Reviews

Tonight was the first time I ever got to be in the first row of a concert.
Pure bliss. I stood next to Dylan as he hunched over his keyboard watching
shaking those knees. 

I took two friends who didn't know much about Dylan. They were both
converted. Hook, line, etc. Most of the credit must go to the band. They
smoked all through the set, climaxing on Summer Days. 

Highlights: 

1.	Dylan's corny joke while introducing the band ("He's from Louisiana.
They got a lot of snakes down there. When it rains, he puts them on his
windshield and calls them 'windshield vipers'"). 2.	Stu's guitar responses
to Dylan's harp during "Boots of Spanish Leather." 3.	Dylan's harp playing
in general. Clean. Musical. 4.	It's All Right, Ma. This is the first time
I heard this version of this classic. Rockin'.

I'm born again. Again.

I feel that Bob is constantly evolving as an artist - a musician - a
performer, etc... I believe that he must always feel he who isn't busy
being born is busy dying and that he applies this (more subconsciously I
suspect) to not only his life, but his art and all of his waking and as of
yet unawakened dreams - plus normal everyday reality does often have too
many heads so you need to deal within and outside of those parameters as
well - band changes and all of that personal and impersonal everyday
drudgery - he has of course learned to make the best out of whatever he is
faced with be it Sexton leaving or Koella going or Kimball joining the
band - and has I felt learned to use these changes as steps to help him
light the way so he can face an angry flame when it sometimes looks him
straight in the eyes and calls out his blowing in the wind name - it is
invisible those pleas but still they quite often possess the secrets only
dead men know and why try to plan for the unplanned when the unexpected is
always around the corner and should be embraced and not turned away from
or worse yet resisted - not Only ARE THE TIMES a-CHANGIN' but they are as
well wounded from the inside out - a scab that is too often picked over by
the ignorance of a supposed humane civilization when in truth the only
thing humane about our civilization is how utterly inhumane it so often
can be - Bob must know all of this as he keeps keepin' on but that does
not mean he is escaping on the run or heading for another joint because he
feels trapped or out of sync with the times as they presently exist all
around and throughout him - he is a mystic and I believe has learned to
become fully part of the moments transpiring and last night as I took in
this sound panorama I absolutely felt like the doors of perception were
being cleansed right before my wounded and weary, but forever inspired
eyes - so to answer your question last night's show and the night before
were absolutely as important as the three Philly shows from '04 in that
everything intensified as Bob the consummate poker player raised us all to
another level as he and his band of lightsoldiers accepted enlightenment
for what it has always been about; a good stiff drink and the positive
feelings that are often derived from a job well done - of course I mean
job as in chosen work and not as in Maggie's Farm - the last two nights
were all about the lonesome whistle blowing and the idiot winds we must
all endure if we ever want to learn anything.

Charlespoet@adelphia.net