Absolutely Sweet Marie
Tonight I'll Be Stayin' Here With You
Can't Wait
Simple Twist Of Fate
Silvio
Cocaine Blues (acoustic)
Masters Of War (acoustic)
Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic)
Million Miles
Blind Willie McTell
Highway 61 Revisited

Encores:
Till I Fell In Love With You
It Ain't Me, Babe (acoustic)
Lovesick
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

Short version:

Great show, not the best, but very, very strong. Bob in black suit, with silver stripes down the sides of the pants, and the white cowboy hat. Lovesick was the high point, Million Miles the low point. Kenny Wayne Shepherd sucked. Security (especially the little fuckhead 30-something in the white shirt with the glasses) was a pain. Dancing fool with the ponytail beard deserved to be shot.

Not-so-short-version:

We arrived from Williamsburg in plenty of time, so we got dinner at Ellie's Deli across the street from GMU. The health department has obviously not been there recently. the food preparers were un-gloved and un-washed. The brownie one of my friends got had lovely circles of green mold on top, and the womens' toilet was broken. at least I got dinner for $0.98, which I doubt I could have done anywhere else. So we got to the Patriot Center at 7:30, came in the doors, noticed there was no security checking for taping equiptment or cameras, and cursed loudly that I'd brought neither. Oh well. Nice seats, right at the front of section 5 (sec 5, row B, seats 1-3, to be precise), so in the middle, about 20 rows back. good view of the stage (until people stand and the faults of a flat-floored hall become evident).

Where to begin. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way, which mostly follows the chronology of the evening. Kenny Wayne Shepherd was a 50 minute waste of my time. If I wanted to hear distorted, sloppily played guitars I would have stayed home and done it myself. Cancel, and pass on.

The house lights go down, the crowd roars, we get the "Ladies and gentleman, please welcome Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan!," and the familiar strains of Absolutely Sweet Marie engulf me again. And oh, how sweet. Very nice, clear vocals They hit the ground running on this one. not much to say, except that I do miss the "yellow railroad".

Mystery slot #1. I'm hoping for something interesting, and in a way, I get it. Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You, which seems to have become a bit of a standard by now, was riveting and deeply satisfying. Much nicer than the Unplugged version, Bob has fun singing it now, and it shows. Verses were all mixed up--as I recall, he started off with "I can hear that whistle blowin'," which was repeated at least once closer to the end. But who cares. So he didn't do all the lyrics. It's not like the song is a masterpiece from a lyrical stanpoint. It's a sentimental country song, and that's what he played it as. Nice use of the lower range of his voice.

Okay, I'm pumped to hear my first TOOM song live. Can't Wait is strong. Head and shoulders above the album version which I have unfortunately grown slightly weary of. Much more passionate vocals, and he sounded, at the time, haunted, not in the slightly spooky way that TOOM sounds haunted, but much more sinister. Of course, after hearing Masters of War, this one's reduced to child's play.

Mystery slot #2. I say to myself "Come on, Bob, Born In Time." The band cranks up and I think I got my wish. It's a suspiciously similar riff, and I'm waiting to hear "In the lonely night". Wrong. "They sat together in the paaaark/ As the evenin' sky got daaaaark..." Simple Twist Of Fate is always welcome surprise. He got all my favorite verses, but I don't remember if that's all or not. My notes read "Nice phrasing, use of pauses." And the pauses really helped make the vocal stand up. Maintaining tension within the lines is important, something he must have forgotten by later in the evening.

Now, I'm not sure where I noticed it first, possibly during Simple Twist, but it was certainly by the acoustic set. The Voice. It's different. The "mucous gurgle" from the post-histoplasmosis tour this summer is fading, and most of the time it's the somewhat raspy voice we've become used to. But then there are moments, and the Voice, the wholesome Nashville Skyline croon, sneaks out, and as he holds a word for what seems like an eternity, there is no rasp, no crackle, no pain. It's smooth, sweet, and natural. And it's great ornament the way he's using it now. May he keep off the filthy weed long enough to do some more of this kind of singing.

Silvio. It's Silvio. It's fun. Much more enjoyable than Philly 8/20/97, which was a bit too ragged for my taste. I still prefer the spring/summer 1996 versions.

Now we come to the part of the evening where we get all the surprises. :-) Same songs he's been playing for the last month.

Cocaine Blues. Very nice. Not the ethereal experience it was this summer, but still a joy to hear. Backing vocals from Larry only, I think. Didn't look like Bucky of Tony were joining in. One change, and I'd be interested in knowing when it showed up, is the addition of something in the line "This old cocaine's makin' me sick," which is now sung as "This old cocaine doctor's makin' me sick." it's probably not "doctor" but I can's think of any alternatives right now.

Masters Of War. I was dreading this one. I'm not a big fan of this song, and I'm still not, but it is certanily becoming appropriate. And it's obvious Bob thinks so too, becasue he sang it like he was posessed. Hellhound on his trail x10. The most powerful performance I've heard him give. very tight and sympathetic work from the T,B,L,&D.

Tangled Up In Blue. Screams of delight from the four corners of the hall. Very nice, and very fast--a sign of things to come. Towards the end the stage rush, such as it was, happened. I didn't make it,so I didn't get to stand at the fornt and yell for In The Garden. oh well. At about this time I noticed a guy in the back row of the section ahead of me with his little videocamera going. and security was too busy harassing people like me for moving 6 inches into the aisle from my seat (right next to the aisle) to notice him. And he was doing nothing to hide it at all. One wonders. I should have tried to get in with my big reel-to-reel machine, given these clowns. :-) Good use of the footlights on this one--huge shadow of Bob against the rear curtain as he bends down and does his funny little solo. Priceless image.

Million Miles. My least favorite song on TOOM, because it's so boring. Something of a snoozefest live, too.

Mystery slot #3. Okay, I'm figuring it just can't go wrong. What's he played in this slot: Blind Willie Mc Tell, Queen Jane, Pos 4th St, Stuck Inside Of Mobile, and I forget what else. Nothing dull, that's for sure. And I'm pulling for Blind Willie, just so I can experience it once live. I got my wish this time, or did I? The familiar chords. "Seen the arrow..." but what's this? It's fast. Oh dear. BWMT isn't supposed to be sung like you're on a runaway train. Very little of the majesty of this song came through. There are no spaces left, no time to think, no time to appreciate the song. A big disappointment, but at least I can say I heard it live.

Highway 61 Revisited. Mighty fine. Lyrics somewhat buried beneath the guitars, but what I could hear was great. quite energetic, with Bob doing some dancin' and prancin' for those up front.

Till I Fell in Love With You. Excellent. Much better than the album, with superb vocals. My pen ceased to write by this point, so I have no notes to refer to for specifics, unfortunately. But I was singing it in my head all the way home.

It Ain't Me, Babe. Oh goody. nothing new here, but it was nice. terribly rough ending, though.

Love Sick. Now that's what I'm talkin' about, Bob. Highlight of the night. Superb, passionate vocals, crisp sound, great flow. sounds fresh and new, even after months on the road with it.

Rainy Day Women. Usual clouds rising from the crowd. Interesting intro, though, that had me wondering whether it would indeed be RDW. That glimmer of hope...

All in all, a very nice show, with some unexpected highlights.