Bob Dylan 980701 in Dijon, France
Subject: Dijon, France - July 1, 1998 - a review
From: Carsten Wohlfeld (happyjaq@confetti.ruhr.de)
Date: 08 Jul 1998 01:02:00 +0100
Bob Dylan
Dijon, France - July 1, 1998
Le Forum
A review by Carsten Wohlfeld
We got up very, very late in Paris but still managed to be in the
smalltown in the south-east of France that is Dijon at around 5pm. Found
ourselves a low-budget hotelroom and went back to the ugly Forum (not much
more than an old barn) to hear the soundcheck. It included:
One More Cup Of Coffee
Make You Feel My Love
I&I (several times)
while the first song was a pleasant surprise, the last couple of versions
of "I&I" sounded very promising. Would they finally do it tonight after it
had been on the cuesheet or Roskilde? Inside the venue I was greeted by
some members of Dylan's crew (you know you attend to many Dylan shows when
the crew greets you even though you've never been introduced to them), but
anyways... The venue was filled with about 3,000 people at 8.15pm when Bob
and the guys came out to surprise us all with:
Seeing The Real You At Last
Which was last performed on the US Summer Tour last year if my memory
serves me well. Unusually good sound from the start onwards. I still don't
like the song though and was a bit sad that they ignored the cuesheets
alternate "All Along The Watchtower". This was the seventh song played as
the opener in Europe alone, making it a total of nine all year.
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
Solid performance of a song that I've heard more than enough by now. "Man
In Me" unfortunately went unplayed.
Cold Irons Bound
was "Cold Irons Bound". Yet another version that could've been better,
could've been worse.
You're A Big Girl Now
A song that reduces some grown men to tears but doesn't do anything for
me. It was nicely done though, with Bob's focus definitely more on the
singing rather then the guitarplaying.
Silvio
Baaaaad! Larry and David both made several big mistakes. Bob was pretty
angry at Larry all night (at least he looked as if he was gonna kill him
any second), but Campbell obviously didn't know what he did wrong. Apart
from the fact that Larry killed "Silvio" I don't know either what annoyed
Bob so much. "Memphis" was the alternative on the cuesheet, interestingly
enough!!!
Mr. Tambourine Man (acoustic)
Huge crowdpleaser of course, sung very, very well.
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (acoustic)
Yet another song that was very beautifully sung by Bob, even though he
sang the "graveyard" line twice. The band played a little bit too loud at
times for my liking as well.
Mama You Been On My Mind (acoustic)
What can I say apat from: AGAIN! Solid version of a so-so tune.
Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic)
The first real highlight of the night! Bob nearly drove everybody nuts
with his last guitar solo already, but to make it all 'worse', he picked
up the harmonica to give us yet another solo! Larry broke a string but
since this was the last acoustic song listed on the cuesheet, he was in no
hurry to get his other acoustic geetar. As a consequence Bob started the
following song alll by himself. btw, you could guess that there was one
more acoustic song to come cause Bob didn't put away his guitar for the
harp solo as usual.
Forever Young (acoustic)
Wasn't on the cuesheet in this slot and even though it was a huge
crowdpleaser and I enjoyed this version very much I have to say I didn't
like the fact that they skipped "Tom Thumb's Blues" instead. "Thumb" was
on the cuesheet, without alternates even but went unplayed. A shame!
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
The second song tonight (after "Real You" that made it's Euro '98 debut.
Solid version, even though Bob stumbled over a line here and there. I
think he even came up with two brandnew lines somewhere in the middle.
Then again, maybe not. "Blind Willie" and "She Belongs To Me" went
unplayed.
I&I
was next and completely made the night. If somebody will tell you that
Djon was an amazing show it was beacuse of this song. Probably the best
version of it I personally have ever heard (on tape or live). It just was
perfect. Loud, yet emotional, over the top, yet gentle in the right
moments. Awesome! If there's one single song on this whole tour that I'd
wanna hear again, I would choose this one. Band intros followed.
Highway 61 Revisited
Rocked as usual and replaced the cuesheet's only choice, "Rolling Stone".
(encore)
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (acoustic)
Interesting choice as Bob would've never dared to play both "Twice" and
"Mama" in the same show before. Now that they worked on the arrangements
and made them sound a little different, he obviously doesn't acre anymore.
He also gave us an okay harp solo. The best thing about the song was
Larry's guitar solo right before Bob's harmonica playing though. Never
heard him play a real solo on the acoustic, but this was HOT!
Love Sick
For quite a while now Tony uses what I believe is a rhythm computer to
count in the songs. Since last night's "Love Sick" was way to fast, he put
the machine right under Bucky's nose tonight and - bingo - as a
consequence the song was muuuuch slower and sounded much better. Bob put a
lot of emotion into his vocal delivery and almost sounded as if he's
crying at the end. Very nice.
Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 & 35
Right before the song Tony asked Bob: "Alabama"?, but Bob only shook his
head and then punished us with this one again.
Blowin' In The Wind (acoustic)
Yet another huge crowdpleaser as expected. One of the better versions, if
my memory serves me well.
All in all a solid show that will forever live in my memory as the evening
where "I&I" rocked my world. When I left the building I thought I just had
seen the most amazing show. But once I took notes for this review I
noticed that verything apart from "I&I" was just solid. Weird. At least he
gave us 17 songs and a long 115 mins. Our hopes were rising for
Montreux... thanks for reading and see ya there!
--
carsten wohlfeld
"what once you called home is a minefield" (damon & naomi)
