp of the night. :( I was worried that Van would only give his B performance, since he was the opening act, but he smoked! The sound was great, and his voice was great also. He did a fair smattering of hits like Domino, Jackie Wilson, and a few others abbreviated in medlies like Tupelo Honey and Real Real Gone. He even came out for 3 encores, including Cypress Avenue. No Sinatra tributes from Van. After a short break, Joni came on. She did the same set list that had been published on the net, no variations. It did feature a lot more of the obscure songs, rather than the hits. I appreciated it as a fan, but I could see how if you weren't familiar with the music, you might be bored with it. She did do Big Yellow Taxi, complete with Bob imitation, and Woodstock for an encore, and some from Hejira and Hissing and Like this train from Court and Spark. She had a 4 piece band, with pedal steel, bass and drums. For me it was a thrill just to see her do anything, since she does it so rarely. Finally time for Bob. I guess this was primarily a Bob crowd, but it was interesting judging just based on the standing behavior of the crowd. Van got standing O's when he came out, and after some of the big hits, and when he left the stage before the encore and at the end. But while he played, people sat down. Joni got a standing O when she came out, but not after any songs until she left the stage before the encore and at the end. But for Bob, after his standing O to come out, people stayed up through the first 3 songs. At least those of us on the floor did, in the wings they were mostly seated during the songs. Things cooled down for the 4th song, with everyone looking at each other going huh? I didn't hear him say it, but someone said that he said it was a Gordon Lightfoot song. Then it was back up for Silvio. About the only other ones people sat for were Cocaine, and Make you feel my love. Anyway Bob looked slick in a white suit with some black trim, and a little black tie like the ones Brownies wear. The sound was not quite as clear as it was for Van, but that might just have been due to the different styles of music. This show featured three truly distinct sounds, no one sounded like anyone else. It seems at this point, Bob really likes to rock out. He did a little Chuck Berry duck walk a couple of times. I was a little too far away to pick up much facial expression, but he seemed to be having a good time. He certainly plays more of the hits than the other two, but I guess he's got more of them to play. There was some hot guitar playing, but from where I was I couldn't always tell if it was Bob or the other guitar player. The Times and Forever Young were special treats. We started moving up near the exits for Rainy Day Women. It is not one of my favorites, but they really use it as a vehicle to rock out at the end of the show. The house lights were coming up as they were playing, it was just before midnight, and there was probably a curfew. We waited a few moments to see if there would be another appearance, but it was not to be. I didn't hear him say Happy Birthday, which I later read he did. We did get out of the parking lot quickly, but got lost a little in Santa Ana on the way home trying to get back on the freeway, so we got back home a little after 1 to relieve the babysitter. I was thinking the net is kind of a double edged sword. It get you'll well prepared for the shows, and what you're likely to see and hear, but it takes away some of the element of surprise about the shows. You can't help making comparisons to other shows you read about, and you start valuing the small variations, and get disappointed if the variation is not there. I guess there isn't anyone who matches the variation of the Dead. You got some of the sense of their variations by the circulation of tapes, but usually that was not of tapes of the current tour due to the time lags of tape proliferation. I guess the real hard core followed the band around, so were already up to speed. I was never hard enough core to do that for anyone, but the net kind of lets you do it virtually now. Anyway, it was a great show by all, and I'm glad I went through the all the hassles to go. The triple header will probably satisfy my urge to go to concerts for a while. See you all in NJ one of these days soon.
