New York, Irving Plaza (08-Dec-97)

D120.su was one of the first sound upgrades I saw, and I watched it many times. Back in those days when I first found DVDylan I had a lot more time on my hands to watch videos.

Found a few moments tonight to revisit part of the show via this new release from Yassou, Tom P, and Raygunner: The Tinker to Evers to Chance of Bob Dylan DVD production. WOW, so glad I did!

Yass commented that he was a bit reluctant to put the work in on this one: D120.su is so highly rated, why try to improve it? Well, I am certainly glad he did. Video is noticeably sharper here, probably due to the authors choice to spread the show over 2 DVDs. Excellent work, I love it when it's easy to forget that they audio and video weren't always married. I guess the bottom line is that if you already have this show on D120.su maybe it doesn't need to be a top priority to upgrade to D120.su2, however if you don't have this show on DVD yet I would definitely recommend going for this version.

As for performance and setlist choices, well, I ain't no monkey but I know what I like. 1997 was a great year for the Bob.

I feel so lucky that the tapers and filmers sacrificed their nights to capture this show, among the hundreds others that we have at our fingertips.

Thanks to Vygi for making DVDylan happen and keep on happening, and thanks to everyone who contributes to this little corner of interweb heaven.

NB: If you already have D120.su, you might wish to stand pat as it's quite good. This project was taken on because a Hi8 tape was released that seemed to be a lower generation source.

BOB DYLAN
"White Dove Will Mourn"
Irving Plaza
New York, New York, USA
December 8, 1997
DVDylan ID #120.su2

PERFORMANCE/HIGHLIGHTS/SPECIAL MOMENTS:
-Great cover of "White Dove"
-Bob's thank you after band intros to Joan Osborne (see Expecting Rain joke quoted by
HALBERT http://expectingrain.com/jokes.html
_Dylan wishes someone "Happy Birthday" before 1st encore

Differences from D120.su:
-sourced from master or 1st gen Hi8tape
-divided into 2 discs for higher bitrate and best resolution

DASH-F RATING ON 15-POINT SCALE
13/14/15 (A-/A/A+)
10/11/12 (B-/B/B+)
07/08/09 (C-/C/C+)
04/05/06 (D-/D/D+)
01/02/03 (E-/E/E+)

DISTANCE/POSITION: 12 (Left balcony 40˙)
AUDIO: 15
STEADINESS: 13
HEADS/OBSTRUCTIONS: 13
FOCUS: 14

AVERAGE QUALITY = 13.5 (A) (excludes Distance/Position)
PROS: Great video and audio quality; great performance and setlist; focus primarily on Dylan and Garnier; enthusiastic audience; Dylan in very good mood
CONS: Not enough shows like this one.

DISTANCE/POSITION: 12 (Left balcony 40˙) Mostly knees up on Dylan; effective panning and zooming, but infrequent glimpses of Kemper.

AUDIO: 15 (Stellar "White Dove" bootleg)

STEADINESS: 13 (occasional unsteadiness to avoid obstructions, most notably at start of "To Ramona")

HEADS/OBSTRUCTIONS: 13 (A few obstructions on filmer's left; right side must have been obstructed because filmer didn't often go there)

FOCUS/COLOR/LIGHT/RESOLUTION: 14 (quite good - source tape was master or 1st gen)

EDITING: A few frames added before some songs to maintain a/v sync; filled gap in upgrade audio after band intros w/audio from video soundtrack; filled cut in "Don't Think Twice" w/still; start of "Rainy Day Women" obstructed/added still; did not cut encore breaks since camera was steady and crowd anticipation lends flavor to the show.

VIDEO SOURCE & LINEAGE:
Hi8 tape (from master or 1st gen tape)
Taper: unidentified
Shared by Tom P. & raygun.
Hi8 tape > Sony Super Hi8 handycam > iMovie 6.0.3

AUDIO SOURCE & LINEAGE:
White Dove bootleg
LB-2102
Taper: Unidentified
Trade discs shared by ???
Excellent sound: A+
Lineage: CDs > flac > Toast Titanium 11.0.4 > SD II disk images > iMovie 6.0.3.