April 17, 2009
Review by John Hayes
As I live in Scotland, the obvious choices for this tour were Glasgow and
Edinburgh in May. Edinburgh sold out immediately and I saw Bob at the
SECC Glasgow in 1990 and don't really like the venue too much, so thought
I might give this tour a miss. However, having read the reviews and
listened to some of the early shows, Stockholm etc... I got to thinking..
My wife Maggie (NOT a fan) had said that she thought it would be good to
get away for a break somewhere for a few days and she had looked into a
few options. When I mentioned that THE STREETS OF ROME WERE FILLED
WITH RUBBLE..., she said that she knew that, but would I get to the point....
It was a good compromise. A chance for her to see Rome for the first
time, and for me to see Bob (on perhaps his last tour?) at the same time!
So we were accompanied on our trip on Wednesday by our son Robert (16)
also a fan. He would have preferred to out on Friday and back on
Saturday, and miss the culture part! The first thing that struck me was
that although I had been there twice before ( first time 30 years ago, and
briefly 10 years ago) was that I must have been concentrating too much on
the wine pizza and pasta etc. Of course I had gone to the Vatican
Colosseum etc, but I was amazed at just how much there is too see there.
It is a must if you haven't been Anyway after a couple of days of intense
sightseeing, feasting etc, Robert and I set out on the Metro to
Palalottomattica, the large fairly newish venue for such events. We
arrived early and found our seats which were miles back from the stage but
fairly central. The band started promptly at 9 pm with a solid Cat's in
the Well. It was well performed with Bob singing remarkably well as he did
all night. Following Don't Think Twice, Bob picked up the guitar, (first
time since September 2000 that I had seen him do this) Things Have
Changed and Boots of Spanish Leather were two of the highlights for me,
partly because I like them anyway, but they were enhanced by him playing
guitar again. From there, until Thunder on the Mountain were all solid and
well performed. Then came one I didn't know. Return to Me. It was superb
and totally unexpected. I have just noticed that he played it again in
Florence tonight too. From Like a Rolling Stone onwards, was of course the
expected wind-up to the concert and it was fine. After a concert of his,
as usual, I can think of dozens of songs I would have preferred him to
have played, but none were disappointing and it is still always great to
see him live. The many audience recordings are often OK, but in no way
do the event justice. Needless to say.. he didn't play When I Paint My
Masterpiece, too obvious a choice!! All too soon it was the end of the
Italian adventure. Finally, Hi to Maureen and Eugenio and also to Rick, a
friend of ours and long time fan. His renditions of some of Bob's early
acoustic stuff are legendary!
John Hayes
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