Reviews

Strasbourg, France

Zenith

April 21, 2009


[Gerhard Reininger], [Gerard Poillet], [Christian]

Review by Gerhard Reininger



I went to the Strasbourg show together with my brother. Nice venue,
although completely seated. People didnīt care very much and crowded in
front of the stage - bad luck for those on the expensive seats, I guess.
Bob hit the stage with a 10 minutes delay and started into Cats in the
well. It was a nice kick-off. Second song was Masters of war - the top-act
of the evening in my view. Some speculate, if he sang it because of
Hitlerīs birthday or because of the NATO-summit that took place in
Strasbourg some weeks ago. I donīt know, if those things are relevant 
for his choice of songs - maybe, maybe not. Anyway it was a haunting
performance with the drums coming directly from the battlefields of the
world.

Unfortunately there is not much more to say about the concert. All the
rest of the songs sounded nearly the same. The band was crouched in the
opposite corner of Bobs place behind the keys and it looked as if they
didnīt dare to make a move. Bob kept the distance and barked his songs
into the mike, played the keys without inspiration and even the harp was
nothing more than single sounds added to a melody which sometimes fitted
to the song and - often enough - did not.

It was good to see him though, and to breathe the same air for a while,
nice to watch him dance in his black Victorian suit with the red stripes
on his pants, but the music - except Masters of war - was a disappointing
noisy soup of guitar-sounds without any highlights. We were missing Larry
a lot. There was no spark this time, that came from the stage to light up
the audience. A cold-blooded show-routine which ended after two hours 
and left us behind with nothing in our hands that we could take home.

Gerhard Reininger

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Comments by Gerard Poillet



What a wonderfull world to hear Bob playing Wheels on fire with guitar in
hands, incredible, and...playing solo, that's true.  Anybody who plays guitar
as I do could understand... And after Blowin' violin big band version with
Donnie you can die...Have a good night folks !

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Review by Christian



I went to Strasbourg with my father and two friends of mine, we are all
from the heart of the alps, Tirol a part of Austria with the capital
Innsbruck. It was my 21 Bob Dylan Show and I am a litte bit sad, because
it was my last one this year after Munich, Milan and Florence, but I am
looking foreward to his new album Together Through Life. The show was
great. Although I hoped for a different opener (Gotta Serve Somebody) we
got a good Cats in the Well. Then followed a superb Masters of War, to be
continued by a fantastic It's all over now Baby Blue, which is a song I
always hope for, because one of our greatest national Singers we ever had,
named Falco, who had a number 1 hit in America ( Rock me Amadeus) did a
beautiful rendition called "Was vorbei is, is vorbei Baby Blue", which was
a great hit in Austria too. Then we got two new songs, Lonesome Day Blues
and Under The Red Sky, which were not played this year before. I was in a
really good mood, the crowd loved it, too. Rollin and Tumblin was O.K.,
then came a great surprise for me Beyond the Horizon. I heard this song
last year in Bergamo, it was o.k. for a Dylan fan, but this new version
ist just unbelievebla, fanstastic rythm guitar from Stu, its just like a
new song. The next highligts were John Brown, a song which will always be
up to date and This Wheels on Fire with Bob on Guitar. I had a good view
from the 6th row standing ( I bought 5th row seated) where i could study
his band a lot. I love his band, these guys are just awesome, they are so
different from all the other bands i know. They belong to Bob. The
following songs were all solid, Thunder on the mountain is better than
last year, LARS is always a gift, the encores are fantastic, although I
would prefer more change in the encore songs. In the end I must thank you,
Bill Pagel, for your fantastic work, I love www.boblinks.com, it always 
raises my heartbeat, when I look at your page. So I hope for ten more
years with Bob and his Band and with you Bill,

Christian from Innsbruck

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