BOB DYLAN : SUGAR BABY IN SANTA BARBARA

 

Disc One (69:14)

  1. Wait For The Light To Shine
  2. The Times They Are A-Changin'
  3. Desolation Row
  4. Searching For A Soldier's Grave
  5. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
  6. Positively 4th Street
  7. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
  8. Moonlight
  9. Masters Of War
  10. Girl Of The North Country
  11. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Disc Two (59:37)

  1. Summer Days
  2. Sugar Baby
  3. The Wicked Messenger
  4. To Be Alone With You
  5. Things Have Changed
  6. Like A Rolling Stone
  7. Forever Young
  8. Honest With Me
  9. Blowin' In The Wind

Label : Stringman Records

Venue : University Of California Santa Barbara, Events Center, Santa Barbara, California, USA

Recording Date : October 14, 2001

Quality : Audience recording (A+)

Concert Review (Boblinks) : With a full house getting antsy, Dylan and Co. hit the stage and launched into their current opener, Fred Rose’s “Wait for the Light to Shine.” Enthusiastic, the crowd paid little attention to Dylan’s battle with lyrics tonight – tripping early over the second verse of “Times They Are A-Changin ’” and missing the opening line of “Wicked Messenger.” There were a few miscues and some botched scales as well but Dylan’s presence was certainly there and his voice was as strong as ever. The addition of several “Love and Theft” tracks (“Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum,” “Summer Days,” “Moonlight,” “Honest with Me” and “Sugar Baby”) proved intriguing and although much of the young crowd was still clearly unfamiliar with the songs, they were receptive and cheered throughout. That is one of the things that is so wonderful about Dylan playing college towns extensively on this tour. The things that make so many of us Dylan aficionados go crazy, never even occurs to most of these kids coming to see the Legend. They are just blown away to be seeing someone responsible for so much amazing music. A blown cue and a missing line here and there doesn’t mean a whole lot in the context of seeing Bob Dylan in a basketball gym on your college campus. Following the encore of “Things Have Changed,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Forever Young,” “Honest with Me” and “Blowin’ in the Wind,” the crowd filed out, waving at Bob’s bus as it pulled out of the arena. While the show was certainly a middle-of-the-road Dylan performance (status quo set list and nothing terribly special in the performance…but still better than most shows playing today!), I have every hope that this is just the surface getting scratched as he rolls into the second and third nights of his Southern California stint (he plays UC San Diego Oct.17 and Staples Center in Los Angeles Oct. 19).