No Rating

Welcome to Montreal Bob, bienvenu a Montreal.

According to my calculations, with the help of Olaf Bjouner's extensive chronicles, this was the band's 405th show. Tony Garnier 1st on the seniority list, with 2026 shows under his belt. George Receli, 705. Stu Kimbal 483, Denny Freeman and Donnie Herron 405. This was Bob's 2104th show since the so called never ending tour began.

This was my 12th Bob show! Bob has been good to city of Montreal the last 3 years, playing 3 show in that span, the city where I was born and raised. Welcome back to Montreal Bob, hope you enjoyed your day off on the 17th spent that day touring this great sexy city.

On with the show:

I'd say it was an average show, with a few songs (below) that covered the price of admission.

The highlights were; Lay Lady Lay surprisingly, Lonesome day blues, Spirit on the water, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum, This Wheel's on Fire, and Ain't Talkin'.

The average songs; The Levee's Gonna Break, John Brown, Stuck inside of mobile with the memphis blues again, Highway 61, Masters of war, and Like a rolling stone that finally got everyone standing up. On with that later...

The songs that were awful, and I really mean awful, meaning that they should be retired if Bob Dylan and his Band can't find alternate versions were; Cat's in the well, Just like a woman, Summer days, (I loved this song live when Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton were in the band from June 1999 to the end of 2002, man I miss that band), Thunder On the Mounain, which sounded like amateurs in a garage band was playing it for the 2nd time together! All along the watchtower, should be put to rest forever.

The local english newspaper, "The Gazette" listed 6400 in attendance while the french local newspaper, "La Presse" listed 6604 in attendance. Those reviews can be read at the following links, given you can read English and/or French:

The Montreal Gazette review, English:
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=aaa09315-7...

La Presse review, French:
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/arts/spectacles/musique/200811/19/01-802110-bo...

Le Devoir review, French:
http://www.ledevoir.com/2008/11/19/217117.html

Now, I don't understand people sitting down at a rocking concert! The show was played at the Bell centre yesterday, yes it was an arena not a library. Well, sit down if you want, but please don't bother the people standing up! If you don't like to stand you have three options; SIT DOWN AND SHUT THE YOU KNOW WHAT UP, or, don't get floor seats, or just stay at home and listen to cd's, I suggest live ones or live bootlegs or even better yet a WATCH A DVD! That way, your not limited to just sitting down, you can lie down on the couch, kneel, hell you can even put a tv in your bathroom and watch the performance sitting on the can.

Notes: If Bob or anyone in his entourage reads this, they should really consider lifting the ban on taking photo's at his shows. If they want to have a ban for the media that's fine. I personally don't care if I can snap photos at a concert, but many people do and there is no stopping them, especially in this day and age with cellphones with built in cameras, videos and small digital cameras. Bob's camp should stop this dictatorship and allow fans to take pictures. Why? Because I hate being distracted by security and ushers chasing people to tell them that the can't snap shots. Not only is it a distraction but it keeps that staff from doing it's job in case there is an emergency, instead they are busy parenting the people in the audience.

Daniel
Montreal