Reviews

Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg Arena

June 11, 2008


[Daniel Schuster], [Michael Ebers], [Iris Seifert]

Review by Daniel Schuster



It was a long time waiting until the doors opened. Or at least it seemed
very long. My wife and I had travelled from Munich, Germany to Salzburg,
Austria just to see Bob Dylan and his Band play live. When they finally
let us in we rushed to the Merchandise place to get a T-Shirt and a Patch,
the prices were as we expected them (30 Euro for a shirt, 10 for a Poster,
5 for a Patch). 

We went inside to take our seats, which were on the left side, middle of
the hall. As the lights went out and the Intro began I started to get
shivers, I've been waiting for this concert (my first Bob Dylan concert)
for a while and now that it was finally there I felt very happy. Dylan and
his Band walked on stage, turned on their amps and started with the first
chords of "Stuck Inside Of Mobile..." - by then lots of people,
approximately 30-40 had already stormed in front of the stage, and though
security guards were trying to get them back to their seats it was
impossible. My wife an I grabbed our bagsm ran towords the stage as well
and managed to stand in the second row right in front of Mr. Dylan. He
sang well, the sound was great and "It Ain't Me, Babe" which followed the
opener was just the right choice to get the audience ever crazier and make
everyone's hips move. 

He continued with "'Till I Fell In Love With You" which calmed the place
down a bit and then delivered an amazing performance of "Positively 4th
Street" which was received by the audience with great cheers and clapping.
Old School Rock'n'Roll seemed to be this evenings theme, and when "Rollin'
and Tumblin'" from his latest album Modern Times came along everybody on
stage and in the hall was rockin' with Bob. Of course the security guards
tried to get people back into their seats, but no chance, there were just
too many. 

Then Dylan played 4 songs from Love And Theft which were nice, but got a
little long - after that he brought "It's Alright Ma" which is definately
a song everyone was waiting for! The audience loved it and was all into
the show again. "Spirit On The Water" was well-received, "Highway 61" took
the crowd to heaven again. "Nettie Moore" was performed very gently with
Donnie on Viola and is definately a highlight from Modern Times. It worked
very well on stage. 

Now it was time to continue with "All Along The Watchtower" which, of
course, everyone loved. They went off stage to come back with "Thunder On
The Mountain" and "Blowin' In The Wind" which closed an extraordinary
night! All in all I must say the legend Bob Dylan did himself justice. It
was one of the best concerts I've seen so far, even though there was a
slight lack of old hits in the setlist. Personally, I'm a little sad all
of my favourites like "Tangled Up In Blue", "John Brown", "Masters Of War"
and "Ain't Talking" have been played the night before in Vienna and I
didn't get to hear them, also there were quite a lot of balladesque songs
in the set which could have been replaced in my opinion (Moonlight, Sugar
Baby...) but I'm glad I finally got to see Dylan and hope he'll be back
soon with other songs. 

Daniel Schuster

[TOP]

Review by Michael Ebers



Bobs Show in Salzburg was the fourth time i saw him play and it definitely
was his best performance! bob was so great that night. his vocal
performance was to the point, very sharp and powerful. the band was
playing very tight and powerful. stuck inside of mobile was a great
opener. the voice was a little weak on the first verse but that didn't
matter. it was a great song to start the show. it's alright ma - the best
performance of the song i've ever heard. i really like the new
arrangement. it ain't me babe - perfect! bobs singing was just awesome!
watchtower - reminded me of the hendrix version and was just great. for me
the best two songs of the night where 'til i fell in love with you and
high water (for charlie patton). bob seemed to have fun that night. at the
end of thunder on the mountain he was cheering a loud THANK YOU FRIENDS to
the audience. bobs just getting better and better. i hope he'll be back
soon.

[TOP]

Review by Iris Seifert



Well, if Vienna the night before was "hats-off", this show in Salzburg
could only be described as: hat off, throw it up in the air and don't care
if it ever comes back down, or where it falls (even if it were from Mr.
Dylan's beautiful collection).

From being stuck inside of Mobile to the conversation between the Joker
and the Thief: the main set was indescribable with words, words would
destroy what happened there on stage as Mr. Dylan just kept soaring higher
and higher, and the collective focus of the band ensued; they were making
MUSIC; the harmony between all six players on the stage came to produce
such beauty; it seemed that their hearts beat together, they had one
common breath, especially when it came to ending slow numbers totally in
synch. 

Be it said here that Mr. Freeman had an incredible night, conjuring some
glances from stage neighbor Mr. Garnier, who himself had some awesome
little solo caprioles (yes, they do shine..). Mr. Recile carrying each
song carefully as his playing is the essential grounding of the songs. And
Mr. Heron's mandolin and violin parts were even greater in this show, but
the slide guitar...well what is there to say? Mr. Kimball didn't get as
much acoustic guitar exposure tonight due to the set list, but when
audible sounded great, though to me the greatest value of his contribution
was his animated contact with Mr. Heron and Mr. Dylan at times.

But Mr. Dylan seems to have given himself the greatest gift here in
Salzburg by giving to us in the audience the most beautiful singing,
dancing and playing (and I can only compare to my first experience last
July at Konnocti and a few great shows in Chicago and Dallas in-between).
It kept signaling: come on, dance with me; or, go with me on a journey
into my soul. At one point, Mr. Dylan danced out from behind his keyboard
to stage center front, covering his heart with his hand. Nothing to do
than covering my own heart to keep it from jumping out, and it would have
jumped right there onto the stage - it was a gift for me to be so close.

Well, before I am carried away completely, my heart and soul is traveling
along wherever you go, as so many fans are doing in person. 

Sincerely and humbly
Iris Seifert 

[TOP]

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