Reviews

This concert moved me in Spirit from the distance that I was in.  
Down along The Cove:  Bob sang.."Down along the cove...I
spieddddddddddddd my trueeeeeeeeee love comin; my wayyyyyyyyyyyy..."  So
much heartfelt passion in this song...it sure carried in the winds. 

God Knows:  I know too, and so do you....Bob sang this song like sending
echoes over the hills.

I Shall Be Released :  "they say everything can be replaced, every
distance is not nearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...."  Bob sang this song with such
conviction.."I see my light come shining from the West unto the
Eastttttttttttttt...."     Bob's band did great with this song!

Things Have Changed:  I love this song, and the crowd went wild!

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum....This song reminds me of the Fool Card in the
Tarot deck....if only you'd listened to the dog at your sleeve!

Lay Lady Lay....The first time believe or not that I heard this one.  Let
the tigers replace the ponies at the chariot.  Bob sang this song...tears
fell from my eyes.

I Don't believe You (She acts like We Never Have Met.)  :  Yes...IF your
memory serves you well....how true!  Love this song......I saw Larry
giggle to Tony...the crowd loved it!

High Water :  This song was sung so well...and so clear....

Po' Boy :  Well well....I remember in 1998 or was it 1999?  in
Binghamton....where the song first appeared ...but it was freezing cold
out...so it could not continue. I love this song and Bob sang from his
heart.  

Highway 61 Revisited :  Always a great song to hear Bob and his band
play....everyone went wild.

Not Dark Yet :  ..."Sheeeeee  wrote me a letterrrrrrrrrrr...and she wrote
it sooooooooo kindddddddddddd."
 This song has pangs of sadness, and yet healing of the heart.  It was a
reminder of our inner-life...a time of contemplation.

Honest With Me :  "Iffffffffffffffff  you only knewwwwwwwwwwwwww"...Bob
and his band whirled a new tune out of this one.

Tangles Up In Blue :  "The True-Blue" song....one of my favorites! 
Everyone went crazy .....the energy was wild !!  The band enjoyed playing
this one. They made the song roar beyond the distance in itself!

Summer Days :  A classic in itself....a grand ole' song cycles back! 
Everyone loved this song!!  Bob seems to enjoy playing this one!  bye the
way I love Bye and Bye  and those 30's songs....the pipe organ...

Like a Rolling  Stone ....The crowd went wild......on this encore song!!!

All Along The Watchtower:  The end song....which people cheered and
wanted more....

This was such a special concert....many thanks....many blessings to you
and your band...... Would Love to hear a song you did awhile back..."All
Over You."

Carolynn Marie Gatos

After an anxious 2 hours in the biting cold, the crowd rushed to the
front of the floor--visibly excited.  This fomenting excitment was to be
the prevailing mood for the whole show.

Bob's band came out in matching tan outfits, all with black hats, except
for Larry.  He actually appeared stoned--or somehow intoxicated--his eyes
kept rolling skywayrds.  His playing was incredible, regardlessly.

The band opened with a rollicking "Down Along the Cove," with Tony's bass
thumping and solos by Larry on his Tele and Stu on his black Strat.  No
harp from Bob jsut yet.  Next was "god knows" off of Under the Red Sky,
another high energy number.

I shall be released was met with an instant swell of cheers and
applause...Larry's pedal steel was relevatory--Bob played s harp solo at
the end, which the crowd appreciated.

Bob's voice was particularly strong--he seemed to actually enjoy his
melodies, finding nuances and ways of phrasing that delighted even him.
Things have changed was a nice bluesy jam, as was Tweedle Dee.  Larry at
one point bent down to raise the level of his overdrive pedal--he smiled
as he ripped another searing solo.

Lay lady lay was awesome--suprisingly similar to the Skyline version, with
the same pedal steel licks.  Dylan really has a tight connection with his
band...through eye contact alone he got them to comp under his great harp
solo.

Another highlight of the night was Not Dark Yet--Bob made it a moving
admittal of his advancing age.  After a rockin "honest with me," Larry
started strumming the opening chords of "tangled up" and Bob gave a big
laugh--this wasnt on the setlist.  He sang it with passion and intensity.
Not able to look down at the lyrics in front of him, Bob put his heart
into the performance. THREE harps solos too--he picked up the wrong key
harp for the first, but still blew a mean solo, then closed out the tune
with an awesome (in key) solo.  Bob gave a huge laugh at the end...and he
flashed one of his rare smiles at the crowd.

The standard encore of "LARS" and Watchtowwer followed...Tony's bass
signal went out but Larry covered the low end on pedal steel rather
capably.  Incredible energy on the kit by George brought more grins from
Bob, and cheers from the crowd.  A simply incendiary show.

-Dylan Gottlieb

Bob played at SUNY Binghamton's new-fangled basketball court.  From where
I was standing, about ten feet from center stage --I was the tall guy
with the baseball cap, sorry to have inconvenienced anyone, but as will
be seen, I had my dose of obstruction as well-- the crowd was made up of
the usual suspects:  40-60 year old geezers who knew all of the songs and
(the bolder of us) arrhythmic in our dancing, teenagers who thought Bob
could be "moshed" to, and of course, the sixties wash-up who comes to
these affairs as if they were his birthright.  Case in point:  directly
in front of me, a Pig Pen clone from the sixties was a-twirlin' up a
storm yelling for Infidels tunes ("Man of Peace!  Man of Peace!" -my
guess is that he last saw Bob during the French Girl days) and talking to
anyone who would lend a sympathetic ear (no takers, we were not to be men
and women of peace). The rest of the crowd for the most part was
enthusiastic, if not disoriented at times, as John Wesley, the Basement
Tapes, Nashville Skyline -The set list was sublime;  what struck me was that
despite the fact that all of the songs have been played on the tour quite
regularly, tonight's combination was nothing less than a treat:  "God
Knows", "I Shall Be Released", "Lay Lady Lay", "I Don't Believe You",
"Po' Boy", "Highway 61", "Not Dark Yet", "Tangled Up In Blue":  eight
compositions that present a pretty thorough cross-section of Bob's better
moments as a performer. The band, as usual, was great, although I did
detect a less-than-enthused Larry Campbell who did not seem to "get into
it" until the cittern on "High Water".  In all fairness, he was at pedal
steel (loved the pedal steel on "Watchtower"!)on many songs so he didn't
establish himself as a stage presence until later in the concert. It
would seem that he misses Freddy "Fuzzy" Koella;  I caught the 9:30 Club
and the Bender shows in Washington last year, and together they brought
the house down with "Summer Days".  Tonight's offering seemed watered
down by comparison, and was much shorter.  To his credit, Stu Kimball had
a couple of nice solos on "Honest With Me", "Highway 61", and "All Along
The Watchtower". I found Bob's vocals quite clear, I especially remember
the soulful renditions of "God Knows", "I Shall Be Released", "Lay, Lady,
Lay", and "Po' Boy", which he should sing more often.  Bob was also quite
nimble on his feet, after "High Water" he and Tony would converge at
center stage in front of  Recile and plan the next song, version, etc. 
He also shuffled, bobbed and weaved (no pun intended) on his way off the
stage before and after the encores;  he was obviously enjoying himself. 
Bob speak:  he repeated the toe/tow truck joke, this time, with Stu as
the butt.   He also had the requisite words for George, but I couldn't
make them out as Pig Pen redux was a-wailin' at the time.  What to do. 
All in all, a fine show.  This was my son's first Dylan show, and I was
glad to see that he and his friend were exposed to vintage Dylan as well
as the new stuff (Time Out Of Mind, Love and Theft)  

Wes Weaver

A beautifully clear, but chilly, evening in Binghamton.  I think a lot of
people (including me) were led to believe that the show started at 7 - -
said so on my ticket.  Doors opened at 7; Bob began at 8:20.  Looked like
a new building we were in.  To my untrained ear, the sound seemed good &
clear.  As usual, the guys looked sharp:  Bob in black suit & hat, with
sort of a gold shirt on.  Larry, Stu, & Tony in tan suits with black
shirts.  George put his jacket on only after Watchtower, I think.  So much
for the fashion report.

Won't go blow-by-blow through the songs.  Songs 2 & 3 (God Knows &
Released) made for a tremendous 1-2 punch following the opener Cove.  Bob
seemed fully absorbed in both songs.  The crowd responded loudest to Lay
Lady, Highway 61, Tangled &, of course, the standard encores (maybe one
day those 2 will change). 
 What I enjoyed a lot was Don't Believe You,  a sweet Po' Boy & a 
contemplative Not Dark Yet.  Summer Days is fun, but what I heard 2 years
ago in Elmira blows the doors off last night's version (I'm convinced the
arena that night in Elmira levitated).

All in all, I'd give Binghamton high marks.  Bob and the guys were engaged
the whole time to my eyes & ears.  Several nice harp solos from Bob.  Stu
can't be more than 6-7 feet from Bob, watching him intently.  Larry & Tony
hovered around George; only once did I see Larry move near center stage,
but briefly.  God bless those guys - - they are one hell of a unit.  When
Bob walked out from behind the keyboard, a lot of the time he seemed to be
on tip-toes.  Not unsteady, but not your normal gait.  Actually it was
kind of cute to watch him sashay.  He acted like he wanted to be in
Binghamton, NY, on a Sunday night in November.

Happy Thanksgiving, Bob, Larry, Stu, Tony & George.  Happy Thanksgiving to
all. 

Bob In Binghamton,Sun 11-14 04, There were still some piles of snow on
both sides of the ever growing line to get in, and it was colder in
Rochester the night before,I was told. Bob got things heated up right away
at around 8:17 and all us folks millin around up front were groovin to
Down along the cove. Larry and Stu layed it down and Bob looked and
sounded good in his sparsely sparkled Black Rockin suit and cowboy hat. It
didnt take long for him to be drippin sweat, the man works hard!! God
Knows was a thankful reminder to all us believers of what its all
about(especially on a Sun.) Bob sang it with conviction!! I shall be
released was ethereal, beautiful as the band  that has traveled from the
west down to the east this past lately.Then it was time to be reminded
that things have changed, and so did the sound as the sound people tweaked
something nicely and took the sound quality up a notch or two.Now it was
much easier to understand Bobs words for all listening.Tweedle dee/dum was
next, lotsa rhythm!! Lay lady Lay sounded great, Bob  sang  " whatever
colors you have in your mind " under  orange lights. It was very well
played even though in the end Bob started  accidently??repeating prior 
lines at the end , and ended it in an unusual way that had his vocal and
his band fade out simultaneously.He shuffled right over  to mid stage and
was laughing, perhaps about the ending of the song??They kicked right back
into an excellent I dont believe you, before a stellar Po Boy which  just
may have been the best tune of the night.Bobs voice was so clear and he 
made that song come to life. I think it was in this song that Bob just
picked up the harmonica so quick and nailed the right note so fast it was
lightning! Hwy 61 rocked and Not Dark Yet  was  more steller ness if not
song of the night.It is too close to call.Honest with me rocked more, and
Bob  pulled out three harmonica solos in Tangled up in Blue. Summer Days
was a bittersweet reminder  to rock out cause it would  soon  be back out
into a seemingly winter night. Rolling Stone and Watchtower do not ever
seem to fail. Thanks Bob!!!

After a slight, but charming debauch Saturday night in New York City --
the Neville Brothers, followed by Monte Alexander at a late night jazz
club -- I rented a car Sunday morning and drove to the lovely burg of
Johnson City, New York. Not Binghamton. god forbid. No, suburban
Binghamton. The place is liberally festooned with strip malls. It's where
Binghamton University, the former SUNY Binghamton, the former Harpur
College, is located. Dylan came on promptly at a while after 8 and
proceeded to play the worst show I've seen him do in ten years. But it was
still wonderful to see, and here's why.

I used to go see the Grateful Dead a lot, and they were a truly
improvisational band. Which meant, by definition, that sometimes things
just didn't work out up there. They were all very talented musicians,
dedicated to doing the best they could, and when it sucked, they'd try
anything to get it right. I've seen shows where they struggled and twisted
and turned for three-and-a-half hours trying to make something come out
right. It's a remarkably intimate and powerful gift to give your audience,
to let us see them exposed and vulnerable like that, letting the audience
in on every, excruciating moment of trying to make it come out right. I
learned more from and enjoyed some of those shows more than some of the
great shows I got to see.

That's what the Dylan show was like -- he's got a great band that's
established some very high standards lately, and he was trying just as
hard as they were to make it work -- and just like some of those Dead
shows, the only moment they truly got it together was a bittersweet ballad
at the end, "Not Dark Yet."

He gave each verse, each line, the full measure of his experience and
soul.

The man just broke my heart.