Thanks to Carsten Wohlfeld for the following review:


We got up very, very late in Paris but still managed to be in the  
smalltown in the south-east of France that is Dijon at around 5pm. Found  
ourselves a low-budget hotelroom and went back to the ugly Forum (not much  
more than an old barn) to hear the soundcheck. It included:

        One More Cup Of Coffee
        Make You Feel My Love
        I&I (several times)

while the first song was a pleasant surprise, the last couple of versions  
of "I&I" sounded very promising. Would they finally do it tonight after it  
had been on the cuesheet or Roskilde? Inside the venue I was greeted by  
some members of Dylan's crew (you know you attend to many Dylan shows when  
the crew greets you even though you've never been introduced to them), but  
anyways... The venue was filled with about 3,000 people at 8.15pm when Bob  
and the guys came out to surprise us all with:

        Seeing The Real You At Last

Which was last performed on the US Summer Tour last year if my memory  
serves me well. Unusually good sound from the start onwards. I still don't  
like the song though and was a bit sad that they ignored the cuesheets  
alternate "All Along The Watchtower". This was the seventh song played as  
the opener in Europe alone, making it a total of nine all year.

        Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You

Solid performance of a song that I've heard more than enough by now. "Man  
In Me" unfortunately went unplayed.

        Cold Irons Bound

was "Cold Irons Bound". Yet another version that could've been better,  
could've been worse.

        You're A Big Girl Now

A song that reduces some grown men to tears but doesn't do anything for  
me. It was nicely done though, with Bob's focus definitely more on the  
singing rather then the guitarplaying.

        Silvio

Baaaaad! Larry and David both made several big mistakes. Bob was pretty  
angry at Larry all night (at least he looked as if he was gonna kill him  
any second), but Campbell obviously didn't know what he did wrong. Apart  
from the fact that Larry killed "Silvio" I don't know either what annoyed  
Bob so much. "Memphis" was the alternative on the cuesheet, interestingly  
enough!!!

        Mr. Tambourine Man (acoustic)

Huge crowdpleaser of course, sung very, very well.

        A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (acoustic)

Yet another song that was very beautifully sung by Bob, even though he  
sang the "graveyard" line twice. The band played a little bit too loud at  
times for my liking as well.

        Mama You Been On My Mind (acoustic)

What can I say apat from: AGAIN! Solid version of a so-so tune.

        Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic)

The first real highlight of the night! Bob nearly drove everybody nuts  
with his last guitar solo already, but to make it all 'worse', he picked  
up the harmonica to give us yet another solo! Larry broke a string but  
since this was the last acoustic song listed on the cuesheet, he was in no  
hurry to get his other acoustic geetar. As a consequence Bob started the  
following song alll by himself. btw, you could guess that there was one  
more acoustic song to come cause Bob didn't put away his guitar for the  
harp solo as usual.

        Forever Young (acoustic)

Wasn't on the cuesheet in this slot and even though it was a huge  
crowdpleaser and I enjoyed this version very much I have to say I didn't  
like the fact that they skipped "Tom Thumb's Blues" instead. "Thumb" was  
on the cuesheet, without alternates even but went unplayed. A shame!

        Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again

The second song tonight (after "Real You" that made it's Euro '98 debut.  
Solid version, even though Bob stumbled over a line here and there. I  
think he even came up with two brandnew lines somewhere in the middle.  
Then again, maybe not. "Blind Willie" and "She Belongs To Me" went  
unplayed.

        I&I

was next and completely made the night. If somebody will tell you that  
Djon was an amazing show it was beacuse of this song. Probably the best  
version of it I personally have ever heard (on tape or live). It just was  
perfect. Loud, yet emotional, over the top, yet gentle in the right  
moments. Awesome! If there's one single song on this whole tour that I'd  
wanna hear again, I would choose this one. Band intros followed.

        Highway 61 Revisited

Rocked as usual and replaced the cuesheet's only choice, "Rolling Stone".

        (encore)
        Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (acoustic)

Interesting choice as Bob would've never dared to play both "Twice" and  
"Mama" in the same show before. Now that they worked on the arrangements  
and made them sound a little different, he obviously doesn't acre anymore.  
He also gave us an okay harp solo. The best thing about the song was  
Larry's guitar solo right before Bob's harmonica playing though. Never  
heard him play a real solo on the acoustic, but this was HOT!

        Love Sick

For quite a while now Tony uses what I believe is a rhythm computer to  
count in the songs. Since last night's "Love Sick" was way to fast, he put  
the machine right under Bucky's nose tonight and - bingo - as a  
consequence the song was muuuuch slower and sounded much better. Bob put a  
lot of emotion into his vocal delivery and almost sounded as if he's  
crying at the end. Very nice.

        Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 & 35

Right before the song Tony asked Bob: "Alabama"?, but Bob only shook his  
head and then punished us with this one again.

        Blowin' In The Wind (acoustic)

Yet another huge crowdpleaser as expected. One of the better versions, if  
my memory serves me well.

All in all a solid show that will forever live in my memory as the evening  
where "I&I" rocked my world. When I left the building I thought I just had  
seen the most amazing show. But once I took notes for this review I  
noticed that verything apart from "I&I" was just solid. Weird. At least he  
gave us 17 songs again and with 115 mins it was the longest show on this  
tour as well. Our hopes were rising for Montreux... thanks for reading and  
see ya there!
--
carsten wohlfeld
"what once you called home is a minefield" (damon & naomi)

Return to Current Tour Guide page
Return to Bob Links
Go to the Set Lists (by city) page
Go to the Set Lists (by date) page 1997 Tour, 1996 Tour , 1995 Tour, Pre 1995 Tours
Go to the Cue Sheet page