Bob Dylan 990224 in Amherst, Massachusetts
Subject: Amherst Show
From: BotchAlism (botchalism@aol.com)
Date: 25 Feb 1999 15:53:37 GMT
This was my fourth Dylan Show. 91 Essex Junction VT, 95 Highgate VT, 99 Troy
NY, and now Amherst Two days later.
Bob opened with the same three songs he did in Troy. Serve somebody was good.
Million Miles had some interesting phrasing that wasn't going on in Troy and
Maggie's Farm was also good not as energeticas the Troy show but he sang the
Maggie's Pa verse which he ommited in Troy. The sound volume was way to low in
Amherst. In Troy the place was nearly dripping with sound. Here if asshole
people around you wanted to chit chat that was what you heard.
Make You Feel My Love was pretty and got a big cheer from the audience. Stuck
Inside of Mobile was nice. i was glad it wasn't silvio. Not all the verses sung
but the Tea Preacher has 300 lbs. of headlines stapled to his chest. Some nice
dual guitar stuff between Bob and Larry on this one.
Masters of War was again a show highlight. Bob builds the intensity so well in
this song. Great singing. although his voice was generally weaker than at
Monday nights show. Next comes Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior for the second time
ever by Bob. This was beautiful. I really enjoyed the Harmonies and Bob's
delivery. The way he sang Do Not Pass Me By was quite moving it reminded me of
him and the way he choked out "And Life is Brief" at Troy's Tears of Rage.
Although that Tears of Rage eclipses anything from Amherst. Tangled Up In Blue
was awesome! Really rocking and very well sung. She Bent down to tie the laces
of my shooooes they were tangled up in Bluuuuuue. Much longer than the Troy
show and more energetic. Although this show in general was more mellow (mostly
due to the volume difference) Girl from North Country was just gorgeous.
Reminded me a lot of Boots Of Spanish Leather from monday.
Back to electric and a sweet suprise of I Don't Believe! It started off
a little shaky like Bob couldn't remember it but as it went on Bob got
more and more excited. He really enjoyed the I wish she unlocked her
voice once and talked instead of acting like she never has met section.
Love sick in the Eleven slot. Great stuff. Someone wrote that Bob played
a great solo. That wasn't Bob it was Larry Campbell. Highway 61 was good
if a little mellow. Like A Rolling Stone i feel was a special
performance. Really heartfelt and well sung and well played the quiet
section with Larry playing B.B. styled fills and Bob playing Bassy
figures was great. Everything is Broken was fun. Nice spy guitar riff
added. Don't Think Twice fantastic just like in Troy and then the
wonderful show closer that I hope brings Bob into the next century Not
Fade Away. Pure Rock and Roll Fun. Love Bob's high voice on this one.
Overall a very good show if a little lacking in punch and Vocal Power (three
nights in a row can where you down) BDTS got me great seats on the left side at
exact stage height as close as could be without losing band members behind gear
other that the first five rows center I feel that this was a prime spot. Could
see all of Bob's Dancing and facial ticks.
Seth Yacovone
Subject: Dr. J's home court was full
From: nate (nates@ll.mit.edu)
Date: 25 Feb 1999 13:55:21 GMT
The Mullins Center, home of the UMass Minutemen basketball team,
seemed pretty well filled up last night. just some empties in the
nosebleed seats and the cordoned off back side.
our seats are way to the left side and Natalie's other guitar player
rarely emerges from the the guitar tech's mountain of obscurata.
Natalie covers Major Tom! :-D she sets us up for it by scatting a medley
of "old terrible 70's songs", segueing into a sample of Sweet Home Alabama,
so that when she finally launches Major Tom, we are not dumfounded.
she does 11 tunes, Carnival being well done. yup, a lot of frolics and
head swings into the lively dances. and of course her new song, "Thank You",
was written just to end her set, heh. the crowd brings her out for an
encore of "These Are the Days".
Bob comes out with no hat, wild grey hair, those black trousers with the
white striping and button-side dots along it. the black jacket has a sort
of baseball stiching in white trim, or more like a sawed-off fluer d' li,
anyway, it would have matched some other black pants he wore years ago.
no ruffles, blueish maybe silk shirt w/white tie.
1 Serve Somebody : easy to understand, good strong opening
2 Million Miles : seems to quickly started, then autopilot?
3 Maggie's Farm : ok, this isnt bad
4 Feel My Love : better than i thought it would be when it began
5 Memphis Blues Again : i did like the way this came out
6 Masters of War a: seems i always catch this. done well again!
7 Do Not Pass Me By a: it's got the old country sound
8 Tangled Up a: topless verse was my favorite, binoculars in hand
9 Girl From the N.C. a: may have been my favorite of the night. kemper!
10 I Dont Believe You : i seem to catch this one a lot. easier to hear
11 Love Sick : didnt do the chapinesque eyebrows on 'i'm love sick'
12 Highway 61 : this was where he had the most fun tonight.
13 Rolling Stone : this was topnotch!
14 Everything is Broken : good stuff here, as well!
15 Don't Think Twice a: the new timing, slowing "al-" & "right" works
16 Not Fade Away : well, okay...........
He made the house call, julius:
general view - he didnt seem as animated as he did last year, not the
outrageous ham he's been. only a couple of guitar hero poses. seemed
to just sing 'em strong. tony garnier looked good and was very proficient,
especially during the standup acoustic numbers. couldnt see kemper at
all behind the obscurata, but his brush work on North Country was fine.
bucky did his usual stuff, but when i looked to see if he would give
"someone's distant cry" in Love Sick, he didnt. larry hardly smiled
and it looked like a job to him most of the night. he did shine on Broken.
as bob sang "Love Sick" i wondered if the Grammy's were getting soybombed
again. meanwhile the foolish young Celtics unexplicably romped over
the mighty Orlando Magic, as i heard this morning. the 2 of us got back
at 1:30. Maureen & George drive on to Portland as a huge snow storm
socks new england. no bus sightings at any time.
- nate, with a drowsiness no coffee on earth can touch
Subject: Quick Thoughts on Last Night- Review
From: Jishman (jishman@aol.com)
Date: 25 Feb 1999 13:49:51 GMT
Hey everyone- I'm allready late for school but i thought i would do
myself justice to post some thoughts on Dylans show last night at
Amherst. Sixth show- definitely one of the better that I've seen. Pretty
young crowd (I'm seventeen myself) but as expected for sight of venue.
First few songs started off relatively slow- nice opening version of
"serve somebod" and "million miles" but they would pale in comparison to
later performances of the night. "Mobile" got the crowd dancing (they
had spilled over into the aisles by now), and that moved into the
accoustic set. "Masters of War" sung very emotional, and after a moment,
got a strong audience response. Then traditional version of "Pass Me
Not," and into "TUIB," one of the "rockingest" versions of this song
that I have heard in a long time- crowd pleaser.
Beautiful version of "Girl of the North Country," soft strumming of
guitar in background, and this is where concert really picked up. "I
Don't Believe You..." was fairly average, but what followed was the best
rendition of "Love Sick" that I have ever heard in concert- and
ironically enough, on the night of the Grammys, the sight of the
infamous "SOY BOMB" incident of last year. This time during the guitar
solo, Dylan ripped apart the audience with some fierce licks, by far his
best solo of the night. "61" again got everyone dancing and chearing for
an encore, to which Dylan came out and played an extreamely ironic, but
equally powerful version of "Like a Rolling Stone." With all the
publicity given to the 1966 version, this one was opposite in
comparison- very soft, but filled with emotion in the words. Dylan sang
this one sympathetically rather than out of anger, and he had me hanging
on every word. "Everything is Broken" set up nicely- but "Don't Think
Twice..." was much more meaningful for me- well played and sung, just a
brilliant song and adequate perfomance to say the least.
Finally, Dylan ended with "Not Fade Away," which left the crowd chearing
for more, and for a moment I thought Dylan might flatter us and come
play one last song, but fitting with the tour, the lights come up and
everyone shuffled away buzzing. Overall, very good to great performance,
much better as the night grew longer, with North Country, Love Sick,
Rolling Stone, and Dont Think Twice the highlights.
This wasnt as short as I planned, and now I'm very late, but I'll see
most of you tonight in Portland- I'll be the teenager in the white
shirt, row 4, front and center, come up and say hi. Hope to see you all
there, in praise of a legend and an idol.
Jared- jishman@aol.com
Subject: Review -- Amherst 2/24
From: Gil Walker (gwthree@hotmail.com)
Date: 25 Feb 1999 11:19:56 -0800
At about 11pm last night, as Bob Dylan and his band were
walking offstage after finishing "Highway 61 Revisited," one of the
two local collegians sitting behind me, who had been sitting
lifelessly without applauding for most of the show, turned to the
other and said, "Awesome guitar jam, man." His friend agreed. But
neither clapped. Too much of the audience around me seemed to
react in the same way, as though they were watching a broadcast, or
a recorded performance. That moment crystallized my impressions of
the evening, but let me go back to 8 o'clock. . . .
The Mullins Center appeared nearly sold out for Wednesday
night's show, with students continuing to straggle in throughout
Natalie Merchant's set and into Dylan's first few songs. From my
seat (somewhere near the outskirts of Northampton, thanks to
TicketMaster), the sound was consistently clear.
About Natalie Merchant's one-hour performance, which was
accomplished and musically effective, the less said, by me, is
probably the better, because I would describe it more in terms of
what Merchant did not do than what she did. My overall impression
was one of a skilled, carefully controlled performer. I was not
surprised when the most enthusiastic response from the audience
(except during her encore) came when Merchant, after warning that
she had a head stuffed with memories of bad 1970's song, vamped
through a few verses of "Sweet Home Alabama."
Late in her set, Merchant gently chided the audience for its
listlessness. Usually, this is a sign of a performer who simply
isn't doing what it should take to reach an audience; but Wednesday
night, there was nothing wrong with Merchant's efforts -- far too
many in the audience, especially away from the front of the floor
section, were vegetative.
After a reasonably brief intermission, the audience greeted
Dylan with its first display of genuine enthusiasm of the evening.
From my unhappily distant view, he appeared younger and more fluid
than he had at other shows I've seen in the last two years. He
tore through "Gotta Serve Somebody," rocking hard and occasionally
bringing parts of the crowd to their feet. At one point, I took
the impression that he and Larry Campbell were playing
simultaneous, complementary guitar solos. The tight, intricate
interplay among the three guitarists was probably the most striking
change from the last show I saw, about a year ago.
"Million Miles" had harder edges than versions I'd heard
before, without losing any of its slinky rhythms, and Dylan's
phrasing seemed a bit more jagged. Despite its solid performance,
though, it wasn't an anthem, and anthem seemed to be all that most
of the audience responded to. Near me, fewer than half the
audience applauded at the end -- an unhappy event that repeated
itself after most of the songs.
"Maggie's Farm" was a step down in the intensity level, in a
lighter, slightly countrified arrangement with some of the rhythms
used in 1997's version of "Watching The River Flow." An effective
performance, an interesting way to handle the song, even though it
tended to defuse it.
The next two songs, despite being solidly and effectively
performed, seemed to me to be missteps in the construction of
Dylan's set. "Make You Feel My Love" was slow and deliberate, and
it seemed to leave the audience cold. Dylan followed it with as
good a version of "Memphis Blues Again" as I've heard in person
(and when did Shakespeare get his pointed shoes back?) And, on
quite a few lines, Dylan seemed able to float a convincing
facsimile of his Blonde On Blonde snarl over the music. But the
arrangement didn't have any room for the rabble-rousing
instrumental work that characterized so many performances of
"Silvio," and Dylan's first electric set, which could fairly be
faulted only to the extent that "Feel My Love" was a bit staid,
simply finished rather than climaxed.
"Masters Of War" engaged the audience again. The arrangement
seemed to me to have grown leaner, drawing its effectiveness from
smaller, instrumental phrases. Again, Dylan's vocals stuck me as,
well, younger and clearer than most of his work that I've heard
from 1997 and 1998.
Next came what seemed to be a letter-perfect rendition of
"Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior," and, at least around me, most of
the audience received it with a chilly indifference, perhaps even
a bit of resentment.
The familiar opening to "Tangled Up In Blue" recharged much of
the audience, but a surprising number seemed not to recognize the
song until Dylan sang the opening lines. His performance was very
solid, though less energized than some others I've heard, and he
didn't play any harp (here, or at any point during the show).
The acoustic set finished with an exceptional rendition of
"Girl From The North Country." It had the quiet intensity of his
best love songs. I was particularly struck by the phrasing on the
"darkness of my night" verse. David Kemper's carefully restrained
drumming kept the song moving along unobtrusively.
A surprisingly light arrangement of "I Don't Believe You"
followed. An effective if unexceptional performance, and an
appropriate bridge to the evening's biggest surprise -- "Love
Sick," making its first appearance in the body of a show rather
than as an encore. Dylan's vocals seemed unusually warm to me, and
he pulled the song off nicely -- to no discernable response from
the audience.
The main set closed with a howling, energetic "Highway 61
Revisited," with all three guitarists pouring out sheets of sound
that filled the arena. An impressive climax for a first-class
show; there's just not much to say about it that's articulate. And
the crowd began, inexplicably, to trickle out.
After a short break, Dylan returned with "Like A Rolling
Stone," which brought a rare burst of enthusiasm from the audience.
I don't know that this song has ever recovered from the (entirely
successful) 1974 Dylan/Band arrangement, a blast of power that none
of his subsequent backing groups has been able to rival. Tonight's
retinkered arrangement sounds interesting, and Dylan's performance
was certainly successful, but it's not a song he and his band have
mastered right now.
"Everything Is Broken" was unquestionably first-rate, ominous,
galvanic, and driving. Worth noting, too, was what struck me as an
unusual bit of stage business, with Tony Garnier moving from
Dylan's left to his right, playing shoulder to shoulder with
Campbell (and sometimes with Dylan as well). I don't remember this
from previous shows -- is this a development in the last few
months, or is it something I've just missed noticing before?
"Don't Think Twice" was performed with an unusually light
touch. Garnier was not playing upright bass, but what appeared to
me from my distant vantage point to be some sort of acoustic
guitar. Could someone enlighten me further?
And the show climaxed with a surprisingly weighty "Not Fade
Away." It finally roused most of the audience, and capped the show
nicely. Then, with the crowd finally responding and pressing for
another song for several minutes, maintaining its energy -- the
lights came on, and the enthusiasm just reflexively disappeared.
Overall, a bit of a dispiriting evening, not because of
Dylan's performance, first-rate, nailing, in my mind, 15 of 16
songs. But to what effect? Perhaps, down on the floor, there was
a more receptive audience, but that wasn't visible from above.
When a large segment of the audience provides no perceptible
response to terrific music, how can an artist respond? Last year's
audience at Springfield's Symphony Hall was considerably smaller,
but gave back much more, in both volume and enthusiasm.
Perhaps the Mullins Center isn't an ideal concert venue.
Perhaps it operates to deaden all but an overwhelming audience
response. But that wouldn't explain the hundreds and hundreds of
concertgoers I saw virtually sitting on their hands, often not even
applauding in the most perfunctory fashion. Perhaps it's the
neighborhood. About eight years ago, in the fall of 1990, Dylan's
best efforts on classic material left a most collegiate crowd
unmoved, when Lenny Kravitz's superficial antics had roused them.
What Dylan's doing with his music seems remarkable to me.
Perhaps this is a metaphor, perhaps it just shows off my musical
illiteracy, but I'd say he's trying, most of the time, to play rock
music in a bluegrass mode, most of all in the interplay among the
three guitarists, who very clearly aren't playing the lead, rhythm,
and fill roles that they did in the mid-1990's. Dylan's guitar
work seems to have evolved a bit, too; it's no longer so clearly
suggestive of Willie Nelson's style.
Why do I seem so unsatisfied with a first-rate musical
performance? The tapes will probably seem terrific, but the live
music experience isn't just what comes through on the tapes.
Sometimes an audience just doesn't respond appropriately to an
artist -- and I'm left wondering if Wednesday's concert would
actually have been better (or, merely, how much more I would have
enjoyed it) if it had been staged in a smaller arena for the five
thousand concertgoers who'd really wanted to enjoy it, without the
five thousand who'd wanted passive entertainment.
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 17:26:18 -0500
From: Dee
To: Karlerik@monet.no
Subject: Concert comments
...
I just arrived back from my overnight trip to Amherst Massachusetts to
attend the concert there. This isn't really a "review", as I don't take
notes during concerts, and can never remember the details when it's all
over. But it IS my opnions, and observations, and it IS good news!
This was a hockey arena at the University of Mass., a HUGE place, but
one of the most impressive concert set-ups I've seen, a beautiful stage
setting, and surprisingly excellent acoustics, IMO.
Our seats were on the floor, row 29, on the aisle. These were bad
seats, as it turned out; it would have been much better to have been up
in the risers.
We saw very little of Natalie Merchant's performance, as continuous
lines of late arrivals blocked our view of the stage. She sounded very
good, but I really couldn't muster any interest or enthusiasm for her,
having only Dylan on my mind, since it had been over a year since I'd
had the opportunity to see him.
Bob & the band took the stage at about 9:40, and everyone with floor
seats immediately stood and remained standing for the rest of the show.
Being short, I had only a small window of visibility between the sea of
heads in front of me and sometimes even that window closed up. When
that happened, I would just close my eyes and listen and marvel at the
incredible sounds being produced by the musical magicians on stage.
I had small binoculars with me, 8x magnification, and used them at every
opportunity, and I must say (here comes the good news), I've never seen
Dylan look like this before.
It seems to me he has given up on trying to convey that "old rock n'
roller" old geezer image that he's seemed to be cultivating, and he
looked like a different person. I could only see him from the waist up
(but that was better than if I could only see him from the waist down!),
but I had periods of some really excellent Bob-viewing, and I was
astounded and awed at the transformation in him.
His hair is longer now and fluffed, reminiscent of 80s Bob, and it
seemed in certain lighting that there was a lot of lovely gray,
especially at the temples. He's very trim and lean, with no sign of the
previous mini-bulge that used to drape over the top of his guitar a bit.
But the most striking thing, again only IMHO, was the expression on his
face; he has a look of total serenity, self-assurance, and POWER; the
look of one who is truly in command and in control of his world and
everything in it; a look of acceptance at last of his power and his gift
- supreme serenity in the knowledge of his power to transform you with
his gift, but with no sign of any disease of conceit. He looked young
again, and was the most perfectly "together" example of humanity I've
ever seen before me in the flesh.
I believe Mr Dylan has perhaps gained some profound new insight into who
he really is and what he has to give, and why he must give it, and as I
write this, it occurs to me that further evidence of this may be his
recent inclusion of an occasional hymn in the setlists; perhaps a public
payback for this seemingly new-found self-acceptance, self-awaremess,
and self-respect. By self-respect, I mean respect and caring for his
body and his voice.
This is all difficult to put into words, and I probably didn't do a very
good job of it, but it is really something that must be seen to be
understood, and you must feel the jolt to your soul for yourself when
you look into his eyes and see that he has been yet again transformed.
He seems to know at last what some of us have known for a long time;
that he is one of God's, or those secret powers of the universe's, most
special gifts to the rest of us. This man has been given a special
blessing from somewhere, and we have all benefited from it, which makes
us blessed also.
The aura of quiet power and strength emanating from him is truly
something to behold.
His voice is also renewed and changed - strong and clear and healthy -
no rasping, "I've got a frog in my throat but who cares" episodes.
Smooth and clear and absolute perfection, with a chilling last-second
treatment of the last syllable of the last word of MOW that made me
forget to breathe for several seconds after it faded.
There was none of the usual awkwardness in his movements, no sense of
him making fun of himself as in the past, he was DIGNITY on display, and
now I believe the inclusion of Not Fade Away in every show of this tour
is very much a notice of intent to us from Mr. D., and that makes us all
very lucky indeed.
I came away with the sense that, even after these 35 or so years, this
is only the beginning of the trip he's taking us on and, as incredible
as it may seem, the best is yet to come...
Dee
"You ain't seen nothing like me yet"
From: "Andrew Brown" (absmi1e@hotmail.com)
To: karlerik@monet.no
Subject: little review of feb. 24, 1999
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 10:48:52 PST
Hey All,
Bob Dylan Report
February 24, 1999 at The University of Massachusetts Mullins Center.
I was a tad late, walking in on Natalie Merchant Talking to a quiet
crowd, bustling around, looking for their seats and peeling off layered
of sweaters and coats needed to protect them from the chilly winds of
Amherst. Natalie speaks of the old days, the 70’s, and how ugly we all
were then, and jams out Bowie’s Major Tom. Real nice. The music
emerges from a large band who have spread themselves all over the stage.
Underneath heavy drums and organ, two guitarist play off in the corner,
seemingly playing their guitar with everything
they have. Natalie dances in the center of the stage. What a voice.
What a beauty.
This high energy of playing continues throughout her set. Natalie moves
on to her own material, singing sweetly above the music and trying to
get the crowd to liven up. She makes many attempts to motion the crowd
up with her arms, walking to all sides of the
stage and yelling to the crowd off mike. The crowd, jammed together
shoulder to shoulder like sardines, in the seats the Mullins center must
have borrowed from the Amherst Pre-School, fail to react to Merchant’s
pleas for them to get on their feet. Finally, in the
middle of what seems to be her last song, Merchant seemingly upset with
the crowd, walks off stage frustrated in the middle of the song. The
band, still playing, takes the opportunity to show the crowd what they
got, and really jam.
Finally, the crowd is on their feet after the band finishes the song and
leaves the stage. Merchant and her band return for an encore. But
first Natalie claims that she was really trying to get them excited for
Bob, and that he just really likes it when the crowd gets up and dances
and gets involved. The crowd does for her encore.
Bob Dylan takes the stage after a short intermission. The crowd is
raging. The iles of the floor become jammed with people. No one will
disappoint Dylan. If he wanted dancing fools, he got them. And even
the security was rather laxed, minus attempting to expose film
here and steal a joint there.
1. Gotta Serve Somebody: Bob came out rockin’! These guys came out and
showed that they were going to be as kind as the aroma which arose as
soon as the spotlight hit Bobby’s face.
2. Million Miles: Sweet tune, Dylan spends a lot of time posing for the
crowd.
3. Maggies Farm: Every time I hear this song he plays it differently.
This night was no exception.
4. To Make You Feel My Love: What can I say? Nobody sings Ballads like
Dylan.
5. Stuck Inside with the Memphis Blues Again: And again and again.
Great jam. Everyone was jumping to this one. At the end of the song
right while they were jamming at high energy, Dylan cut in and abruptly
closed the song. Felt rather weird, but was a
good effect. He continues this on other tunes later in the night.
6. Masters of War: (Acoustic) Awesome!!!! Nothing else! Acoustic jam
Bobby bent down on his knee playing lots of nasty leads. In lyric ...
Is your money that good?... He says body not money. I was laughing
hystericly.
7. Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior: (Acoustic) Real nice. Slow. Lot’s
of people everywhere trying to figure out what he was playing.
8. Tangled Up In Blue: (Acoustic) Best song of the night, without a
doubt. Also the longest song of the night. Bob was leading like crazy.
9. Girl From the North Country Fair: (Acoustic) This was great.
10. I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) The first time
I heard this song live, I think. I guess Bob Knew I was there. He He.
Real great.
11. Love Sick: Great follow to last song.
12. Highway 61: Always a hot one for Dylan shows. This was no
exception. Great tune to end the set with. Another tune that left
nobody on their laurels.
Encore:
13. Like a Rolling Stone: Hot Hot Hot!
14. Everything is Broken: This was awesome! At the beginning it
sounded like he was going to play Friend of the Devil, but quickly
ripped this one out. Real good version, not too fast.
15. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right: (Acoustic) What a night. Bob
was playing a theme tonight. This song acoustic was a great treat for
me. Everyone else seemed happy too!
16. Not Fade Away: Although it really seemed to be the end, they
grabbed their electric’s and played this tune. Not really fast or slow,
but very different than I have ever heard it played. It was a great end
to a great night.
This one goes onto my all time great show list. But not the best Dylan
I’ve ever seen. But there are a lot of ties there. Clarity was
impeccable, except maybe for Oh Gentle Savior.
The boys really jammed the night away. After Rolling Stone Dylan tried
to address the
crowd, but the cheers were unyielding. I was hopeful to see Natalie
again, but it wasn’t in the cards.
Date: 05 Mar 1999 00:40:00 +0100
From: happyjaq@confetti.ruhr.de (Carsten Wohlfeld)
Subject: February 24, 1999 - Amherst, Massachusetts - a review
Bob Dylan & Natalie Merchant
Amherst, Massachusetts, University Of Massachusetts, Mullins Cntr
February 24, 1999
A review by Carsten Wohlfeld
I love Amherst. I really do. I arrived after some ten hours on the
overnight bus from Buffalo only to find out that somebody else had been
sleeping on the bus too. Right next to Amherst College I noticed a couple
of Nightliners in front of a pretty nice hotel...the unmistakable sign
that Bob and crew were already in town.
Amherst is a typical college town of course, very nice, oldfashioned and
very laidback. Gotta love that. After wandering around for a couple of
hours, getting ready for the show, I took the bus - they have a bus there
that brings you from the bus terminal to the shady motel and back to the
venue within 20 minutes and best of all, in the winter it is FREE!). On
the bus I fell in love with the cute girl with the gorgeous smile and the
corduroy skirt, but even though she even talked to me for a minite I
didn't get her phone number or address. Don't even know her name... (So I
just did what you'd expect of me :-))
At the show - the girl was going to the show as well, btw :-) - I wasn't
surised to find a rather young crowd that was pretty much into Natalie.
She had been doing various verses from different 70s songs a-capella
throughout the tour, but tonight the band even joined her for an impromtu
version of - would you believe it - Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama"!
Hilarious! "Kind And Generous" was the obvious crowdpleaser, she
apologized for having the flu but said: "Bob's fitter than ever". She left
with her usual encore "These Are The Days".
At 9.40 it was showtime for Bob and crew and after the strange setlist in
Buffalo he went back to normal with:
Gotta Serve Somebody
It was actually done quite well. Bob seemed to be very much into it.
Always a good sign of course.
Million Miles
was "Million Miles". New and improved formula (C) 1999.
Maggie's Farm
good version again. Bob had fun and we got some nice phrasings.
Make You Feel my Love
Well, it was Grammy Night... The folks around me thought this was either a
Garth Brooks cover or a Billy Joel song. The world is a funny place
sometimes, isn't it?
Stuck Inside With The Memphis Blues Again
Thank God, no "Silvio". Pretty rocking version (more so than the nights
before) of this amazing song. He mixed up the "debutante" verse. Did we
care? No, we didn't!
Masters Of War (acoustic)
Adored by every single soul in the crowd, actually got the loudest cheer
so far. It's not getting better every night anymore, but it might as well
have reached an alltime high. For the acoustic band version at least.
Do Not Pass Me, O Gentle Saviour (acoustic)
Done exactly the same way as the night before, again with the lovely Larry
backing vocals.
Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic)
Crowd: nuts. Very fast version as well.
Girl From The North Country (acoustic)
Sweet and tender as always, every bit as good as the version from Lake
Placid. Especially the last verse was a killer.
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
As those of you who read my reviews regularly already now, I don't like
the electric version of the song all that much. Since they played this on
a gazillion soundchecks on this tour already, it actually sounded pretty
good tonight though.
Love Sick
First time the song wasn't performed as an encore at a regular (non
festival, non-support) show . Faster and liuder than the version in Troy,
but not exactly better. Band intros followed.
Highway 61 Revisited
Usual high octane version, Larry played some pretty hot solos, I guess he
had to make up for Buffalo, where guest Paul James "stole" a couple of his
solo spots on this song :-)
(encore)
Like A Rolling Stone
Not as good as Buffalo, but I'm sure nobody else of the 10,000 folks in
the Mullins Center cared. A lot slower which didn't improve the
performance.
Everything is Broken
Great version once more, had some new lines that I've forgotten about
already, Josh will be able to tell you. Larry shines on guitar.
Don't Think Twice (acoustic)
followed as expected and was very well done.
Not Fade Away
Most fun song of the tour. Lots of smiles on stage every time they play
it. It's a song you can look forward to every night. You really gotta stay
til it's over.
I guess it was a pretty good show, I was a bit to tired to really enjoy
it, so for me the girl in the corduroy skirt remains the highlight of the
day. To others it probaly was "North Country" and "Everything Is Broken".
Next up: Portland, ME. Thanks for reading and goodnight!
carsten wohlfeld
--
"alles, was man anfassen kann, ist ein problem" (wiitgenstein)
