Verona, NY (20-Apr-05)

Amazing!
Opened with a nice different 2005 version of The Wicked Messenger
The the new violinist, Elana is throughout the whole show and adds a very nice touch to all the songs.
Also during the show theres only two newish songs, Man In The Long Black Coat (1989) and Cat's In The Well (1990) and all the rest are 1967 or years below.
Just Like A Woman and Desolation Row are beautiful!
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues is also exelent
Overall, one of my fave dvds!

DISC D559.su
SOUND Full and fine
IMAGE After starting to shoot from a right balcony position he quickly realises won't do, tonight's taper relocates to a left-of-centre spot that‘s much better. Unfortunately, by the time he's settled enough to start catching some decent footage, we're six minutes down the track, the Wicked Messenger has come and gone and we're well into She Belongs To Me. However... If you've ever watched D236.su, you might remember it begins in equally unpromising style before blossoming into a five-star stunner, and - praise be! - D559.su does just the same. From this point through to the end of LARS (main set closer), the film we see is assured, wholly head-free and 95% steady (bit of dither at the start of Black Coat). There's plenty of zoom and regular panning that tries, not always successfully, to follow the lead as it moves round the band. An occasional slightly cock-eyed passage (otherwise known as napbon's grandad - see D195.2) spoils nothing. And though there's not always too much light, the pictures are never as excessively dark as the screenshots (take a look) would have you believe. All in all, a thoroughly satisfying effort.

The taper, though, clearly thought he could do better, so, with the band off between main set and encore, he moves again, this time to the extreme right of the balcony, presumably to get a more direct line into Bob. And during Tom Thumb, face-on is the view we see. However, as soon as the folk in front of him stand to dance during the closing Watchtower, his view becomes partial then finally lost altogether and we finish on black screen plus audio only. Just the same, our man (?) in Verona did a splendid night's work, and deserves the thanks of us all.
RUNNING TIME 100 minutes including 3:40 dead screen between LARS and Tom Thumb. All songs complete.
PERFORMANCE After touring for eight years (1997-2004) with a band member (and latterly two) who could add colour and texture to selected songs with a turn on the violin, Bob kicked off 2005 with - for the first time since Scarlet Rivera back in RTR days, or, arguably, David Mansfield in 1978 - a full-time rather than bit-part fiddle player. (Actually, according to tonight's intros, what Elana plays is fiddle and bow.) This experiment, if that's what it was, ran just 30 shows before she was on her way. On the evidence of this, her 29th, the only surprise is that she stuck it so long. For, though on stage the whole time - indeed, planted four-square before the drums in her best party frock, seeming less on it than to own it - and though embellishing certain cuts (JLAW, Des Row, Nowhere) with deft fills and variations, through part or all of others (most notably CIB) she flounders, lost, redundant, bowing gamely but contributing nothing, and you can't help but feel in these moments that this is a seven man band with one too many members. Even more telling, in the three numbers (Bleeding, Cat's In The Well, Tom Thumb) in which we're treated to duelling fiddles - i.e. to her and Donnie going head to head - it's Donnie, with effortless homeboy swagger, who plays her off the stage each time. How Can a Poor Girl Stand Such Times and Live?
HIGHLIGHTS From She Belongs through to Tom Thumb, more or less fine performances come thick and fast. Having said that, one of them - a glorious, slow flamenco, nine-verse, near 13 minute Desolation Row - stands supreme. A shoe-in for TTYL4 (V, make a note). Ooh yes!
THANKS Bookman
STARS This DVD is lots of fun. The full five.