I saw Bob on August 29, 1997, at Midway Stadium, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Midway stadium is the local semi-pro baseball stadium, the St. Paul Saints. Officialls there were 11,600 people at the show, about 75% of that amount was packed together like sardines in a can right up against the stage, the remainder wwere sitting in the aluminum bleachers. At this show Dylan played the first half acoustic, doing sngs like "Tangled Up In Blue" , "Absolutely Sweet Marie" "Roving Gambler", "You Ain't Going Nowhere" and Mr. Tambourine Man" rounded out the acoustic set. After th outset of "Tangled Up In Blue" Dylan said "You have to be from somwhere around here to sing and play like that". After that Dylan played the last half of the concert with an electric guitar. Playing songs such as "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again", "Highway 61 Revisited" , and slipped in an acoustic version of "Forever Young". He did 3 encores, including "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35", "Like A Rolling Stone" and another that I forget. About Half way throught the show the sky got dark and it started to rain, a lot. It rained for about a half hour, and for the rest of the show it was muggy and misearble, but all in all it was a good bargain for $30.00 a ticket. Andrew Berns
From "Spike" I saw Bob at the San Jose Arena on May 19,1998 and it was great! I have to admit that I was not very impressed with Van Morrison, and Joni Mitchell was a little too slow for me. But I forgot all of that when Bob came on stage. After the long applause died down he began with the song " Absolutely Sweet Marie," which was much faster than the original version. Another great song was " Masters Of War," Bob played a lot of really fast songs so I was surprised when he sang Masters Of War since it was such an old and slow song. Although it sounded great. Then he sang " Silvio" which was excellent. He also sang " Cold Irons Bound" but that was very hard to understand, it was like he was mumbling. It was great to hear some of Bob's classic hit's like " Tangled up in Blue" as well as his newer hits like " Love Sick." Then Bob left the stage and we all gave him a standing ovation. Moments later he reentered the stage for the encore, which started with " Forever Young," But one of my favorite parts of the concert was the last song " Rainy Day Woman # 12 and 35" when everyone in the audiance sang " everybody must get stoned" along with Bob.
On Nov.7, 1995, I went to see Bob Dylan in Dallas Texas with my sister. It was a seedy little place (the smaller, the better) There was only room for 3000, but somehow, 3500 people squeezed in. Standing room only, and I was right in front actually with my elbows on the stage, about 6 feet from Bob. Suddenly, my sister fainted from oxygen deprivation, and had to be carried across the stage by Bob's body guard. I hopped up on the stage to follow, tee shirts in hand (my sister was unconscious), and tears in my eyes. I stopped dead as a stone about 3 feet away from him and I was TORN!!! My beloved sister and Bob Dylan. Oh- my- God!! What should I do?? I stood there dazed-- lookin' at Bob, wanting to throw myself at his feet and pledge my undying love and loyalty. Then I re-gained my senses, looled at him, shrugged my shoulders & said "She's my sister!" He looked me in the eye, turned his left knee in, and twanged his giutar, and smiled at me. Then I almost fainted with pure joy! So I went on outside to the car, and my sister felt terrible because the concert was a Christmas present to me. But not to worry! I snuk back in with my camera, which was forbidden, and got eight exclusive and absolutely wonderful shots of him. That night changed my life forever. I think I've seen all the big time bands, but this was the first time I had seen his Bobness. The entire event was a love fest. Everyone there was in sync, everyone was friends, and I didn't see any fights or bad manners. Everybody shared, It was unbelievable. Everyone loved everyone. After having seen Bob Dylan, I vow to never attend another concert---unless it is his, because I am certain that there is no concert after Bob. BOB DYLAN IS THE LAST POET FOREVER. I can't help it if I'm lucky! Sincerely, Bobcatz
Barely five months he performed at Great Woods, Bob Dylan appeared before a capacity crowd at Avalon in Boston and wowed the throng of 1,400 with a 110-minute, 16-song set almost totally different from last summer's.
Most obviously, Dylan did four songs from his latest album, "Time Out of Mind," yesterday, along with some radically reworked nuggets from his songbook.
Considering Dylan's health problems of last spring, his summer show at Great Woods displayed remarkable musical energy, but he didn't move around much, and mostly played rocked up versoins of his greatest hits.
Last night, Dylan was as animated as I've ever seen him, punctuating his guitar work with a little Chaplinesque shuffles to and fro, and singing with gusto despite some hoarsness. More captivating still was the way Dylan played lead lines, often on his acoustic guitar. Dylan's guitar leads were not complex, but they had a stiletto-like melody, jarrinf the senses with their slightly-off-kilter tone.
Dylan's current album was produced bt Daniel Lanois, and the Lanois stamp is all over it, with its swirling textures, its New Orleans-influenced syncopated rhythms, and its overall aura of mystery.
Last night, Dylan and his quintet played most of the music with that formula, and it made for some inspired moments. (And by the way, for langtime fans, Dylan again gets a grade on the Mumble Factor, as most of his words were understandable, and almost all the songs were lyrically understandable.)
After a raggedy romp through "Maggie's Farm" opened the show, Dylan wasted little time introducing the new material. "Cold Irons Bound"worked off syncopated drum figures, and surging guitar chords, sounding rather like a lurching, punk-flavored New Orleans funeral march. The old chestnut "Positively Fourth Street" followed, but it may as well have been a new cut, for it was toatlly transformed having been reinvented from folk-rock to a easy-loping ballad with a romantic feel quite hidden in the original.
Tony Garnier's funky bass line was the focus for "Can't Wait," another new tune, where Dylan's vocal slid easily around the tempo, giving the song a good-natured immediacy.
A three-song acoustic segment was centered, as it was last summer, around steller country blues reading of the old "Cocaine Blues." Dylan also did a lilting, smooth-flowing "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" here. But the best of the acoustic portion was "Tangeled Up in Blue," fired by Bucky Baxter's mandolin and Dylan's own pointed guitar lines, which became an amiably rocking country blues, and ended in almost a duel between Baxter's mandolin and Dylan's percussive upper register guitar slashes.
The electric guitars were back in force for a midtempo gallop through "Stuck inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again," yet pedal steel gave it a smoothing quality. "(I Was Doing Alright) Til I Fell in Love With You" returned to the focus of the new album for the set finale, its synocopated rythms and odd quitar surges furnishing superb backdrop to Dylan's ironoc vocal.
For his first encore Dylan led the band through a wild and wooly slashing guitarfest of "Highway 61." The second encore produced a gently rocking "Kockin' on Heaven's Door," with the band adding those new accents again.
Dylan's third encore was a gem. with the haunting "Love Sick" from the new disc.