Bob Dylan 980610 in Göteborg, Sweden
Scandinavium
Capacity: 10,000
Reserved seating
Showtime: 7:30 PM
Subject: review - Gothenburg 06/10/98
From: Dante (dante@quasar.se)
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 16:42:07 +0200
This is my first attempt to wright a review of a "Bobshow" so here's my
thoughts on the show in Gothenburg 06/10/98.
Got to my excellent seat in the front row. Billie Meyers played for about
half an hour and then they prepared the stage for Mr. Bob. A quarter to nine
the lights go down, the audience starts screaming, clapping and there's the
voice: "Please welcome, Columbia recording artist ' BOB DYLAN'." Yeah!
To Be Alone With You
Great song, great country style version and the voice is there from the very
beginning, strong and powerful. The sound is absolutely magnificent, crystal
clear and Bob's voice is very up front and every little twist in his voice
can be heard.
Man In The Long Black Coat
Pure magic! Bob really goes into this song, carefully pronounce every word,
really telling a story more than just singing a song. The critics that claim
that Bob needs 4-5 songs to work up his voice couldn't be more wrong! Spooky
and effective inspired backing by the band. Great drums by David! It's
amazing how much he can put into the words he sings when he's in the right
mood. This song was a definite highlight of the evening
Cold Irons Bound
I never thought that this song could be so powerful. Definitely much better
live than on TOOM. Full throttle powerful singing by Bob throughout.
Born In Time
A great song but the performance tonight was only "good".
Silvio
Great performance and I like the song, but there was nothing extra or
unusual.
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Sounded much like the unplugged version, the same singing by Dylan and with
Bucky on slide dobro. The drums on the other hand were different and gave
the song a nice groove I haven't heard before.
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
A great version with a short harp solo at the end.
Masters of War
Slow and quietly sung with a lot of feelings shining through in Bob's voice.
Tangled Up In Blue
Bob and the band hit a fantastic groove, terrific singing and again a harp
solo at the end.
She Belongs To Me
Fantastic! The stage rush came right before this song. A marvelous rendition
of a marvelous song. Bob sings it with a warm smooth voice with perfect
simple backing by the band. I like this song very much so this was a
highlight as well.
'Til I Fell In Love with You
Didn't excite me very much but that's probably because it's not one of my
favorite songs.
Make You Feel My Love
Bob walks up to Tony with a big smile. Says something that looks like "shall
we give them one more song?" Tony nods back. This is not one of my favorite
songs from TOOM but this was great. They played 13 songs in the main set
instead of the usual 11 to 12.
Highway 61 Revisited
Bob really likes this song and it rocked as hell. The look on his face and
how he sings the phrase: "..let me think for a minute (pause) SON", and then
the rhyming line: " (pause) DONE" and then a big smile was priceless. This
little moment was easily worth the price of the ticket! This is Bob as a
guitar hero, rockin', bending his knees, sweat's pouring down while shaking
his head.
It Ain't Me Babe
The audience was singing along on this one and Larry and Tony smiled because
of that throughout the song. Some great guitar work by Larry, Bob and Bucky
that had lots of fun playing it. A real crowdpleaser.
Love Sick
Spooky as always with some strange way of "talking" the last word of every
phrase.
Rainy Day Women
They play this one all the time and it doesn't add anything to the show for
a Dylan freak like me. But it is definitely a good song to close a show with
for most of the people in the audience.
I expected to hear Blowin' In the Wind after RDW like in Stockholm and some
other earlier shows but he didn't come back for more. There were no covers
(I must say that even though he makes some good choices on the covers I
prefer to hear Bob singing his own songs.) and we got 16 songs and that's
more than usual so I can't really complain. Bob seemed to be very inspired
and was smiling and moving in odd ways all evening. His singing was
passionate and strong through every song. All in all a very good show with
some absolutely brilliant and magic moments.
All the best
/Dante
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 03:38:25 +0200
From: happyjaq@confetti.ruhr.de
Subject: June 10, 1998 - Göteborg, Sweden - a review
Bob Dylan
Göteborg, Sweden, June 10, 1998
Scandinavium
A review for Josh Nelson :-)
The venue was much nicer than last night, still huge, but it shaped like a
seashell, which was kinda funny. It had carpet on the floor and nicer
chairs as well. Nearly a sellout with around 8.000 people attending.
Billie Myers opened with the same 7-song set, that included her hit "Kiss
The Rain" and tonight - for the first time - the intro: "Ladies and
gentlemen, would you please welcome...Universal recording artist...Billie
Myers", which I thought to be hilarious. Dylan came out at around 8.30,
wearing his dreadful white shoes.
To Be Alone With You
Horrid version that got nobody out of their chairs. Bob and the guys were
still on auto-pilot, which didn't change for:
Man In The Long Black Coat
Which wasn't very special at all unfortunately. Bucky broke a string on
the pedal steel and got it replaced in time for his solo. Hmm...
Cold Irons Bound
The nice "Cold Irons....B-O-U-N-D" phrasing is back! Nice rendition though
it's time to bring back "Can't Wait", Bob!
Born In Time
Was a great choice, a bit rushed though and with a major fuckup by the
band. Seemed as if they couldn't decide whether to play the bridge, the
chorus or the verse. Two of them anyways....
Silvio
...was "Silvio". (Josh said that. He also said: I thought it was quite
good tonight". Of course he was right.)
The Times They Are A-Changin' (acoustic)
went by unnoticed, even though some of the casual fans undoubtedly came
close to tears of joy.
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (acoustic)
with a nice harp solo that finished off a solid performance.
Masters Of War (acoustic)
Not as good as Berlin, but still one of the night's highlights.
Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic)
Tonight he got the lyrics right and finished off with a rather
unconvincing harp solo. I guess it is the thought that counts.
She Belongs To Me
Says Josh: "A lovely surprise and placed well within the show. A real
toetapper. A hot that unified the fans of all ages." Bad intros followed.
Tony on "uright bass and bass guitar." :-)
Til I Fell In Love With You
Tony expected "Highway" and was pretty surprised when Bob chose this one.
Solid performance.
Make You Feel My Love
Tony got even more puzzled cause Bob still didn't show any signs of
stopping. The usual gentle arrangement helped us forget that this is a
horrid song.
Highway 61 Revisited
was "Highway", making this a 13 song mainset!
(encores)
It Ain't Me Babe (acoustic)
Yet another okay performance that featured the long, slow solo (cf. Miami
3/30/98) but no harp. Crowd loved it.
Love Sick
Same as it was last night. New phrasing, still one of the best songs in
the set.
Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 & 35
Followed as expected. At the end, Bob picked up a leather belt somebody
had thrown onto the stage, showed it to the people and played around with
it for a while. Doesn't always have to be flowers I guess.
No "Blowin'" tonight, but still a much better show that Stockholm and 16
songs. Josh, Sigrid and I couldn't find a hotel room in Gšteborg, whih
meant that we basically spent the night in the train station: "Should've
left this town this morning...":-) Thanks for reading. A more detailed
review of Copenhagen is to follow tomorrow. Good night.
carsten wohlfeld
--
"your girlfriend can leave you but the rolling stones are there forever"
(alan mcgee)
