Bob Dylan 990710 in Maryland Heights
Subject: A Maryland Heights Review From: Wade Greiner wadeg@springnet1.com Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 13:24:00 -0500 Riverport Amphitheatre is a lovely venue for concerts though in the summer it can be a bit warm in the same way Bill Gates is a bit wealthy. On July 10th, 1999, though, you couldn't have asked for a nicer, milder evening to see the Bob and Paul show come to town. I am not the most experienced Dylan concert goer - I have seen him 8 times (including July 10th) and saw him for the first time in 1992 - so any comparisons I make have to be considered in that light. (Oh, and of course I have indulged in listening to a few field recordings in my time.) My general impressions: Dylan's set was solid as has been the case in most Dylan shows of recent years. The sound was quite good from where I was sitting - what I mean by this is that Dylan's voice was well up in the mix. No complaints there. The crowd seemed to be more of a Simon one than a Dylan one. Actually it seemed like a radio hit crowd more than anything. Simon got a bigger response than Dylan generally, but during the Simon songs that were not radio hits the audience was very subdued. When Simon did popular songs like "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" however people were very animated and happy. Dylan's set was, I thought, extraordinarily conservative. Heavily 60s oriented, the most recently written song in the setlist was "Tangled up in Blue." I must admit that looking at previous sets for these concerts I was looking forward to hearing either "Not Dark Yet" or "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" since it seemed to me he had performed at least one of these in just about every show and I have not been present for a live hearing of either of them, and I was disappointed that we got neither. The show began promisingly enough, with a song I had never heard before, "Somebody Touched Me." A nice, simple, happy gospel tune. Despite the possibility of opening up a debate about the merits of 1979-1980 I must say that one of the complaints I have always had about that period is not so much that Dylan found God, but that so many of the songs seemed so negative and angry about something that it seemed to me Dylan should have been deriving more joy from. If the songs of that period had contained a touch more of the spirit of "Somebody Touched Me" I know I would have felt a lot better about them. The first thing I noticed was the sound mix which had Dylan's voice nice and up front and the strength of his vocals. It was a good beginning. "Mr. Tambourine Man" followed and a nice version of the song at that. The audience reacted strongly to the beginning and seemed to enjoy it. "Masters of War" was a bit less intense than some of the other recent versions I've heard but still reasonably strong. "Tangled up in Blue" was well received. I noticed that this is the first time I've heard him do the official second verse as the second verse in a while (it seems to me he usually skips it and comes back to it later). "Girl of the North Country" was next and it was an especially lovely version. The 2nd place highlight of the night for me. Dylan then moved to the electric set and began with the only other surprise to me of the night (the first being "Somebody Touched Me") "Down Along the Cove" and it was a good rocking version. "All Along the Watchtower" followed and, though, hardly a rare song this one is always welcome to me. (Well, okay, I got a little tired of it being in the 3 slot for so long, but Hey, it was 7th tonight, and that makes a difference! :-) Next came the highlight of the night for me: "Just Like a Woman." I like the song, though it is not a huge favorite of mine, but Dylan seemed to really nail this one from the opening line. I have no idea why Dylan picks certain songs on certain nights to emphasize, but he seemed really into this song tonight. Next came a solid, but unexceptional version of "Memphis Blues" and then a good rocking "Highway 61 Revisited." Somewhere in here he introduced the band and told a joke about Larry Campbell having written a song, but I didn't catch the punch line. There was one though, because Dylan made a funny gesture after saying something and got a rim shot from the drummer. After a short pause Dylan came out for a two song encore consisting of "Rolling Stone" which was good and well received. "It Ain't Me, Babe" finished out he solo part of the Dylan show. It was a mournful version to me - sadder than most I have heard. Sometimes this song strikes me as a celebration of denial of responsibility but tonight it seemed to me he sang it as if he was filled with regret. A nice ending to a solid, though non-adventurous show. Dylan then introduced Simon to the most thunderous applause of the night to that point. I thought the "Sounds of Silence" duet worked better than I had expected. Dylan played some nice harmonica on it and provided a low counterpoint to Simon's vocal. "That'll Be the Day/The Wanderer" seemed to be mostly Simon. I can't really claim to have been able to hear Dylan's voice in that mix much. They concluded the duet section with "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and it was a good version with Dylan singing the first and a third verse and Simon doing the second. They added a bit at the end about hearing someone knockin' and used the (inferior in my opinion) "Just like so many times before" ending to the choruses which they sang together. After they concluded I went and got something to eat (too many tacos) and returned to hear part of the Simon set. The audience, as noted earlier, were very responsive to the hits and fairly quiet during the slower parts with songs I didn't recognize. Simon's band was good and he sang pretty much like you would expect him to from the albums. He was animated and seemed happy on stage. He sang several songs from "Graceland" and a few from the Simon and Garfunkel days (like Bridge and Mrs. Robinson) and some from the 70s solo career. It was a show I'm sure Simon fans must have enjoyed. To avoid concert traffic I left after the main set and before Simon started into his encore, though as I was leaving I heard him starting "Late in the Evening." It was late in the evening and I had a two hour drive back home in front of me and so I blew that joint. It was a little disappointing not to hear any TOOM songs, but it was certainly a show worth seeing. My wish list for the next tour, however, is that it is Bob alone (so there will be longer Dylan sets) and a bit more daring in the set list department. Thankfully Dylan sounded strong and healthy enough that I suspect he will be performing for quite a while yet.... Wade wadeg@springnet1.com
Subject: Re: A Maryland Heights Review From: Timothy Davis timrdavi@worldnet.att.net Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 16:32:19 -0500 >The 2nd place highlight of the night for me. >Dylan then moved to the electric set and began with the only other surprise >to me of the night (the first being "Somebody Touched Me") "Down Along the >Cove" and it was a good rocking version This one blew me away. It's so wonderful to hear something new and fresh. When he started the song, I thought he was doing a new arrangement of obviously 5 believers. How happy I was when I heard him say "Down along the cove" instead of "Early in the mornin' " >Next came the highlight of the night for me: "Just Like a Woman." >I like the song, though it is not a huge favorite of mine, >but Dylan seemed to really nail this one from the opening line. >I have no idea why Dylan picks certain songs on certain nights to >emphasize, but he seemed really into this song tonight. I thought the band was a little off on this one. Larry seemed uncomfortable on the steel, and they were having problems getting his sound at the right level. Also, I didn't think Sexton was hitting the guitar riff that is played between the verses. But the reviewer is absolutely right about how Dylan nailed this one. I remember thinking to myself how excited he was during this song. He was doing a lot of head shaking and staring at audience members and big genuine looking smiles. The most sincere performance of the night. I made my way down to front row center during Highway 61, and I am always so amazed to watch Dylan perform. He was making a point to make everyone up front feel as if he was looking at them. I think he knows what a joy he can bring to a fan just by looking them in the eye. It makes me think about how he told the story of Buddy Holly looking at him during a concert. Dylan's appearance was pretty good. I always like to see the tuxedo pants and the western style suit. His boots are amazing. They're black and have some kind of white design on the toe. I noticed a little more gray in his hair than I have before. His eyes looked really red. I don't know if this was from the stage lights or if he didn't didn't get enough sleep. I would guess the lights because all of his other facial features suggested he was having a good time. When Paul Simon came the crowd went nuts. I couldn't believe it. Even Paul was overwhelmed. Paul gave a look to Dylan like "What the hell did you do to these guys." He and Dylan had a short conversation and Dylan came away laughing hysterically. As I watched their performance I realized the true reason that Dylan agreed to tour with Simon. Dylan is much taller than Simon. Finally, Dylan can stand next to another performer and not look like a dwarf. Dylan actually looked tall as bent down to look Simon in the eyes when they were exchanging guitar solos at the beginning of Sounds of Silence. Oh, one other detail I left out. When Dylan introduced the band he said, "I wanna introduce my band to you right now. Some of the finest player in the country. On the guitar, Larry Campbell. Larry almost wrote a song today. He wrote a song about his bed. But it hasn't been made up yet. I'll play it for ya later. . ." Tony got a real big kick out of this. Overall, it was a great concert. I didn't watch much of the Paul Simon show. I tried to buy a concert poster that said Riverport Amphitheater on it, but some asshole (maybe one the r.m.d. readers?) bought all of them. He bought like 100 posters. I hope he can't sell any of them! Tim
Subject: Re: A Maryland Heights Review From: Sweet Melinda sweetmelinda@door13.com Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 23:41:51 -0600 Wade Greiner wrote: > The crowd seemed to be more of a Simon one than a > Dylan one. Actually it seemed like a radio hit crowd more than anything. I think I got a seat in the ass-hole section, myself. A couple of idiots kept standing up during the show (everyone else in the whole place was sitting down, and in this case it was an intrusion--but let's not start that thread again!!!!). It wasn't the standing up and dancing so much as the prolonged arguments that resulted. The morons couldn't take a hint even after two security guards told them to sit down. Then, there was a drunk bitch behind me who couldn't keep her mouth shut. I asked her to keep her voice down, and tried to be nice, but then she made a nasty comment about Dylan's voice and I had to yell at her. > Dylan's set was, I thought, extraordinarily > conservative. Extrordinarily *extrordinary* is more like it! Perhaps the songs he chose could be called by some a "conservative" choice of material, but they were mostly absolute favorites of mine and there is nothing conservative about the songs themselves or about his stellar, mind-numbingly together performance of them. > I must admit that looking at previous > sets for these concerts I was looking forward to hearing either "Not Dark > Yet" or "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" since it seemed to me he had performed at > least one of these in just about every show and I have not been present for > a live hearing of either of them, and I was disappointed that we got > neither. This *is* strange. He played nothing from his latest album at all. Very odd for any touring artist. I did think later, though, that his latest release is *actually* "Live 1966" and that he did in fact play several songs from that concert. > The first thing I noticed was the sound mix which had > Dylan's voice nice and up front and the strength of his vocals. It was a > good beginning. He sounded exceptionally good. His voice was very clear and honest and he did a beautiful job. > "Masters of War" was a bit less intense than some of the other recent versions I've > heard but still reasonably strong. Hmmm...are you sure about that? Were you able to get a glimpse of his facial expressions? They were definitely what I would describe as intense, certainly--and chilling. > Next came the highlight of the night for me: "Just Like a Woman." God, it was beautiful. > Dylan seemed to really nail this one from the opening line. You said it. It was absolutely hypnotic. I don't even have the words to describe it. > Next came a solid, but unexceptional version of "Memphis Blues" and then a > good rocking "Highway 61 Revisited." HWY61 was the best I've heard it live. AMAZING in the extreme! I kept looking around the stage and thinking that Charlie Sexton *must* really be Robbie Robertson snatched out of a time warp! > Dylan then introduced Simon to the most thunderous applause of the night to > that point. I thought the "Sounds of Silence" duet worked better than I had > expected. It really blew me away! Their voices sounded great together, and it was really magical when Dylan began to play harmonica. > To avoid concert traffic I left after the main set and before > Simon started into his encore, though as I was leaving I heard him starting > "Late in the Evening." It was late in the evening and I had a two hour > drive back home in front of me and so I blew that joint. I stuck around for the whole thing, because I was there to hear Paul too, and I was hoping that Bob would come back out. When Paul started to sing "The Boxer" I thought for a minute that they might do a surprise duet, but it didn't happen. Though the audience did seem to be primarily there to see Simon, I did hear some shouts of "Bob!" after Simon finished his encores. I didn't like the way it ended, because right up until the end I kept thinking that Bob wouldn't just leave like that--especially with people screaming for him to come back--but he did. As a final comment, I want to say that I hadn't seen Charlie Sexton with Dylan's band until last night, and I was really impressed. Also impressive was the multi-talented Larry Campbell. The band sounded better than ever. -- Sweet Melinda The peasants call her the goddess of gloom.
Subject: Maryland Heights Review From: Joe_Cox mrmustard@hotmail.com Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 18:17:00 -0800 Just recovering from my two-day mini-tour with Bob and I figured I'd give everybody my $.02 on the shows. First, Maryland Heights. I must say that the Riverport Ampitheatre is a fine venue and a good place to watch a show. That said, the crowd that filled the place was painfully dead. Screw the debate about stand vs. sit during the show, I expect to HAVE to stand when two legends like Bob and Paul play. But the senior citizens and white-collar folks in the $85 section from me were a heartily dead group. Probably Simon fans, I'd hypothesize. Bob was more or less on time and ready to go, although my section was about 1/2 full when he opened the set. 1.Somebody Touched Me I can't say enough about this. I had bitched, along with the rest of my traveling group, about the probability of a shitty, predictable setlist. When he opened with this, I spent about a verse and a half trying to ascertain exactly what it was. By the time I figured it out, it was almost finished, but it was still brilliant. Bob gets behind the traditional tunes quite well and this was no exception. Larry and Charlie were in fine form with the response bit as well. As I said, it ended pretty quickly... I wish it had a couple more verses. 2.Mr. Tambourine Man This isn't exactly one of my favorite songs to hear, but this was by far the best version I've heard, miles different from the tentative, over-soloed, badly-inflected version I heard back in 1997, the last time I got this one. Bob's voice was SHARP and cut hard through the chorus. It was nice to have him break out the harp and it cut down on the terrible solo he used to play in this one. A wonderful version which rocked as much as this song can rock. 3.Masters of War Another song I really didn't want to hear, but was glad I did. The guitars did something a little different than the horrid mid-90s versions I'd listened to on the tapes and it really helped the song out. Bob was very into this one, making some of his usual great faces (I remember a fine one when he asked "Is your money that good?") and giving it just enough emphasis to make it nice. Probably not the best version of this ever, but very solid. 4.Tangled Up in Blue The odds of hearing this were pretty good, but I didn't mind. I always like hearing TUIB; it's just part of the Bob experience for me. He sang it well but unexceptionally until it hit me in the fourth verse... he was singing the Italian poet verse. I hadn't read of this anywhere else, so I'm not sure; maybe he's been doing it for awhile, but I certainly hadn't noticed it in anyone else's review. But whether it was new, or something he's done all tour long, he sang it Saturday. Matter of fact, he sang all of the verses, which I listened carefully for. He brought the harp out for this one and it got the crowd rocking. Even the dead old fogeys who came to see Paul Simon "got" this one. A good performance, with Larry continuing his brilliance. 5.Girl From the North Country After all the energy Bob got from TUIB, he sent 75% of the crowd to sleep when he launched into this one. It was a suprise for me to hear this and he played it well, singing it very low and soft, not at all unlike "It Ain't Me Babe". A nice tune, but a bit of a downer after Tangled, especially for the people who didn't recognize this one. 6.Down Along the Cove Wow! He played those opening chords and I though it might have been a very fast "Highlands", but when the vocal kicked in, my jaw really dropped. What's even better is that it was a FINE performance. Charlie Sexton was prancing around in his white suit and playing like Robbie Robertson. This performance really put me in mind of the '66 "Tell Me, Momma" for some reason. Probably those white-hot riffs Charlie was supplying. Bob was tight with the vocals on this one, singing it just right. At the end, when my whole section of morons was still seated, I rose to my feet with a friend and applauded, whooped, and generally made a fool of myself. Bob looked over at my section and with just two people standing, he looked RIGHT AT us, and commented "Thanks you. Thanks, ever'body". 7.All Along the Watchtower Expected and quite average. Watchtower sounds like Watchtower, nothing more and nothing less. This version was perfectly adequate but nothing terribly special. 8.Just Like a Woman A little tiff with some folks behind me probably kept me from fully enjoying this one (When the people in front of me stand, I also stand. Personally, I find it much easier to stand than to interrupt the show by yelling rude things at people's backs trying to dull their enthusiasm for the show.), but it really didn't sound like much to me. Kind of a mail it in performance, with Larry's lone appearance on pedal steel. Larry was WAY down in the mix and didn't really do much with this one. Bob was solid, but I wasn't too impressed with this. 9.Mobile One of the songs that I could live without. It was just Mobile. Nothing terribly special or beautiful, but another solid rendition. I remember that Bob sang "She just smoked my eyeball". Nothing too remarkable. Band Intros You've probably already seen the Larry Campbell-bed joke, but if not it went "Larry almost wrote a song for us today. About his bed.... But he hasn't made it up yet." Yes, Kemper played the rimshot on this. And Larry was laughing somehow or other :) 10.Highway 61 Highway is like Tangled, a song that I could live without, but the performance always somehow wins me over. This was no exception. I can't sit still when this song becomes the guitar-fest that it is. Charlie showed us all a vision of the future when he broke out an excrutiating great solo for this one. How can you not enjoy Highway? 11.LARS The encore predictably began with Rolling Stone. Most people don't like to get this one every night either, but I just can't pass up any performance of LARS. If Dylan had never recorded another song, he still would've been my hero based on this one. The performance was standard and solid, from the quick beginning to the nah-nah-nah-nah-nah sounding guitar bit at the end. 12.It Ain't Me Babe After having all of the fairweather followers up with LARS, Bob ended it with this one. I'm not going to post about what this song means to me, but I will comment that I think there is a definite reason why Bob is playing this one as frequently as he is these days. This song revealed its meaning to me on Saturday, at least in the context of my existence. That said, it was a pretty typical rendition, without the harp or anything to terribly special. I enjoyed how the crowd would try to sing the "no no no" bit and Bob would always deliver it late. The most spirital songs of the show, as far as I'm concerned, were this and the opener. Duet 13.The Sound of Silence. Bob intoduced "Paul Ssssssssimon" and brought him out. They looked to joke around with each other for a minute before breaking into this one. It was the high point of the duet and was still rather terrible. The duet seemed embarassingly bad to me, as the two voices just really don't mix well. They found a few niches here and the mildly strange harp bit Bob played on this made it memorable, if not brilliant. 14.That'll Be The Day/The Wanderer Paul Simon thanked the crowd and thanked Bob for his involvement, saying something about how he never would have done that song without Bob, which got a huge hand, forcing Bob up to the mike for a grinning "thank you". Bob shouldn't really be credited for this medley. After the first verse of "That'll Be The Day", he didn't sing very much at all. He looked painfully befuddled and yet amused during this one. At a couple of points, I thought that if his eyebrows jumped up any more, they'd fly off his head. Paul Simon gets some credit here for injecting "I tell I'm Bob Dylan" into the Wanderer. The band was really rocking, but Bob was kind of out of it. Larry seemed quite amused by it all. 15.Knockin' on Heaven's Door Another decent effort at a duet, but not significantly better than the others. Bob opened it by singing "Mama, wipe this badge off of me". The highpoint of this for me was when they inserted "I hear you knockin'" in front of the last round of "knockin' on heaven's door"s. Bob left after this one, pausing to pull his white cowboy hat onto his head as he left. All in all, a very solid show. The shocking openers of the acoustic and electric sets made it a solid setlist and a competent, if not brilliant performance. The band was tight, and they looked quite nice too. The venue was nice, and the crowd was painfully dead. A very good show. And oh yeah, that other fellow, well, he was pretty solid too, but he's no Bob. My comments on the Cincinnati show will soon follow and would anybody who has a tape of this one (I heard an mp3 of "Down Along the Cove" already from the show) please contact me. All the Best, Joe
