Atlanta, GA (16-Aug-89)

D385.su LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES #2

Atlanta, Georgia – it's a balmy night in the Summer of 1989 and we're at a concert that Bob and his team have surely long since forgotten. He's done it so many times, after all, in so many places. I wonder just how much of it does stick for long in his mind? No more, I suppose, than your average work day with you, or mine with me. And 19 years... But, thanks to the efforts of two very enterprising tapers – one video, one audio – and an author who's taken the trouble to marry their two hauls skilfully together, go back we can, to recall a late-eighties August eve otherwise gone forever. Be grateful, then, for these dedicated masters of illusion and ministers of the trade, these rebels and rakes moved to do their selfless thing on behalf of us all.

The show starts unusually with Trouble, performed seven times this year but never before (even though released in 1981) or since, followed by a very rare electric Trail Of The Buffalo (Den Haag, June '89, the only other) then a welcome NET debut for Queen Jane. So what gives? Are these Georgians just lucky? What gives is that this is the second gig of two (see D507 for the other) at this venue on consecutive nights. Crowd #1 enjoyed a 17-song set and you might expect the meat of it, at least, to be served up again for #2 - but not so. Rather, the first dozen numbers on night two were non-repeats, every one, and you can't help but feel that old favourites LARS and Watchtower were reprised in the home stretch only because Bob (or someone) believed the punters, returnees or not, would want them to be there. In all, 32 songs and only two repeats. More remarkable yet, in November he was back in town again, this time with a 19-song set (D508 has some of it) including 13 more non-repeats (a total helped by the September release of Oh Mercy) making 43 different songs performed in three shows - tremendous artistic prodigality. What a pity it's less evident nowadays. (Though not gone altogether - for example, most recent back-to backs as I write were Sao Paulo, 5 and 6 March 2008, when audience #2 heard eight songs also played to #1 but nine others that were not.)

To Atlanta, then, 16 August '89. In D385 (see review), featuring decent footage of a committed performance, this show was available to us already. But that DVD was scuppered by a medium-poor off-camera audio track and its replacement here works wonders, like a long-overdue fresh coat of paint, bringing sparkle (LMZ) and lustre (NC Girl) where before was only tarnish and grime. Colours this time around (see screenshots) are more muted – so much the better. Trouble and Me Babe both survive video vicissitudes intact with everything else more or less capably filmed, especially given the omnipresent threat of heads. As for stage-business, set neighbours Queen Jane and JLAW both feature long improvised endings, Bob leading, GE following, reluctant but game, with D either unable or unwilling to conclude his song cleanly at its rightful time. But from tasty harp intro to tricksy end, Queen Jane is still ripe with promise, JLAW, up-beat and solid, is especially well-filmed, Pontchartrain's a diamond-bright delight and Rolling Stone trucking funtime. Esdr described Den Haag's electric Buffalo (see D545.su) as nice in a relaxed, cowboyish way. This only other, in contrast, is a tuneless canter, breezy but bland, its subsequent abandonment in favour of a more traditional acoustic treatment (see D645.su and others) no loss.

If you're awake, like Hardy, to life's little ironies, you'll enjoy Bob yowling about Trouble even as the harassed videotaper experiences it to the max. You'll smile to see D's image shimmy giddily in and out of focus as the artist sings, seemingly direct to the lens, It ain't me you're looking for. You'll grin on culling from a performance full-blooded enough to put the lie to their meaning even as they're sung the words No reason to get excited. Ooh yes indeed - till Daddy take the T'bird away.

RUNNING TIME (1) 55:52 (2) 31:25 including repair to Me Babe (clipped on D385) for a complete show.
DAKUJEM Viner Joz, author HW, both tapers.
STARS Worthy work bears toothsome fruit. A well-earned four.