Review

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

April 3, 2000

Five Seasons Center



Review provided by Dan Rest.


  i've seen dylan a decent number of times in the past
two or so years, and i don't think i've ever been as
blown away by a dylan show as i was last night in
cedar rapids iowa.  that show was the last stop on
this current tour for me.  i had been on it since the
rapid city SD show, skipping only the one in sioux
falls SD.  this current tour had grown a little
mundane (or at least as mundane as a dylan show every
night can get).  it was just that the set lists
weren't changing enough to keep us interested.  over
the course of two or three shows, he might only change
up a quarter of the tunes.  i mean, i like all along
the watchtower and all, but i kind of get the point
after hearing it two nights in a row and i'm ready for
something else.  now, i understand why he might play a
tune like country pie night after night, cause
nobody's heard that one, but stuff like watchtower,
hwy 61 and even (dare i say it?) tangled up in blue,
it just gets a little, well, ordinary, and that
certainly is not how we like our dylan shows, is it?  

and then we roll into iowa city from rochester for a
relaxing weekend of recovery from the 2300 mile
journey, and in all honesty i really didn't think
about the monday night show a whole lot, cause after
reading the set list from sioux falls, i figured it
would be just more of the same.  

holy jesus fuck.

i knew something was up when he kicked song to woody
as the second tune.  and desolation row was so far out
of my conciousness that before he started singing i
thought we were getting stuck inside of mobile.  i've
wanted to hear desolation row for years and never
gotten it.  twice he's done it the night after i saw
him.  so when they started selling postcards, it was
my spirits that were hanging, as in from the fucking
rafters.  and all this occurred within the first three
tunes!!  i was with two friends of mine who were dylan
virgins and i kept telling them what an extrordinary
show this was.  i don't think they fully realized the
rarity of this set, but i guess it doesn't really
matter.  

the show really only got better.  after such a
selection of tunes in the main set, i really didn't
care that the encores were pretty standard for this
tour, though knockin on heavan's door was very
appreciated.  suffice it to say that when i'm sucking
in my last breaths of air and i think back to all of
the bobby shows i ever caught, that's pretty much the
only one i'm ever going to need to die a sated
dylanite.  long live Bobby D.


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