Bob Dylan 2002.04.08 in Copenhagen

Well, to describe the feelings after this concert, concider
the following scenario; you start by a tree at the end  end
of the rainbow, finding a bowl full of gold. Let's assume
you happen to love gold. Behind the next tree you find a
bowl full of diamonds. Let's assume you love diamonds even
more. Then concider repeating the process of you finding
treasures, one more valuable than the preceeding behind 18
more trees, corners or bushes.

To make it short, this was the killer concert, the best of
concert I've ever seen, including all previous Dylan
concerts. All the renditions of songs outclasses previous
renditions in my back catalogue. It was an evening of shear
astonishement. Could Bob and the band actually sound so
good? I didn't think so. Before this concert that is. From
the first strums on the mandolin in Halleluljah Ītill the
last chorus  of Blowin' in the wind, they nailed it (I
hereby concider Bob forgetting the opening words of "the
times" as part of that song). Bobs singing was as vivid as
possible, he used his voice to at least twice of it's
capacity. The fact that Bob was so focused and spot on all
the time left the rest of the band confident and playfull.
Made it possible for them to provoke new sides out of the
songs with their instruments. It was a special evening, and
to ackwnoledge (him knowing) this fact, after the last verse
had been sung, Bob did something I've never seen him do
before (not even in front of the Pope). Perhaps he never did
it before? He kneeled before his audience, hat off, one knee
on the ground, head bowed down. Then he left the stage.

Sometimes during the concert it felt like people in the
audience didn't really believe what they were hearing. Can
something really sound like this? Can even Bob sound like
this? The wild blazing guitar playing, the energy density,
the playfullness, the extreme of feelings, from good to bad,
from love to war. At one stage I was almost sure that Bob
and the band must have been collectively possesed! The major
part of the songs were better than the original versions,
including the songs from the new album (to say that "+4'th
street" and LARS was better than the original versions would
of course be like arguing that Jesus knows the Bible better
than god or something·). Solid rock competed with the most
sulfur scenting versions from the early 80's, "masters of
war" took us on a trip down the quarters of belsebub. Sugar
baby swayed from the new drum arrangement. During the first
part of the chorus in "Not fade away" Bob didn't even care
reshaping his mouth for the different words, he just opened
it and screamed, left for his fellow guitarplayers to
express the words, leaving his voice playing the part as
just another, though yet so exciting instrument, just as he
did on many of the other songs this evening.

During "Leopard skin" the audience rushed to the stage,
perfectly in sync with Bob and the band jamming along for a
couple of minutes in the bluesiest of fashions. You could
almost hear them telling the audience "come and get us if
you can!", waiting for the front of the stage to be crowded
before bursting into the next verse. The lights directed
towards the audience during asa Bob sang "How does it
feel?", really made it feel like it was adressed to those of
us who feel bewildered, who does not yet know what to make
of hour lifes in this age of bombing all from the church of
mammon to the holiest of places in the so called holy land.
Bob made his mind up since long in his choice of changing
the world, and if there is some ultimate justice in this
world I hope he will continue doing it till the day he drops
dead.

I fear I could say much more about this concert, but now I
will devote my time to finding a copy.

cheers!
mattias@quark.lu.se