Review provided by Jeremy Brennan

What a great memory! This was my third Dylan show (and definetly 
not the last). In all honestly, I didn't know what to expect...the
other times I "experienced" Dylan live, were both in 6,000 seat 
arenas, so the jump to nearly 20,000 made me a little curious/
skeptical.

The last time I seen him was my second show, April 8/97 in Saint
John, N.B. Canada (my hometown) and it was a magical night. It
was arguably the best night of my life, both in the music I heard,
and in the times I shared with others.

This time was different, but every bit as great. Van and co. got the
night off to a fantastic start, and by the time Bob was soloing on
"Blue Suede Shoes," one completely forgot the fact that a person had
to be 25 with an out of state ID to buy a beer???Oh well, Bob beats
beer in my book hands down.

The whole mentality behind this 10 hour trek for us was to see Dylan/
his band play some of the new songs.  I mean this in a complementary
way...I've been into Dylan for about half my life, and love it all,
but the day I heard "Time Out Of Mind," I realised what an incredible
album he's created and my "need" to hear him perform some songs from it.

The New Songs:

Sure enough I was not disappointed.
At our show, we got:
Cold Irons Bound, Million Miles, Til I Fell In Love With You, and
Love Sick (as one of the encores).
Not Dark Yet and Tryin To Get To Heaven would've been interesting,
but there's always next time. Furthermore, I suspected "Highlands"
might've been a possibility, because of it's reference to 
"Boston Town."
Million Miles, and Love Sick completely blew my mind, probably
becasuse they're my favs, and I'm a little biased. As well,
Cold Irons Bound was raw, awesome and jammed nicely. 
All were great...everything I expected and more!


The Old Songs:

"Absolutely Sweet Marie":
Alright opener. Personally I liked "Down in the Flood" alot
better , but that's just my opinion. This was probably the weakest
of the night. <1st for me>

"Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You":
This was a nice treat...didn't think I'd hear
it again this soon, but was glad I did. <2nd for me>

"Just Like A Woman":
Incredible! Crowd loved this one and so did I. It evoked a great 
feeling from everyone. We managed to get out in the aisle and
groove from this song to the end of "Hard Rain," before
we got ushered back to our seats. <1st for me>

"Silvio":
Definetly the best of the three times I've heard it. Silvio..
silver and gold...Did anybody notice that the limited edition
posters of Bob/Van were outlined in either sliver or gold?
I can't take the credit for this one though, my intellectually 
superior girlfriend pointed this out. Pretty good eye, I'd say.
<3rd for me>

"A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall": (acoustic)
Totally blew my mind! By far the best 3 acoustic songs I've heard 
him play back to back. Indeed, your heart could feel the intensity
growing stronger with each successive chorus. <1st for me>

"Love Minus Zero/ No Limit": (acoustic)
Again, a terrific suprise! A highlight for sure. A memory not to be 
forgotton. <1st for me>

"Tangled Up In Blue": (acoustic)
This is my favourite Dylan song. Emotionally, it didn't match the 
first time I heard it in Saint John, which put me to tears, but 
musically this was better. The jam was nicer, and instead of doing 
his standard "double time" snare thing in the choruses, the drummer 
played it straight through, and it flowed brilliantly. <2nd for me>

"Positively 4th Street":
Another first that I've always wanted to hear:
great song; great performance. <1st for me>

"Highway 61 Revisited":
First song of the encores. Honestly, I don't remember this one too
well. I think I was anticipating a possible Bob/Van jam, and I knew
it'd be next (since the 2nd song encore is always acoustic) if it
was ever gonna happen. So I guess I was anticipating the next song
and forgot about this one.
When we sat down to pick a show out to go see (we only had cash for
one show this tour, so it was a good bet that if they were gonna
jam in Bob's set, it'd be the last night of the tour leg with Van.
At least in theory. <2nd for me>

"Knockin' On Heaven's Door": (acoustic w/ Van Morrison)
What could I possibly say about this one? A very special memory
I'll have forever...indescribable unless you were there.
About 4-5 mins into the song, a roadie brought a microphone
on stage up front. Everybody knew exactly what was going on. 
A minute later, Van emerged, and they blew the roof off.
The following 5-8 minutes was the highlight of the night...
spiritual healing for me. <1st for me >

"Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35":  
Always fun and dancing all around...still a great closer.
Some smelly trivia I just actually learned:
12 times 35 = 420.


--> To add to the evening, outside after the show, we met some 
really great people (as well as inside during the show!) from our 
country, by coincidence only, but it was just the perfect cap
to an incredible night that was "meant to be."
What I'd give to live it all over again.

Jeremy Brennan
a6b3p@unbsj.ca

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