Bob Dylan 990220 in Lake Placid, New York
From: "Michel Jacques" (mickj@total.net) To: "Karl Erik Andersen" (karlerik@monet.no) Subject: Lake Placid concert Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 06:06:28 -0500 What a great night again with Bob Dylan! We decided at the last minute, my brother and I, to drive from Quebec City, Canada, to Lake Placid (about 5 hours) to hear Zimmy again, four months after our last concert in Ottawa last October. And we'll never regret it! Bob seems to be a little sick tonight, he wiped his nose between most of the songs but he was in a good mood anyway. Ê No big surprise in the setlist (the first four songs were the same as the night before), but just great music! We were very pleased to hear Million Miles live for the first time and Bob did it great. Masters of War was excellent with the drum, quite different from the previous versions we heard. Mr. Tambourine Man was one of the highlights of the night. A bit bluesy. 'Til I Fell In Love With You was better than in Ottawa. But the highest point of the evening was the superb rendition of Love Sick as the first encore. A real lot better one than in Ottawa. More like the Time Out of Mind version. Simply amazing! The only sad thing about this show is that Bob never touched his harmonica... C'est la vie! Ê The crowd was more enthousiast than in Ottawa too. The concert was nearly sellout, about 7000 people. As opening act, Natalie Merchant did a great job. The best opening act for Dylan that I've seen. Ê This was the eighth night of my life with Bob Dylan, and I can't wait for the ninth. If it wasn't a question of money, we would be in Troy on Monday! Hope he'll be back around by the end of the year. Ê People of Troy, don't you dare miss it on Monday? No, of course!
Subject: Feb 20 at Lake Placid From: pwc (pcallas@zoo.uvm.edu) Date: 21 Feb 1999 19:34:55 GMT This was a fun show. The setlist wasn't too exciting, but Bob's performances were, for the most part. I don't mind hearing something I've already heard many times when he's clearly having a fun time playing it. Security was pretty relaxed. I didn't see anyone get frisked. It looked like it would have been pretty easy to sneak in a recording studio. And if you happened to, please email me :) Those of us on the floor section were on our feet from when Natalie finished until Bob and crew appeared (and of course for the rest of the show after that). I thought security might make us all go back to our assigned seats before starting, but that didn't happen. Overall, I think venues with floor seating and higher seating help diffuse some of the disagreements about standing/dancing vs sitting during the show. At Lake Placid, those on the floor stood and those in the arena seats sat. Bob came out looking good, making lots of great faces and postures -- he had us all smiling with him. He seemed to get a bit tired toward the end of the acoustic set and through Shelter from the Storm, but seemed re-energized for Highway 61 and the encore. I think he might have a cold, since he was sometimes blowing his nose between songs. (Of course somebody, in this case my wife, had to remark that his voice wouldn't sound any different with or without a cold. Oh, well, she likes his listening to him anyway.) Doesn't it seem like Tony Garnier is always having a great time at these concerts? Peter
Subject: 2/20 Lake Placid From: Karen (hovlandk@badger.jsc.vsc.edu) Date: 22 Feb 1999 14:32:18 -0800 Apologies for the tardiness and any incoherence, my only computer access is at work (a bit tricky). Just had a few observations to share with folks about Bob's concert in Lake Placid. Oh, first I just want to say that Natalie Merchant was a complete delight to listen to and she is an excellent *dancer* as well. I wasn't really familiar with her, but I had heard her voice on the radio in the past, and like someone else has recently mentioned, you really need to see her in person to appreciate her multi-talentedness (is that a word?) She is beautiful of voice and graceful in body. There were some people down in front who were handing tiger lilies up to her, which she very graciously accepted. Our seats had a good view of the entire room, being three rows up on the first rise, but we were fairly faraway from the stage, in line with the back of the floor seating. There was a good-sized dancing space behind the floor seats and soundboard, and people were dancing there the whole evening, young folks whirling and twirling, even some older folks dancin' cheek-to-cheek. The whole entire floor section were on their feet right from the very beginning of Bob's set. We were up too, but had to periodically sit down to accomodate the more sedate people up behind us... until the encores, when ABSOLUTELY EVERYBUDDY was up and dancin', all having a butt-shaking great time. ...."she said 'you look diffrent, I said 'well I guess'...." Bob's appearance seemed very different this time around. Last time I saw him was February '98 in Springfield, pre-grammy time and he did not appear to have any grey hair showing. This time however, there was *quite a bit* of grey (we were spying on him with binoculars and they worked really well!).... looks now more like his hair of the leather and earring years, ahem. Also, he looks decidedly leaner of physique, and his facial expressionism reminded me of many years ago... certain characteristics and mannerisms are now evident that have been hiding away in recent years; he seemed, this time around, more like the enigmatic younger Bob (despite the grey hair!)...."she said 'you been gone', ...he said 'it's only natchrul'...she said 'are you gonna stay?'....he said 'if ya want me to'.........'Yeeeeaaas!'..." oops, got carried away there.. ;-) Anyway, although he had lotsa grey and was a little bit pale (might be fighting off a cold or flu?), he was GENERALLY "LOOKIN' LIKE A SAINT"! And, he SMILED REPEATEDLY thoughout the evening, it was truly heart-warming to see him enjoying himself so much. I won't trek through the setlist, as I'm no musician and so not very good with music commentary, but the highlights for me were definitely: - the very rousing opener Gotta Serve Somebody, which received a majorly enthusiastic response from the crowd, - that swampy-jazzy Million Miles, - the emotionally intense Masters of War, - a beautiful (but sadly lacking harp) performance of Mr. Tambourine Man, - and (my favorite of the night) Girl from the North Country.... an exquisitely intimate rendition ......I pretended he was singing it to me, ;-) - Oh, and Leopardskin Pillbox Hat, always such a rocking good time, (especially since I wore mine....and it's really the expensive kind!), - and Not Fade Away is such a grande across-the-years kind of closing to yet another superbe and magical concert/dance party given to us by Bob. Before each of the encores there were many little flames/lights out in the audience, it was a pretty nostalgic sight to behold. And, after Not Fade Away ended, the little flames flickered again and the applause/cheering went on and on, feet stomping, etc. for a *very long time*, longer than usual, the house lights stayed off for a long time and I was beginning to think that he would actually come back again for a fifth song, but...alas, no such luck, .....he has to sleep *sometime* I guess. ;-) Just one more observation, ...those leather pants that Tony has been wearing lately... where have I seen those before? I remember Bob wore a pair that could be identical, back during that earlier grey-hair period... do you suppose they are hand-me-downs? Well, they sure look great on Tony, and ...don't you just love to watch the way he rocks and dances around in 'em? Anyway, it was yet another in a long line of MAGICAL evenings that he has given us, a wonderful concert by the best and *most moving* performing artist of our century! "Don't you dare miss it!" Karen, in the highlands (looking forward to an upcoming trip to the lowlands of Massachusetts, yeeeehaa!)
Date: 04 Mar 1999 13:45:00 +0100 From: happyjaq@confetti.ruhr.de (Carsten Wohlfeld) Subject: February 20, 1999 - Lake Placid, New York - a review Bob Dylan & Natalie Merchant Lake Placid, NY, Olympic Center February 20, 1999 A review by Carsten Wohlfeld So Lake Placid was next. You'd think a town that has hosted the Winter Olympics *twice* (everybody knows about 1980, but in fact they had the Games there in 1932 as well) has *something* to offer. Well, not really. You get there by driving two hours on the loneliest road you're likely to find outise of Nevada. Very strange indeed. Interestingly enough, Lake Placid supposedly is much nicer in the summer cause in winter the one road that basically *is* Lake Placid (it's called Main Street, what else)is just covered in snow and on either side you'll find hotels, gift shops and restaurants. Nothing else. The few things that you can do include climbing icy mountains and die, go skiing or go ice-skating or enjoy dodg-sledding. Or go and watch Bob and Natalie @ Olympic CEnter, which is what a great deal of the people there did. The show was A BIG DEAL, everybody was talking about it and they even had custom made parking signs. Outside it was supposedly minus 10 degrees at night, but even inside the Olympic Center it wasn't warmer...*freeze* Natalie cut her set short, only played for 50 minutes and didn't seem very happy and talked less as well. Not sure what happened, if she just had a bad day or if Bob's peopel told her to play less after the stage invasion / Natalie on top of the piano happening the night before. "Wonder" was again superb, "Dust Bowl" (the 10,000 Maniacs oldie) was even better and "Life Is Sweet" was sweet. During the intermission they 'forgot' to clear the aisles so there even was no need for a second stagerush during Bob's set. Lots of laughs from Bob tonight, who was pulling faces all the time as well, right from the start at 9.30pm. Unfortunately, that didn't necessarily improve the performance of the songs, making this a waeker show that the two previous ones. Gotta Serve Somebody Was merely okay, but not at all as good as the nights before. The power was missing. Million Miles Reinvented every night, Larry played a pretty good solo, which made the song worth listening too. Watching The River Flow Now when I said I liked the new arrangement that didn't mean I desire to hear this song every night now, Bob :-) It was great - again. But is was note for note the same - again - as well. Make You Feel My Love Cuesheet had "Under The Red Sky" which I personally would've prefered. "Somebody in the audience who likes to stay anonymous shouted "great Bob, really deep". I don't know about America, but in Germany we have this saying about how God punishes little sins immediately. This must've been one of the cases, because instead of "Memphis" (only choice on the cuesheet for #5 and a personal favourite of the guy who shouted) we got the unlisted Silvio and badly done it was too :-) Masters Of War (acoustic) I said to Josh: "He plays this every time the Americans are bombing somebody". - Josh: "NO, I don't think so. He plays this every night..." To which I reply: "Point proved, the Americans are always bombing somebody". Isn't that (almost) true? The well trained cynic that I am I nearly would say continue to do so, cause we'll get lots of amazingly good versions of "Masters" out of Bob that way. I turn to Josh and say: "The only way it could get worse than 'River Flow', 'Feel My Love', 'Silvio' and [the overplayed] 'Masters' is with 'Tambourine'. I really only whispered it, but Bob must've heard it and he punished us Mr Tambourine Man (acoustic) which was done instead of the cuesheets choice "Baby Blue", which I would've loved to hear. Still made the tourists very happy. Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic) was "Tangled" with the last solo going nowhere. Girl From The North Country (acoustic) was beautiful and to me the highlight of the show. Slow, soft and simply gorgeous. "Love Minus Zero" and "Baby Blue" were listed as well, but this really was a fine choice. 'Til I Fell In Love With You which can be said of this tune as well, as it sounded completely different yet again and had a few new tricks here and there. It also had an new and improvised ending as well, which made everybody on stage smile. Shelter From The Storm Same arrangement like last year, had the same feel to it that made "North Country" so adorable. Soft and sweet. Band intros followed. Highway 61 Revisited rocking as ever. (encore) Love Sick again it was nicely done, as it was the night before and the night before that and the one before that (you get the picture). Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat Rocked, was nowhere near as good the the "Everything Is Broken" the night before though. Sadly it lacked the strechted out end of the lines that made the Bethlehem version fun to listen to as well. Don't Think Twice (acoustic) "Blowin'" was the only option on the cuesheet, but this one I liked a whole lot better, very nice and playful phrasing, especially close to the end. I believe he messed up the first line, but it didn't matter. No harp though. Not Fade Away Very well received by the audience again, who usually get to see Phish and - in the old days - Grateful Dead in this very venue. The verdict? A good show with bad songs. Bob had more fun than the nights before, but the setlist was for the tourists only. After the show there was a day off which I spent in Albany. Next up: Troy, NY! Thanks to Josh for the ride! carsten wohlfeld
