Review provided by Carsten Wohlfeld After spending the day with Robert, Gunter, Tim and Regine doing some Sightseeing in Vienna, eating a fab pizza and some delicious ice-cream we arrived at the venue at 7.15pm. The Stadthalle is huge, probably has a capacity of around 12,000 if there are seats on the floor like tonight, but it doesn’t actually look (or sound) too bad. It was filled with around 8,000 Dylan fan, mostly older people, due to the outrageously high ticket prices. The show started at 7.50 with... Friend Of The Devil (acoustic) which was as good as it ever was. I only wish that he’d do „Hazy Shade Of Winter" tomorrow in Ischgl. It would make perfect sense: It’s a cover, the last time he did it was at the probably hottest show Bob played ever (in France ‘92) and tomorrow will most definitely be the coldest one eer, an open air in the snow.... butI’m only wishful thinking of course. Mr Tambourine Man (acoustic) much better than two days ago as Bob remembered all the words. Huge crowdpleaser as you’d expect. Masters Of War (acoustic) very well received, well, better than the night before anyways and very well done as usual. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall(acoustic) Another song Bob could remember tonight. He actually repeated the mistake-come-new arrangement with the „false start" chorus tonight. Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic) same as it ever was. It was at this point when I bgan thinking about how happy a little bit of change would make me. Of ourse he did a lot of songs he didn’t do in Graz, but all the songs had featured in the set quite frequently over the last ten days or so... no harp though. It’s All Over Now Baby Blue (acoustic) was no exception to that rule, but it was nicely done and also thankfully a bit slower than the days before. Still no harp though. Boots Of Spanish Leather (acoustic) was one of two songs that *completely* made the night. Ist just gorgeous every time he sings it and one of the few songs that band seems to play perfectly each time they do it too. Very well received bythe crowd as well. Anything but „Can’t Wait" as the opener of the electric set would’ve made me even happier and luckily we got Cold Irons Bound which is still far from being my favourite song, but it was a welcome change nevertheless. They have a new backdrop with different colours that they use now and the red curtains behind the band during this song looked like a sunrise, very fitting for the first electric song, I thought. U2 used to use it for their ‘87 opener „Where The Streets Have No Name", too, by the way. Make You Feel My Love Seemed to be a strange choice for this slot, but oh well. At that point I thought he played it now instead of it’s usual #11 slot to have an excuse to torture us with „She Belongs To Me" later on, but hey, I was wrong! Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again Thanks to Tim and Regine who were among the first down at the front we finally got the stage rush during this song and the show impoved immediately. Bob finally started grinning and moving around more and seemed to reall enjoy the presence of the people right at the rail. After the song Larry reached for his semi-acoustic guitar and I’m sure they had „Not Dark Yet" on the cuesheet (which I didn’t get to see). Then he went over to Tommy who handed him his red Gibson, the one he usually uses on the older songs. But that still wasn’t the right one and he finally had his Fender Tele in his hands, the one he usually only plays during „Feel My Love". So it was already clear that they would do a new(ish) song - or would do „Feel My Love" twice :-) And it actually was Tryin’ To Get To Heaven now with all band members on electric instruments. As soon as Bob started singing Tony had this gigantic smile on his face, as if he was gonna say: „Yes I know, you waited 20 months to hear this one live". So we got the second ever live rendition of this song, which was very true to the recorded version, carefully played and beautifully sung. I thought the „I’ve been all around the world boys" line made even more sense on stage that on the album. The only real difference to the studio version was the somewhat reggaefied rhythms that Kemper and Campbell plyed. Sounded very nice though. Apparently this was even a request, but I’ll leave it to Christian to explain that, cause he was closer at the front. After the song Bob introduced his gang and they went straight into... Highway 61 Revisited which was very playful tonight and wasn’t only enjoyed by the crowd but also by the band as well. (encore) Not Dark Yet When they came back again and Tony didn’t go over to Bucky with his „speed-o-meter" I knew that they wouldn’t do „Love Sick" tonight. This was a very welcome alternative I thought, one of the few, if not the only one in Dylan’s catalog that has the same spooky feel to it as „Love Sick" but still is equally as good. Hope he keeps it in this lot. Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35 I managed to see 13 shows in a row without „Rainy Day" and I’m very proud of that fact. But as they say: All good things ave to come to an end... this version was slow and - as far as i’m concerned - horrible. It Ain’t Me Babe (acoustic) A nice version was followed by Bob’s only harp solo and what a good one it was too Still nowhere near as amazing as the ones from 1995/96, but probably the longest and best since his illness. Not Fade Away was „Not Fade Away". Like A Rolling Stone faster and better than last night. Great way to end the show even though I personally would enjoy an encore that wasn’t strictly greatest hist more than the five star finale that reminds me of the Stones doing „Brown Sugar", „It’s Only Rock N Roll", „Satisfaction" and „Jumpin’ Jack Flash" at the end of every show in 1990. Anyways, it was a fun show, even though tonight the lack of real change in the first part was *slightly* disappointing. The perfect „Boots" and lovely „Heaven" alone were worth the admission fee several times over. It was - to my knowledge - also the longest show Bob has played since 1995 or ‘96 (not counting the Mercury Lounge warm up last summer). It lasted for well over two hours. And the best aprt about it: After things got a little predictable over the last few days, there’s no a lot of possibilitie for what might happen at the „weird" show in Ischgl, on top of the mountain. Stay tuned for more from there! Goodnight! -- carsten wohlfeld (happyjaq@confetti.ruhr.de) „i wish i was special - i’m just like you" (the cardigans)
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