I hadn't actually planned to see Dylan in Berlin. In August, however, I didn't want to miss out on the unexpected opportunity to get a great front row ticket for the third Berlin show and therefore added a short Berlin trip to my tour plan, which was a little more extensive this time anyway. As the third Berlin show was also on a Saturday, it generally worked out well.
Berlin 3 was my second show of this fall tour after Erfurt and the first of seven in a row for me. I have written about my thoughts on the Erfurt concert here.
Of course, I had hoped for an improvement in the performance and an overall better dynamic in Berlin and had also read some fan reviews of Berlin 1 and 2.
Berlin 1 sounded to me like a logical follow-up of the Erfurt show and Berlin 2 was supposed to have been an all-round successful concert experience.
Berlin 3 thus became a bit of a first “key concert” in my mind: Either the level of Berlin 2 is maintained and the band and Bob have “found each other” for the rest of the tour, or it will be another show with lots of disagreements between a frustrated Bob and the band.
A strange stream of thoughts when you consider that I've never had to worry about this in previous years. Every Rough & Rowdy Ways show was at least good, often breathtakingly good. But the absence of Donnie Herron and a Jim Keltner on drums who does not yet seemed to be perfectly integrated musically, it seems to be harder than expected for Bob to return to his pre-outlaw-tour-RARW-level.
After all, Berlin 3 should get its own special place in this Dylan concert history of mine.
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