Screenshots
Artwork
Distance:
Audio:
Steadiness:
Heads:
Focus/Light:
Position:
Balc. R40°
Avg.Rating:
4.5 (20 votes)
DVDylan ID: D085.su
Recording type: Audience
City/Venue: Rodahal, Kerkrade, The Netherlands
Date: Sunday, 19th March 1995
"Dignity Been Digitized"

Never-Ending Tour Concert #648.
Excellent concert. Dylan, sans guitar most of the way, very animated throughout. Lots of harp, lots of dancing. Unique version of "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight."
Dylan apparently had a cold as he is heard coughing, seen blowing his nose, and, at one point, spitting on the stage.
  1. Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood)
  2. Lay Lady Lay
  3. All Along The Watchtower
  4. Just Like A Woman
  5. Tangled Up In Blue I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
  6. Mr. Tambourine Man
  7. Masters Of War
  8. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
  9. Dignity
  10. God Knows
  11. Maggie's Farm
  12. Like A Rolling Stone [camera off target final 1:37:00/still shots added to fill]
» Toggle additional (technical) track info
Number of discs: 1
Running time: 01:21
Video standard: NTSC
Authoring: DVDs with menu and chapters are circulating
Sound upgraded w/outstanding LB-1810.
D085>MPEG_Streamclip 1.8b2>iMovieHD>iDVD5.
Artwork exists for D085 that could also be used for this upgraded version.


The film-projector menu screens are always fun. Heads, distance, and camera shake have few problems. The camera goes off-track during Tambourine Man, and LRS had to be finished with stills from the concert, but the camerawork is otherwise consistent. Bob and John Jackson get most of the screen time, with Tony next, and the others hardly any. The hall seems to be a little smoky; that lends nice atmosphere to the visuals, but it also seems to have made it hard to focus precisely. The whole show is a little fuzzy-not distractingly so, but fuzzy.

The performance is wondrous. Bob sings 7 of the songs without a guitar, and he sings this night with such careful craftsmanship; one highlight leads to another, and another. And, harmonica on 5 of the first 7 songs! If it had better focus, I'd be asking for a number higher than 5 to rate this show. What a performance; what a performer.

Highlights:

Lay Lady Lay is evocative. He stretches out some syllables (“stay awhiiiiiile”) to emotional effect. The harmonica comes out again. It's nice, and fairly long-always a treat.

Bob on guitar for Watchtower in a fine version, with lead breaks that evoke the song’s mysteriousness. During the vocals the instruments are unusually subdued and softened, displaying the extra care Bob puts into the words on virtually every song in this show.

JLAW; Bob is clearly trying to communicate with the audience through the song. The song has some soft staccato phrases, and the drawn-out ending syllables during the last verse are moving. A night of special performances continues, and it’s only the 4th song.

I failed "Can you guess the song from the intro?" on Tangled. I thought that the set list must be wrong. Here come the opening words, and he's off on another sterling rendition. There's a rapid-fire vocal delivery while the instruments punch out a sparse tune. I think this song is consistently sung too fast, but this one works. On this night, he's not just trying to make it different, he's trying to make it better. The rhythm drives the song, and it’s fast-maybe even faster than usual. Frequently the fast pace makes for a flat song, but not this time.

Next, and harder on the guess-the-song game , comes I'll Be Your Baby Tonight. Rather than the lazy country song it was, it’s a somber, blues-ish performance. Not bad, but odd. It sounds like it was written for Time Out of Mind. (And the harmonica again- with 2 interludes this time).

Tambourine Man without Bob on guitar just seems wrong, but oh, I love this performance. It is movingly crafted, and marred only by the taper losing track of where the camera’s pointed for awhile. For me, it’s hard for modern performances of some of his oldest songs to improve on-or live up to-the quality of the original album or early concert versions. But this is a wistful, tender, thoughtful, and altogether superb version. The harmonica is lovely.

Masters Of War is another jewel. It sounds like he’s really addressing the masters of war, rather than singing to us about them. 2 nice mandolin breaks.

Don't Think Twice is another of those older songs which hasn’t sounded so good in updates. This fine, faithful rendition retains the regret and wounds of the original, yet has some of those creative phrases that we seek (why else own so many renditions of his catalog, if not for the unique flair, the new wrinkle he adds to the meaning of the song on this night compared to that night?). The Long lonesome road has those deft touches that can still thrill us.

Bob sings Dignity, a new song then, bending low from the very front of the stage, singing directly to the front rows. But it’s the first miss of the night due to poor articulation, especially early in the song and when his vocal was softer. Too bad; he seemed to put real effort into the vocal, and it could have been such a special thing.

This version of Maggie's Farm is particularly rhythm-driven, with nice, growling lead interludes. It's almost standard fun, but the luster of special performances is somehow on this one, too. I don't often enjoy Maggie's Farm anymore, but I like this one quite a bit.

The encore, Like A Rolling Stone, is another song this night which benefits from a slower pace. It begins quietly; rather than shouting at Miss Lonely, Bob seems to be having a conversation with her in the room, and that restraint continues until the second chorus, which turns up the heat a notch. The third chorus raises it even higher, and he's not talking politely to someone in the room anymore. Again, during the verses, he's coaxing more meaning out of the words with every specially-crafted phrase. The "never compromise with the mystery tramp" lines carry real meaning this night, as Bob and the band finish this great show with an encore that is by no means a "by-the-books" afterthought. A fine ending to a special night.

Reviewed by davidigor on 30th June 2006

This sound upgrade raises the rating of this audience recording to a '5' imho. Hence, this "review" is submitted in order to move D085.su up in the "Highlights" list and the un-upgraded disk (D085) has been lowered to a '4' in order to lower it a bit.

It really is a great show folks. Go for it!

Reviewed by yassou on 17th June 2006

» Read all 4 Reviews