Cardiff International Arena Cardiff, Wales June 27, 2006 "Can't Read” Productions Ltd. For HOT, Robert C, Marlon, Artur, Hanspeter, stavesacre, Luis, Roberto, Charles, Christine B (whom we all love), Minglewood, Espen, Peter W (who was there?), TS (has had his copy already), and to soomlos and all the good “always-enjoying-an-enjoyable-Dylan-conversation” friends I thought I’d pony up handing over this excellent recording from the taper better known as the “Can’t Read” taper; the very same responsible for, at least: 2005-10-26 Hanover, Germany 2005-11-26 Dublin, Ireland (and I think:) 2005-10-22 Aalborg, Denmark? There is one more to come… For those who had the pleasure of listening to the “Can’t Read” Dublin concert mentioned above, I take a guess you remember the quality of that one. This upload would be rated equal quality... "Can't Read” Productions Ltd. Taper’s comment: Trade it. Share it. Give it away, but never sell it. Don't convert to lossy formats. Lineage: Core Sound Binaurals on sun-glasses (pushed up in the curls) > SONY D7 (line in) -> hard drive via Prodif Plus Card -> Cool Eddie (individual mastering of each track) > CD-R Disc 1: 00. Announcement 01. Maggie’s Farm 02. She Belongs To Me 03. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum 04. Positively 4th Street 05. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again 06. Love Sick 07. Watching The River Flow 08. Ballad Of A Thin Man 09. Absolutely Sweet Marie Disc 2: 10. Girl Of The North Country 11. Cold Irons Bound 12. Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right 13. Summer Days 14. Like A Rolling Stone 15. (band intro) 15. All Along The Watchtower Concert # 1844 of The Never-Ending Tour Third concert of the 2006 Europe Summer Tour 2006 concert # 32 Concert # 115 with the 20th Never-Ending Tour Band: Bob Dylan (vocal & keyboard) Stu Kimball (guitar) Denny Freeman (guitar) Donnie Herron (violin, mandolin, pedal steel guitar) Tony Garnier (bass) George Receli (drums & percussion) 2, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12 Bob Dylan (harmonica) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 14 Donnie Herron (pedal steel guitar) 6 Donnie Herron (mandolin) 7, 8, 11, 15 Donnie Herron (lap steel guitar) 9 Donnie Herron (violin) * * * enjoy your Bobby Hobby * * * NOTE: Previous concerts in Cardiff, Wales: 11 May 1966 Sofia Gardens, Cardiff, Wales 27 March 1995 Cardiff International Centre Arena 3 October 1997 Cardiff International Centre Arena 23 September 2000 Cardiff International Centre Arena 6 May 2002 Cardiff International Centre Arena 18 June 2004 Cardiff International Centre Arena 3 new songs (20%) compared to previous concert 2 new songs for this tour Stereo audience recording, 105 minutes Review by Jerry Stone For a Dylan fanatic, being objective about a live performance can be a very real challenge. There are times when you want to pull the set-list apart because you are disappointed that your own favourite obscurity was not included (I swear, one day, Bob WILL play ‘Sign On The Cross’); at other times you just want to heap praise on the man for merely showing up. I’ve spent the duration of entire concerts having a battle in my head between these two positions. Last night, I was determined to enjoy myself in celebration of the man’s 65th year on earth and nigh-on 20 years of constant touring. Having said that, I’ll try and be as objective as any Dylan nut can be. This time around I turned up extra early and, after a very quick but large glass of wine in the bar opposite the CIA, I took my place in the queue at 2.45pm. The gig would not start until 7.30pm but I was already a few hundred places back from the door. Many of the usual suspects were around and you soon get to recognise the hard-core Boblings. Still, as I sat on the ground and got out by biography of William Blake, I was confident of getting somewhere near the rail when the doors finally opened at 6.30pm. ‘Time passes slowly’ indeed. Around 6.00pm there was movement around the main entrance as the stewards got in place but we still has to wait a further half an hour before we would be allowed into the overgrown cattle shed known as the CIA. As ever we were warned about not taking anything to drink, cameras, recording equipment etc. into the arena. We then had to rearrange ourselves into lines of males and females for the obligatory body search, so you then find that people who arrived some time after you somehow manage to get way ahead of you in the bloody queue! At this point I was beginning to wonder if it was worth the hassle. CIA stewards really know how to flex their ‘muscle’ and abuse their power. They were loving it. Finally, the doors opened and we scrambled in and you lose all sense of dignity in the process. To my dismay, once I was in the hall, there was already a very large scrum at the stage with many a grown man and woman pushing forward to gain best position. We should all know better. I managed to get about eight rows back and just to the right of centre, which was perfect for viewing His Bobness at his keyboard. For those who don’t know, Bob only plays keyboards on stage these days. Of course, Bob being Bob, these are very eccentric sounding keyboards (he seems to have them stuck on ‘Churchy Whine’ but I’m anticipating a switch to ‘Space’ or ‘Bells’ any day now!). For the next hour or so we were rammed together for the wait and the excitement was high. As ever, listening to the conversations going on nearby was hilarious and tragic in equal measure. ‘Yes, this must be my 100th Dylan show…’; ‘I’m seeing Roger Waters on Saturday…’; ‘I’ve come from Norway for this…’; ‘Mark Knopfler is great live…’; ‘ Does he still play harmonica?...’; ‘Hope he does ‘Hurricane’…’; ‘Oh, I must have at least six Dylan albums…’. Groan. At 7.30pm the first strains of Aaron Copeland was heard over the PA and we all cheered. Still, the orchestral intro came and went for a further ten minutes or so until, finally, we heard those thrilling words of introduction that preface every gig these days: "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the poet laureate of rock 'n' roll. The voice of the promise of the '60s counterculture. The guy who forced folk into bed with rock; who donned makeup in the '70s and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse; who emerged to find Jesus, and who suddenly shifted gears, releasing some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late '90s. Ladies and gentlemen, Columbia recording artist............. Bob Dylan!" The roar of excitement and expectation from the Cardiff mob was truly wonderful. Bob and the current band, with whom he’s been touring for about 18 months now, slip easily into a grooving, if predictable, ‘Maggie’s Farm’. The first thing I notice is that Bob is in good voice. For the uninitiated his latter-day vocal technique can be a bit of a shock but, as long as he avoids too much of what the Bobophiles have termed ‘up-singing’, his cracked chords can be a thing of rare beauty. Next we were treated to a lovely version of ‘She Belongs To Me’. As with many of the versions that he does of his 60’s classics these days, Dylan is able to use his age and vocal limitations to highlight extra nuances in the song. This song now oozes sadness and some regret. As ever, Bob played with the phrasing in his wicked way and then blew his first harmonica of the evening. Dylan’s harp playing is not always ‘on the button’ but when he finds the right tone it works wonderfully. Tonight he was on that button more often than off it. Naturally, every time he goes near a mouth harp he gets an enormous roar of nostalgic approval from the fans. He keeps a host of the things on a table behind his keyboard and wanders over during song intros to get the right one. On more than one occasion I have seen him pick up a harmonica that’s in the wrong key only to realise this when it’s too late and have to put the thing quickly aside. None of that tonight, though. During the third number I did find my mind wandering a little for the only time during the gig. Why he keeps playing ‘Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee’ so often is anyone’s guess. I’m sure it’s to wind up the Boblings. The song is fine and dandy on Love & Theft but is merely filler when played live. Still, we are then rewarded for our pain with a nice version of ‘Positively 4th Street’, which did include some quite odd keyboard from Bob but this didn’t really harm things too much. He sang the song with some conviction. ‘Stuck Inside Of Mobile (With The Memphis Blues Again’ has, perhaps oddly, never been one of my favourite songs and it does little for me in recent live performance but I seemed to be alone in this and the Blonde On Blonde nugget went down a storm. I had the feeling that Dylan got as a little bored with it though as I think he declined to sing all the verses. Or maybe that was just me. It’s always good to hear something from Time Out Of Mind and tonight we were treated to two gems. Album opener ‘Love Sick’, even with all its Victoria’s Secrets lingerie associations is still an atmospheric piece which tonight, whilst sticking closely to the album arrangement, was played with fresh conviction. Before we got to the other song from ‘TOOM’ we are witness to a jaunty ‘Watching the River Flow’, a touching ‘Girl From The North Country’ and a romp through ‘Absolutely Sweet Marie’. At the end of the latter Dylan’s face broke out into the most enormous grin. I reckon the band had screwed up somewhere but he was enjoying himself so much he didn’t care. A lovely sight to see. In fact, all evening Bob looked to be in a very sanguine frame of mind. The two absolute highlights of the main set were, for me, ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’, which, even though it has been performed many times over the years, was absolutely chilling and, even better, ‘Cold Irons Bound’. For ‘Thin Man’ Bob’s vocal was chock full of menace. You just know he still has a message for Mr. Jones. It was superbly sung. ‘Cold Irons Bound’ is sometimes considered to be one of the lesser tracks from his 1997 ‘comeback’ masterpiece, Time Out Of Mind but tonight the song was the centrepiece of the entire show. With a new arrangement that brought the song ever closer to the Mississippi Delta whilst, at one and the same time, managed to make it sound almost ‘post-punk’; this was Bob, as Robert Johnson would have put it, making the blues ‘walk like a man’. This was an utterly convincing and completely chilling performance. Unbelievable. Things were always going to ease up a little after this but ‘Don’t Think Twice’ was thoroughly enjoyable and had some nice harp moments. Also, at one point in the song, I swear Bob almost sounded like his 21 year old self; or maybe that was just my mind doing things to me. Whatever it was, it was lovely and included some nice guitar from Denny Freeman who played some excellent licks tonight. ‘Summer Days’ saw the main show out in rockabilly style before the demands for the inevitable encore began. Dylan has been encoring with ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ and ‘All Along The Watchtower’ for some time now with little variation. The former was just great fun and gave the audience their chance to bellow out the legendary chorus but ‘Watchtower’ was something else. As with ‘Thin Man’ and ‘Cold Irons Bound’, ‘All Along the Watchtower’ was compelling, full of blues menace, exhilarating and fresher than I have ever heard it in live performance. This is what Dylan can do. He takes a song that one and all should be over-familiar with and turn it around in one performance to such a degree that you feel like you are hearing it for the first time. I’d bet even he felt like that about it. At the end Bob and the boys, all grey suits and hats whilst Bob was donned all in black with black cowboy hat, did ‘the line-up’ where they just stand in line at stage-front and stare into the crowd without a single facial expression. Very, very cool indeed. Bob acknowledged the hysterical cheers by holding up a harmonica between thumb and forefinger. This is a good sign, so he obviously enjoyed it too. If you weren’t there, you missed a treat. This was Bob Dylan, contemporary artist. Jerry Stone Review by Graham Cole Great Ding-Ding I was greeted with "Are you watching the footy tonight?" when I got to school this morning, and with France playing (one of my subjects) it would have seemed reasonable to expect a "Yes!" answer. But, no, not this evening, for at about the time that Zinedine Zidane and his pals were taking to the field in Hanover, Bob Dylan came on stage for what was, at times, one of the best performances I have seen him play with his now excellent band of cowboy chums. But first things first, a Bob show these days isn't just the music, but all the wonderful people who are there, as at no other artist's gigs, to talk, make new friends, and just get very excited at the prospect of, well, nobody's quite sure, until it actually happens. People I spoke with were buzzing about Cork and Kilkenny, and I fell in five rows back with Chris from Warwick and the wonderful name of Hosanna from a narrow boat near Cambridge (and elsewhere). It was great talking to you folks, and a lovely prelude to what was to follow. They are still fanfaring the common man, something our Bob most definitely is not!, as the lights go down, but most of us tonight were happy to applaud over the "Columbia" bit as the band came on, dressed in light brown with black shirts (Tony G looking for all the world like a character out of The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada), and there at the keyboards was Bob, almost the new man in black with his suit and cowboy hat (just the red piping down the trouser legs to match the burgundy shirt and red tie). Then, with stage lights on, they were in to the familiar opener of Maggie's Farm. For me, along with the new organ sound from Bob, the most startling thing right from go was the outstandingly clear vocals, which, to my mind, were right up in the overall mix. My tired ears need all the help they can get these days and Bob and the soundmen gave virtually an entire evening of clear vocals (only Cold Irons Bound was a bit muddy to my hearing). Just as the opening song closed there was lovely little guitar trill to close it out, and give us a few seconds before an exquisite reading of She Belongs to Me. Before the show, Chris had commented to us how beautifully Dylan uses language (yes, cue the line from LARS!), and indeed this second 60s song gave ample evidence of this, again delivered so wonderfully clearly. Although later on, there came a set of four or five songs that made the evening for me, She Belongs to Me was worth the admission price alone, and I felt privileged to have heard such a gorgeous version of an old favourite. Not for the first time this evening, George's drumming lay at the heart of the band, driving them forward insistently, but oh so delicately where necessary. Bob, meanwhile, made such effective use of his harp, making it integral to the songs where he chose to play it. The organ effects make for a very different sound from that to which we may have become used over the past few tours, and it squeezed through on Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, which itself soon made way for a stunning arrangement of Positively 4th Street. Again the organ played a key part in the overall sound, with really strong chords alongside those fantastic vocals. There is, it seems to me, far more melody emerging in his voice presently, adding much to the gravely delivery that is so familiar these days. In addition, there is Bob's fascination with enunciating in such a careful and caring way - just listen to "if I was a master thief" from this song, and other lines such as "where - are - you - tonight - sweet - Marie?" when this concert emerges to our ears later on. Without a doubt, this was less rockier, quieter show (perhaps therefore much more to my liking) and the pedal steel work from Donnie, to the fore in many of the songs, showed up beautifully in a country treatment of Mobile, which even got three separate harp sections. From this, the brooding, almost menacing contrast of Love Sick started a sequence of songs which formed the core of the night's performance for me, and showed Bob on as good form as he has been for many months. Hearing this, and then into Watching the River Flow, Ballad of a Thin Man, Sweet Marie, through to Girl from the North Country, I just kept adding mental stars as highlights of the evening, and was beginning to wonder where would it all end! River was slinky, muddy (thinking of New Orleans post-Katrina??), whilst the Thin Man brought out such a tenderness in Bob's vocals and a lovely simple guitar solo from Denny, and North Country showed sweet interplay between the acoustic and electric guitars. I wrote down at this point that "this show just gets better and better"! It didn't go downhill after these five songs - a crowd-pleasing Don't Think Twice made sure of that - but the last three songs, Summer Days separated from the two customary encores, were more as expected, but certainly contributed much to the general enjoyment and excitement of the evening. And, of course, we tend to know that Watchtower heralds Bob's departure after lining up to our heartfelt applause and cheers, and although the lights stayed down for an agonisingly hopeful long time, that was it. Many of those there tonight move on to Bournemouth tomorrow, including Tony and his Dad from Glasgow (great to meet them!), and as his Dad said as we left the hall, "Can it get better?" Tomorrow night we shall see, but certainly tonight for me was one of the best Bob Dylan shows I have seen, for the people there, for the excitement, but above all just for sheer enjoyment, so thanks Bob yet again. Oh and France went through to the quarter finals! I wonder if Bob is watching the World Cup….??? Review by James Collins With no support band, the announcement that Bob would be on stage at 7.45 was great news to the fans. Tension was certainly mounting in the arena as we eagerly awaited his arrival. Lights go down and on come his band, in matching white suits, not a crease to be seen. Bob was dressed in black, with a read shirt and his hat. This was interesting as the band stood out and he didn't....so when the crowd finally realised he was on stage you could feel the ground rumble. Dylan's hat was tilted back slightly, his face in full view. Pure Magic. Maggie's Farm opened the set, with the new country style arrangement. This was fun because the song was not instantly recognisable, until Dylan began singing. I myself was expecting him to open with Maggie's Farm, and when the music started I felt he had decided to open the show with something else, how very wrong I was! A great opener! Dylan's whole feel, both in stage presence and appearance has a very country/western feel about it, and I feel that this works well. It can be loosely based on Dylan's change from acoustic to electric in the late 1960's...but without the booing! The strong and heavy use of the steel guitar added to this new feel, and just made the material sound very fresh and energetic. However, some might be dishearten by Dylan's changing of the character of a lot of his songs. They can, apart from the lyrics, sound nothing like what we are used to. I like this idea, but stronger fans of Dylan's older material might not take to this idea. Each to their own I suppose. Perhaps a few more harmonica solos might have been welcomed, but he did give us a few that blew us away. The set was very well organised, and with a good mix of singles, and newer material, it really felt as if Bob was certainly not going to leave the 'scene soon'. He was smiling, turning to the audience, and even had a little ‘dance' in a few places. It all amalgamated into a fresh and energetic stage presence that highlighted his professionalism. 13 songs later came the encore. Bob exited to stage left and the audience waited for around 4 minutes for his return. As Dylan and the band returned, he took his hat off for a few seconds and we all had a glimpse of that amazing hair! Not for long though, the hat went back on and the usually encore of Like A Rolling Stone, and All Along The Watchtower was well underway. LARS was very well performed, and closely resembled the original release. The show ended with the band pausing in formation on stage to take a bow, and Dylan stood there and waved his harmonica above his head at the audience, before the lights went off and we saw Dylan's silhouette disappear down the stage steps. The gig finished early at 9.30pm due to lack for support acts. A wonderful night, pure magic for any Bob Dylan fan. A clear 9/10. James Collins Comments by Alan Jones Just a few lines, I only live 2 miles from the Cardiff International Arena, so Bob tonight, he came on 7.50pm, the crowd were rowdy but the concert wasn’t sold out? Dylan’s new band seem tense, awkward, they watched Bob intensely the first few numbers, Dylan seems to hide behind the other members, he shies away from being the main man, the selection is a bit strange, most of the songs are turned inside out and upside down, it’s only the lyrics the crowd seem to latch onto within the first few bars, it’s mostly a pub rock band sometimes then it dips in to a country/bluegrass feel, some stunning versions of Girl From The North Country, Cold Irons Bound really digs in deep, the best of the night, a superb Love Sick, and a sing along version of Don’t Think Twice, so not a greatest hits package, but a very good concert, Bob did two encores and we’re all out by 9.30pm,yes I really enjoyed it, Bob introduced the band at the end, never said anything else, no acoustic guitars from Bob, but hey Bob’s back! For me it’s 7 out of ten. Cheers Alan Cardiff Comments by Roger Collings My observations of a slightly disappointed observer 1966 Cardiff, first electric tour, I was there and stayed for the whole show, and many times since, both good and bad. Therefore anticipation for a real blast last night was high. This did not happen for me and I had persuaded my son and his girlfriend to come along for their first time Reports of a strong singing voice returned are much exaggerated, I think he left it in the US. That said he played some fine harmonica and the band were mostly good throughout If Maggie’s' Farm is the standard opener is it not reasonable to expect it to be together from the first cord. It was ragged and for me it set the tone for the whole show, except for the encores which were excellent, being given a somewhat different treatment from last year. We always not know exactly what we will hear, but I think the current set list is now predictable. Please, Mr. D, you have so many wonderful songs that deserve a hearing. A good show which my youngsters said they enjoyed, but not the great one I had longed for. We travel in hope always Roger Collings Gloucestershire U.K. Comments by Colin Popplewell Ditto all the above comments, although I would say it was marginally better than good, but certainly not great. Too many times in the past have I been smirking by Bob's vocals but I did think that last night his vocals were good and finely blasted out by the pa system. The band was quite tight and rocking although the guy on stage left, next to Tony G, just never let his eyes leave Bob or the other guitarist on stage right - "...what will Bob want to do next..." comes to mind. Absolute highlight of the evening was a resounding Ballad Of A Thin Man - vocals were up front and almost as if it was Bob of years gone by; band were good too; expected a Man In A Long Black Coat to follow, it seemed natural. Positively 4th St was above average too, although I heard a guy behind me saying to his friend "...he's doing Rolling Stone early..", to which his friend said "..it's good though..." My only question is why has anything from the 70's and 80's fallen out of fashion with him? My only gripes of the concert were song selection (I know, we all our want own greatest hits package!), no hint of "sounding" out his new material and the fact he's playing keyboard centre, back stage - Bob, ditch the keyboard and get out to the front of centre stage please. Colin Popplewell Lydney South Gloucestershire Comments by Paul Denham I've been disappointed with Bob for the last couple of years. There was that dreary set at the Fleadh in June 2004 and a dismal night in the rain at Montauban in July. After Brixton in November 2005 I didn't have any desire to see Dylan again and I arrived without any great expectations. Perhaps it was me who was out of sorts. A visit to 'peca peca' for tapas and cocktails put us in the mood to make the best of it and Dylan has always done something good at Cardiff. "Maggie's Farm" didn't seem the most inspiring start but, hey, it was OK. And "She Belongs To Me" confirmed that Dylan was in great voice, better that for years, clear and precise and emphasising words in a meaningful way and not doing that irritating upshift at the end of lines. This could be good but, oh god, not "Tweedle Bloody Dum". I'll have to look at the words of this song again to see if I'm missing something but you wonder why he always includes it: my partner thinks it's for a bet. After that it just took off. A succession of songs delivered with some of the old magic. That ability to breathe life into lines that used to mean so much, the energy that inspired visions and states of ecstasy. Yes, it was a rockin' performance and we danced and sang. Of course it could have been better. Sometimes the band got a bit lost and the arrangement for "Girl from the North Country" wasn't quite right. The guitar plodded though "Cold Irons Bound" at first, but things got better. Bob could have given us an harmonica banquet in a glorious "Absolutely Sweet Marie" but he chose not to. Well, never mind, "Positively 4th Street", "Stuck inside of Mobile" and "Ballad of a Thin Man" justified the not inconsiderable ticket price. Here is a final thought. When he gets to "Summer Days" you know what is coming next: two encore songs and fuck off. I'm not complaining because LARS and AATW were delivered with considerable gusto and ending at 9.30 means you can get to the pub easily. It's just that Dylan has been presenting a series of themed radio programmes. Why not a concert dedicated to the colour blue: "Tom Thumb's..", "It's all over now..", "Blue Moon", "Tangled Up.."? You write the set list. Or mothers or weather or marriage or whatever? It would give us something to remember and set Bob a challenge to prevent him getting bored. Paul Denham