Thanks to Carsten Wohlfeld for the following review: Okay, I've done many crazy things during my admittedly rather short life, but going to Australia, travel 19.000 km and spend 27 hours on a plane / train is even bezond the insane stuff I usuall find quite normal. It's been a lifelong dream for me to go to Australiaa and this was the opportunity I couldn't let go. Thanks to Tricia, her family and my lovely host Stephen I spend a very nice day here in Melbourne before it was time for the big event - Bob's warm-up show at the tiny Mercury Lounge at the huge Crown Casino. We started lining up at around 2pm, which wasn't too bad cause you actually could wait inside the Casino. Once the doors were opened at 7.30, we couldn't believe our luck. The place was tiny! Actually it was so small, it gives the word tiny a whole new meaning. They have a balcony and so there were only aabouy 500 people on the floor. Actually I don't think they could've fitted 800 in there, it was mst likely only 650 or 700. The stage was very low (about 80 cms high, I'd say) amd it was so tiny that they couldn't put the gear too far in the back. We eended up with front row spots (!) and if I had wanted to, I could've touched Larry Campbell from where I was staanding. Bob was less than 2 meters away! There were no cuesheets tonight, Bob and Tony just made up the list on the spot. The came out at 8.55pm and after a quick "ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome..." they launched into: > Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat My least favourite choice of course, and it was only an average version, but I didn't care cause we were so close! > Pretty Peggy-O Huge grin on my face... Gunter is gonna hate me :-) Perfect version, very laid back, Bob's singing was great and Larry was laying some pretty hot solos. > Can't Wait Usually one of the highlights for me, but this version was pretty flat. Thee band never got into the right groove and Bob's singing wasn't full-on. A pity. > Shelter From The Storm Kinda started off as if it ws going to be "Simple Twist Of Fate". Lovely version of a song I usually don't like that much. If they would play it every night like this, I'd love it to death. I think it's getting faster every time they play it this year, but I really like that. I think to myself: Robert is gonna hate me... So far it was a very good, but hardly surprising setlist. Things took a weird turn with: > Tough Mama Which was given the usual horrid treatent. Actually Bob looked as if he regretted that he chose this one from Tony's shortlist about ten second in. He just didn't like what the baand did with the song. I hated it too :-) A long discussion between Bob and Tony followed... Were they gonna drop "Silvio"??? YES! > You're A Big Girl Now Lovely version. Bob seemed to lighten up a little bit at this point, started to move around the stage more, even smiling briefly. Yet another song I rarely enjoy live but the band treated it very carefully and Bob'ssinging was as good as on most songs tonight. > Cold Irons Bound Yet another electric song and a great version too. Gave Tony the chaance to show us his weird little dance. Garnier seemed to be really into it, dancing all night, fiering up the other guys. After the song the roadies brought out the acoustic instruments, but Bob briefly left the stage. Goes to show that it was a really laid back affair all evening. > Cocaine (acoustic) Baaad version. They got it right on the chorus with Bucky and Larry joining in, but some of the later verses featured hardly any guitar playing cause neither Bob nor Larry could figure out what to do with this song. Most people around me still loved it. > Mr Tambourine Man (acoustic) Obviously the biggest crowdpleaser so far, but anybody could sing along (and it was several people who tried to!!!) cause Bob coouldn't remember the bloody words! Bastard! Honestly he only got one and a half verses right and gave us a wild mix of the others. Pretty sad sight. > Masters Of War (acoustic) Made up for the bad performaance before that. Great singing, great soloing, very impressive as always. > Roving Gambler (acoustic) I believe Tricia called it the best version ever and I tend to agree. The band and Bob just got the start/stop-parts perfectly right and it was the highlight of the show so far! > Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic) What can you say? It was there, the band enjoyed it to the max, we got some great interaction between Bob and the people in the first few rows, big smiles from all the guys in the band. Long guitar solo, but no harp. > Dark As A Dungeon (acoustic) When I called Bill Pagel laater that night he went: "Really?". I couldn't believe it either. I can't remember if he did it at some point in the 90s or if this reaally was the first outing for the song since the Rolling Thunder Revue in 1976, but judging from the way the played it, you'd guess they do it every single night. Bob was putting *alot* into the lyrics, which I believe were delivered word-perfect. Haven't heard him sing with so much passion and energy in a while! Bucky was having a great time doing back-up vocals. Larry was supposed to join in too, but didn't do it for the first chorus. He seemed to have trouble remembering his chords and the words. Hmm, interesting. After that we got the only Bob speech apart from "thanks everybody" all night. "This was an old one, now one of my own". Or words to that effect. > Forever Young (acoustic) Uta's gonna hate me... Great version of this crowdpleaser that just seem to come off perfectly. Sung very gently... I guess that's what usually meeses up the song: his voice is normally too loud and rusty, but not tonight. Very nice. > Highway 61 Revisited Back to electric without any band intros. And let me tell you it was a cooking version. Standing only and arm length away from Bob and Larry playing a twin guitar solo might obsccure my view on things, but esspeciaally Larry's playing was absolutely amazing. This song alone, which didn't seem to end *at all* was worth the admisssion price several times over. After that they took a well deserved short break. > (encore) > Love Sick It was one of those nights again where Bucky would start the song way too early. Bob actually wasn"t even on stage yet! So he had to stop and then the launched into what was actually very well paced, mighty fine version of this terrific song. Fortunately Bob wasn't flirting around with the front row girls and pulling faces too much yet. > Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 & 35 But on this song he did connect quite well with the people in the front, having a great time as usual. Not that I liked the performance of the song anz better because of it... > Blowin' In The Wind (acoustic) Bob wanted to add a little solo to the intro and messed it up badly. He kinda made up for it with some terrific singing later on in the song though. Actually a quite enjoyable version. The second to last chorus just featured Larry and Bucky as Bob had pusshed over his microphone stand with his guitar while turning around. Yes, the stage was that small! After the song they left and everybody knew that was it... but hey, they are coming back... After more than 110 minutes on stage there's gonna be more! > Til I Fell In Love With You Staggeringly good version, showcasing Larry's amazing guitar playing once more. We got this wonderful wave/wall of sound that Larry was solelz responsible for. You couldn't reaally hear Bob's guitar at all which didn't do the performance anny harm. Bob's strong singing was an added bonus. Then they left aagain only to turn around... > Silvio Actually it was a major disappoitent when I say Tony say "Silvio" to David. I reaally would've liked to get at least one how without it afterhearing it at more than 35 consecutive shows. Anyways, they did a ddecent job on it and since mmosst of the Australians attending hadn't hear it live it was fair enough to play it. But hey, there's more still! > I Shall Be Relesed Intros was messed up, but I actually enjoyed the rest of it quite a bit. Stephen pointed out that he really hasn't got the right voice to sing this song properly anymore and thatt's most definitely true, but hey, I think it's one of his best tunes, and if he isn't allowed to sing it anymore, then who is? Larry and Bucky on backing vocals, which was lovely as well. So there you have it, Bob and crew at a tiny little place, no harp, but 2 hours and 10 minutes of high energy music, lots of smiles and the biggest number of songs (21!!!) since Toad's Place eight and a half years ago. I forr one feel very priviliged that I had the chaance to be there. Kinda made up for all the trouble and financial rollercaster ride alreaady. Now I'm terribly excited about Patti Smith's performance on friday at FlindersPark. Oh yeah, Bob's gonna be there too (and so will I) and a report on that is to follow shortly. Thanks for reading and I hope I didn't write too much rubbish at 5.45am in the morning. Carsten -- "what once you called home is now a minefield" (damon & naomi)
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