BOB DYLAN : PHILADELPHIA 2006

 

Disc One (53:34)

  1. The Levee's Gonna Break
  2. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
  3. High Water (For Charley Patton)
  4. To Ramona
  5. Rollin' And Tumblin'
  6. Desolation Row
  7. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
  8. Ballad Of Hollis Brown

Disc Two (57:15)

  1. Highway 61 Revisited
  2. Spirit On The Water
  3. Tangled Up In Blue
  4. Nettie Moore
  5. Summer Days
  6. Thunder On The Mountain
  7. Like A Rolling Stone
  8. All Along The Watchtower

Label : no label

Venue : Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Recording Date : November 18, 2006

Quality : Audience Recording (A+)

Concert Review (Boblinks) : Amazing show Saturday night. This is the first time I have seen Dylan with this band lineup. Although this group does not quite match the aural punch and all out rocking of the Campbell/Sexton/Garnier/Kemper lineup, this is a great band with a sweet sound that is full of modalities and subtleties. It is a more "mellow" Dylan that we get now, in keeping with the new album, but I think that's just right. The way this group plays allows Dylan's time- and road-weathered voice to be heard: and on this night it sure was. Except for a few songs where it seemed a bit lost in the mix ("Most likely.", and some of "Rollin' and Tumblin' "), his voice was clear as a bell and full of emotion. He poured his heart into every song and it was very moving. For me there is always one song at every Dylan concert that is just about perfect and afterwards marks that concert in my memory. This time around there were at least three: first was the opening "The Levee's Gonna Break", where Bob and the band came out with all guns blazing: I knew it was going to be a special night. There was also the chilling and haunting version of "Hollis Brown", the best I have heard him do, with each word enunciated and clear: you could almost hear the cold coyote's call echoing through the bare concrete of the Spectrum. Then came the stunningly beautiful "Nettie Moore" which, after hearing "Spirit on the Water", I thought we were not going to get. It was, note for note and word for word, a marvel, and made my night. It should serve as an example to any touring band on how to get a song across. As Dylan continues to tour through his sixties, one thing is becoming very clear to me: he will continue to find a way to play his music live and make it work. As we probably all have, I had started to think "Man, his voice is really going, how's he going to keep pulling this off?". Well, Saturday evening he gave me the answer. Dylan has always surrounded himself with superior musicians, both in the studio and on stage. Now that his voice - and maybe even his guitar hands - have lost a few steps to time, that unerring instinct becomes even more important. On Saturday he showed me that he still knows exactly what to do and who to bring along in order to get his songs out loud and clear. Bob, to quote another great stage performer who you admire, "long may you run".