Tour of 2008 starts strongly with trio of Dallas gigs

Bob Dylan’s 2008 tour started strongly with a three-night residency at the House Of Blues, in Dallas, Texas, a relatively small gig holding around 1,600. It acted as a warm-up for a five-country swing through Latin America, starting tomorrow in Mexico City.

Both the setlists and the band line-up suggest that the 2008 gigs will be a straight run-on from the format that proved so popular last year. Why change when you’re winning?

The three Dallas setlists – an ever-changing mixture of classic repertoire anchored around tunes from the current album, Modern Times – continued the pattern of introducing new tunes every night, thus reinforcing the addiction of habitual attenders.

In three Dallas nights, Dylan played a remarkable total of 35 different songs. Favourites I’d love to have heard included Girl Of The North Country, Positively 4th Street and Mississippi.

Whatever Dylan plays, of course, someone is bound to want to hear something else. Thanks to Martin Cowan for this note:

“Nice to see Bob on the road again and an interesting set list from the first two shows. My only comment is that while it's nice to see an abundance of recent songs in the sets it's a shame that he is almost completely ignoring 70s and 80s songs. A show with representatives from all decades would be good to see.”

Last night’s Stockholm gig, opening the Euro 2007 tour

Bob Dylan opened his six-week Euro 2007 tour last night in the smallest venue on the list, the tiny Debaser Medis in Stockholm.

The setlist was a mix from across Dylan’s songbook – mainly 1960s classics, but one or two songs from each of the last three albums - Not Dark Yet, Summer Days, Thunder On The Mountain, and Rolling And Tumbling. Drawing the set from 12 different albums, Dylan again – almost effortlessly - demonstrated the depth of his back catalogue.

Highlights: Tears Of Rage, Ramona, Thunder On The Mountain.
The traditional encore trilogy was refreshed by Thunder On The Mountain.

Dylan switched between guitar and keyboard.


Setlist:

Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
Not Dark Yet
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
It's All Right, Ma
Tears Of Rage
Lay Lady Lay
Highway 61 Revisited
Rolling And Tumbling
Country Pie
Tangled Up In Blue
To Ramona
Hard Rain
Summer Days
Like A Rolling Stone
Thunder On The Mountain
All Along The Watchtower”

The Dylan Daily would welcome YOUR gig review – please email tour@dylandaily.com after the show.



Gerry Smith

Extra Stockholm date - in tiny venue - starts Euro tour a day early

Dylan will play an extra date in Stockholm to start the European tour next week – Tuesday 27 March - at Debaser Medis.

The good news? It’s a tiny venue. The bad news? Booking started Wednesday morning.

www.ema.se/artister/ema/bobdylan/bobdylan.htm

(This item was translated - by me, a non-Swedish speaker - from Swedish. Readers should double check before making any plans based on this Dylan Daily story).



Gerry Smith