Expecting Rain

Man, September can't come sooooooon enuff' The natives are restless!!

Nothing like enthusiastic audiences. I think we should attenpt finding the best show by the amount of joyful noise they caused. Joyful, mind, not just noise.

Mr Goombay - if you wanna nominate from the titanic tour then start your own thread - RULE 1 applies here!

the lambchop show, where some peeps in the aud are giving bob a little bit of mouth and lampchop hollers bob they dont deserve you. then bob tells him not to worry that all things must pass.
ive been seeing bob live as far back as 74, saw him in 76 just about all the time but ill go with that lambchop classic show. sometime in the early 90s i beleive. that lambchop was the greatest bob expert of all times. he is sorely missed.

Let's keep this discussion civil and respectful of fellow posters please.

Charles is right. Let's all back it down. Me included.

1st Prague '95

Good call - a friend of mine was at that show.

it's a pity sheffield '66 isn't available to 99.99% of us in its entirety as that's my favourite show from my favourite tour, but really, come on, the consensus has to be manchester '66.

i've seen some terrific shows from the first half of the NET and heard some great shows too from this period, but as good as they are, they don't come close to '66 or the best shows of the RTR tours or for pure vocal delivery '79/early '80.

don't get me wrong, i'm easily pleased and like i've already said, i've been to some great NET shows, but to be truthful and honest, none of them are a patch on what's been before. they're not even fit to be a stitch on the patch of what's been before. that is simply because bob shows used to be the dogs bollocks.

whereas now they are simply a load of

Fort Worth '76.

A list of my favorite shows would look somewhat different from a list of shows I'd consider Bob's greatest.

Greatest? Manchester 1966, for sure. Then maybe Carnegie Hall 1963 or the 2 Forts from 1976. MSG 1975.

Warfield 1979, Toronto 1980. Town Hall 1963. Blackbushe 1978, Montreal and Waterbury 1975. Sheffield '66. All have some greatness in them.

For me--a singular NET show just doesn't achieve greatness. Not on its own, anyway (though that Prague show mentioned may be closest to being an exception). The NET is great--as a slew of performances united by a singular purpose. But one show, one night out of hundreds and hundreds of nights, almost in a row...part of the point seems to be to take the "greatness" out of it. But if pressed, and keeping within the rules!--I do love Berkeley 1995 and Ithaca 1999. I've listened to those 2 more than any others. But clearly there is too many to choose from to ever find a consensus.

Blackbushe '78.

How is that even possible?

Hm, could it perhaps be that the "greatness" of a show is a totally subjective thing? Nah...

Hey, tell me about - I live in 'Great' Britain, after all....

my vote to Fort Collins 76

I can't a single show on it's own, but the best tour is defiantly Rolling Thunder 75/76, greatest music ever created.

NOLA Jazz Festival, April 26, 2003.

Go directly to opening post of thread, do not pass GO, do not collect £200.

arthurprecarious would make an exception for me, I'm sure. He knows I'd never steer anyone wrong. And besides, to arbitrarily rule out the Bob's Greatest show automatically means we're talking about Bob's second greatest show... which admittedly would be a fascinatingly odd topic.

UP, I'll soon have to introduce JP post of the day awards, exclusively for you.

Sorry UP. No exceptions - Rule 2 applies across the thread. Perhaps you can take up the challenge of a thread on the greatest NET show. Bit pointless as we know it's the last night at Hammersmith 1990. Go with the 2nd greatest NET show eh?

Unsurprisingly, there seems to be a dearth of suggestions in this thread of concerts from what I consider the best Dylan era - ie. the acoustic folk years '61 to '65. In order to rectify this, I would politely suggest that one of the following acoustic shows (which are listed chronologically rather than in order of preference) is probably Dylan's "Greatest show":

November 4, 1961 - Carnegie Chapter Hall, New York City, New York

October, 1962 - Gaslight Café, New York City, New York

April 12, 1963 - Town Hall, New York City, New York

July 26 to 28, 1963 – Newport Folk Festival, Freebody Park, Newport, Rhode Island

July 24 to 26, 1964 – Newport Folk Festival, Freebody Park, Newport, Rhode Island

October 31, 1964 - Philharmonic Hall, New York City, New York

May 7, 1965 - Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England

I was born the day after it concluded. My mother was touched at the tribute.

If that is your criteria, you can't list anything EXCEPT Toads Place 1/12/90.
The place was ecstatic.

all that being said, the performances were mostly terrible!

Give me Montreal or Waterbury or MSG 75 or Fort Collins 76.