BOB DYLAN : BRUSSELS 2007

 

Disc One (65:44)

  1. Intro
  2. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
  3. It ain't me, Babe
  4. Just like Tom Thumb's blues
  5. it's alright, ma (I'm only bleeding)
  6. when the deal goes down
  7. stuck inside of mobile with the memphis blues again
  8. this wheel's on fire
  9. Rollin' and tumblin'
  10. boots of spanish leather
  11. highway 61 revisited

Disc Two (53:29)

  1. spirit on the water
  2. desolation row
  3. nettie moore
  4. summer days
  5. like a rolling stone
  6. audience
  7. thunder on the mountain
  8. band introductions
  9. all along the watchtower

Label : no label

Venue : Forest National, Brussels, Belgium

Recording Date : April 6th, 2007

Quality : Audience recording (A+)

Review : Excellent recording of a most inspiring concert at the Forest National temple in Brussels.

Concert review (Boblinks) : Forest National is a delightful venue located in a suburban shopping precinct next to the supermarket car park. Round the corner is friendly row of cafes playing Dylan; perhaps I even sensed revolution in the air. The stewarding was light and the staff actually seemed concerned that we had a good time. The only irritation was 50 cents charge to have a pee. Nevertheless, without any trouble we were soon embedded, with drinks, amongst polite middle aged European fans within country pie throwing distance of the stage. Dylan's sets have become so formulaic that my partner and I were competing to see who could best predict the list. One point for each song played and two points for the right order. She won with 14 points and it would have been a lot more if Dylan hadn't caught us out by playing 17 songs rather than the 16 usual in Scandinavia. After several false Aaron Copeland starts and that Coumbia Recording Artist guff, the band were there with Garnier and Recile in pimp mode and the rest looking like US Treasury agents circa 1960. Except for Dylan, in a kind of Mexican black suit with a stripe down the trousers and an open necked white shirt. And a white hat with a flat brim. It's the kind of hat that is worn in westerns by crooked gamblers and slimy lawyers. It left me with the feeling that he'd become one of the ranchers who has it in for Billy the Kid. So, what was good, bad and indifferent? Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum is a rubbish song, even when it's sung well as it was here. "Throw me somethin' Mister please", as Tweedle-dee Dee might have put it. And he did! It Ain't Me, Babe and Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues were solid gems, and you could almost sing along to Bob's phrasing. Stuck inside of Mobile was a rocking number and it was grand to hear that cascading riff again. Then an harmonica introduction to This Wheel's on Fire that managed to send a shiver across one's back. His harmonica playing was consistently good throughout the night. Later he seemed to flirt with a harp intro to Girl from the North Country that turned into Boots of Spanish Leather. He sang that song with something approaching passion but oh, no Bob, that electric organ break towards the end was embarrassing pub standard doodling. And Mr Herron's simplistic melody on electric mandolin was just an irritating frill to a pretty good Desolation Row. There were songs that kind of worked, like Highway 61 which was lively but there was no magic about the crescendo and you can't help thinking have you come to this, Bob, churning out the same stuff every night? By the end, his crisp annunciation had fractured and he was doing that thing were his voice goes up at the end of lines. During the first part of the concert Dylan was leading things and driving from the front, but as the night went on he retreated behind the organ and seemed to rest more on the band. In a couple of numbers, notably It's Alright, Ma, they created a kind of wall of sound that ought to have been atmospheric but just seemed to go on a bit. Earlier in the day I was watching a big bulldozer pushing sand around a beach and this seemed like a similar demonstration of power and dullness. All Along the Watchtower wasn't John Wesley Hardin or Jimi Hendrix: it was a bit of a mess. And in Like a Rolling Stone Mr Freeman's solo sounded in the wrong key. There were five songs from Modern Times, and I don't think songs like Spirit in the Water lend themselves to the big arena setting. I see Dylan in a blazer, cravat and straw boater, having regrown that rather creepy moustache, leading his band through these numbers at the end of a pier somewhere while people eat cream cakes. On the night, I didn't care less who killed Nettie Moore but the crowd continued to applaud so obviously somebody likes it. The same ones, I suppose, who like Summer Days which I imagine will still be in the set list next time we see Bob.