"Does Anybody Play??"
A critical review from my Erfurt concert experience. | Spare Tickets Corner!
Before I jump into yesterday, I want to direct your attention to the first Royal Albert Hall show, for which there was a new bunch of pretty decent tickets “unlocked”. Check it out here if you’re interested!
Last night I finally attended my first Bob Dylan show of this fall tour, my first since Lyon 2023. And it was going to be a special concert.
Here are my thoughts on last night:
Pre-Show
I arrived in Erfurt at around 11 am, right away met up with two great friends from the Bob circus and one of them showed me around town, I’ve never before been to Erfurt in my life. I was really impressed by the town, beautiful corners and old town, and we also were quite lucky with the weather until the afternoon.
We then met up with some more Bobcats for a nice little gathering at the Augustiner, where I enjoyed some Sauerbraten.
Afterwards, when there was still some time left, we discovered that there is a exhibition of Bob Dylan paintings in a gallery in town which just started that day. It wasn’t far away so we went there and had a great time, with some great talks and the owner even asked Joe to play a tune, which the gallery is going to upload on their social medias.
After that, we slowly made our way to the venue.
The Concert
It was 4 minutes to 8 when the hall lights went out and the concert began. Bob and the band came out and started with a new arrangement of Watchtower. Great new arrangement, a weak vocal part by Bob unfortunately weakened the whole song for me. But surely great potential for future shows! Hope he keeps it as the opener.
After Watchtower there was less than a 3-second-break before “Go Away From My Window” rang through the hall. Bob had the same problems with his microphone stand during the first few songs that we had already heard about in Prague (3). He then took his mic out of the stand again and played the piano with one hand or put the microphone down in front of him so that he could play with both hands.
Maybe to make up for the (in my eyes) poor overall performance, he again (like in Prague 3 according to reviews) stepped aside the piano and pleased the crowed with some crooning-gestures from pretty much center stage.
When Bob was about a verse into Black Rider (maybe even a bit earlier), the riff from Masterpiece (Istanbul, Not Constantinople) was suddenly heard again, probably for 3-4 seconds. I don't know which of the guitarists played it.
At some point, when they were roughly 1/3 through the concert, Bob mumbled one of his “thank you”s and adding “Sorry ‘bout that”, which everybody can interpret on his own, but for me it sounded like an apologize for the whole performance so far.
Throughout the concert, Bob kept shaking his head, leaning annoyed on the piano, occasionally trying to give the band a new structure with the harmonica or at least give the songs little instrumental rays of hope. The further the show progressed, to more “annoyed” his harp playing sounded to me.
It’s true that he also had some fun moments with Jim Keltner or Tony. During “Black Rider” Bob turned around to Keltner (who was wearing sun glasses..) before singing the line “I’ll suffer in silence”, then turned back towards the crowd again and sang “Maybe I’ll take - the high moral ground… MAYBE!”
He also starting laughing when he began “To Be Alone With You”, then sat down and started again.
Towards the end of the concert (I’m not sure but I think it was during “Goodbye Jimmy Reed”, others remember that it was during “Every Grain of Sand”), Bob half turned to the band and, whilst in midst of a line, said annoyed and clearly audible “Does anybody play??”, which in my opinion summarizes the concert perfectly.
The report only reflects my personal impressions. Other visitors thought the concert was great, in some cases “one of the best of the RARW tour”.
I’ve sat front row center, slightly left facing the stage. So one might blame the venue’s sound at that position for some of my impressions.
This experience will not keep me from attending the other 12 Dylan-shows I've planned on this tour. I've seen great shows like Lyon 2023 or the London Palladium shows in 2022 and I'm sure such nights will be back soon!
Spare Tickets Corner
Antwerpen - Balcony; Section 239, Row 2; Seat 9 — 100€
London 1 (Nov. 12) - Choir East - Row 1 - Seat 13 - 86.40€
For the following, details as per request (all selling for face value or below):
Stuttgart - Frontrow Middle Block, 2 seats next to each other
Stuttgart - Row 9, Middle Block
Saarbrücken - Frontrow
Saarbrücken - Tribune left
Paris 1 - Row 3 Middle Block
Paris 2 - Row 9 Middle Block (2 seats next to each other)
Düsseldorf - Frontow (2 seats next to each other)
If you’re interested in any of them, just reply to this e-mail or click the button below. If both doesn’t work, you can also send an e-mail to my private mail dan-cre@hotmail.de.
Good to hear a 'warts and all' review. It;s the ups and downs that make live performance so thrilling. Otherwise, we could just sit at home and listen to the albums :)
Thank you for the impressions. I can relate to the description very well. It was also my first concert after Lyon 2023. It was impressive for me to see how ambitious he was about the ensemble's performance. Despite certain problems, there were many fantastic moments. "To be alone with you" and "Desolation Row" stood out for me. The band and singer found a dreamlike flow. The singing with the microphone in his hand, without simultaneous piano accompaniment, was particularly intense. I especially enjoyed it when he performed standing next to the piano and underlined the singing with small gestures. I'm excited to see how the tour will evolve.