KARLSTAD 2003

LÖFBERGS LILA ARENA, KARLSTAD,

SWEDEN

1. To Be Alone With You

2. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

3. Cry A While

4. Desolation Row

5. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

6. Boots Of Spanish Leather

7. Things Have Changed

8. Highway 61 Revisited

9. Moonlight

10. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum

11. Every Grain Of Sand

12. Honest With Me

13. Mr. Tambourine Man

14. Summer Days

15. Cat's In The Well

16. Like A Rolling Stone

17. Forever Young

18. All Along The Watchtower

[As my wife and had decided to celebrate
my birthday in style this year, and planned
to spend a long October weekend in Sweden,
we thought that a nice country drive to
Karlstad and another Swedish show would be
a fine addition to the Stockholm concert.]

After seeing the show in Stockholm, we went
to Karlstad on the following day, seeing some
amazingly beautiful scenery on the way, with
a clear blue sky, and yellow leaves on the trees.
For the Karlstad show at another huge arena
we had tickets for the tiers this time,
tenth row up, but very much up front, overlooking
the first rows on the floor, with a perfect
binocular view over to the piano player and
lead singer of this finest band touring
Europe this year.

Not many song changes so far on this tour,
so many song arrangements were similar to the
concert in Stockholm. Whoever has the urge to
complain about stuff like this, should consider
that the vast majority of the audience (any
audience on any Dylan tour) will only see one
show of that particular tour. Bob Dylan does
not perform to please the high expectations of
those few people going to multiple shows. So
this tour might not be the best playground
for seeing eight or ten shows in a row, and
hearing 63 or 69 different songs, as my wife
and I did in 2002 and 2000, here in the
English speaking part of Europe.

So this Karlstad show lacked many surprises,
even more so for us than for most everybody
else in this arena, as from our vantage point
we could not only see with our binoculars Bob
very well at the far end of the stage, but also
at our side of the stage over the shoulder of
the bearded sound guy, actually right onto the
cue sheet on his mixing desk. So while Bob and
his band rocked through song number eight (H61),
I was writing down the complete set list, so
that for the remaining ten songs I did not have
to take any notes, the only addition on my paper
being two “H”, indicating the nice harmonica
during the rocking “Cat's In The Well” and
during the beautiful “Forever Young”.

The musicians on stage were as good as on the
previous night, and so I also enjoyed hearing
other songs for the second time, most of all
the new “Boots Of Spanish Leather”, and the
sublime “Every Grain Of Sand”, my favourite
of all Dylan songs. Even if he does not get
all the lyrics right in all the songs, this
voice of Bob Dylan remains the finest
instrument in music history.

Which brings me to the one big surprise for me
on that night, and to the early peak of the show,
“Desolation Row”. This simply was one brilliant
performance of that great song of his, with some
minor lyrical mistakes, but I did not care. This
version had many verses, I took some notes during
this stellar rendition.

1-selling postcards
2-cinderella
3-moon is almost hidden
4-dr filth
5-einstein disguised
6-(great guitar solo from Freddie Koella)
7-at midnight all the agents
8-(Freddie again on guitar)
9-[harp solo by bob]
10-received your letter
11-(one more fine Koella solo)

Anything can happen at a Bob Dylan concert.
That is one reason why I keep going. I read
today that “Highlands” was sound checked in
Karlstad. That would have been nice, as we
have seen the only European performance of
that song so far, in Glasgow, three years
ago. Well, we have four more shows to go to
in November, two in our native Germany, and
the other two in Ireland, from where I write
this review, 44 miles south east of Millstreet.
Surprises or not, I suppose we will not
be disappointed.



OCTOBER 12, 2003 LÖFBERGS LILA ARENA, KARLSTAD, SWEDEN 1. To Be Alone With You 2. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue 3. Cry A While 4. Desolation Row 5. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) 6. Boots Of Spanish Leather 7. Things Have Changed 8. Highway 61 Revisited 9. Moonlight 10. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum 11. Every Grain Of Sand 12. Honest With Me 13. Mr. Tambourine Man 14. Summer Days 15. Cat's In The Well 16. Like A Rolling Stone 17. Forever Young 18. All Along The Watchtower [As my wife and had decided to celebrate my birthday in style this year, and planned to spend a long October weekend in Sweden, we thought that a nice country drive to Karlstad and another Swedish show would be a fine addition to the Stockholm concert.] After seeing the show in Stockholm, we went to Karlstad on the following day, seeing some amazingly beautiful scenery on the way, with a clear blue sky, and yellow leaves on the trees. For the Karlstad show at another huge arena we had tickets for the tiers this time, tenth row up, but very much up front, overlooking the first rows on the floor, with a perfect binocular view over to the piano player and lead singer of this finest band touring Europe this year. Not many song changes so far on this tour, so many song arrangements were similar to the concert in Stockholm. Whoever has the urge to complain about stuff like this, should consider that the vast majority of the audience (any audience on any Dylan tour) will only see one show of that particular tour. Bob Dylan does not perform to please the high expectations of those few people going to multiple shows. So this tour might not be the best playground for seeing eight or ten shows in a row, and hearing 63 or 69 different songs, as my wife and I did in 2002 and 2000, here in the English speaking part of Europe. So this Karlstad show lacked many surprises, even more so for us than for most everybody else in this arena, as from our vantage point we could not only see with our binoculars Bob very well at the far end of the stage, but also at our side of the stage over the shoulder of the bearded sound guy, actually right onto the cue sheet on his mixing desk. So while Bob and his band rocked through song number eight (H61), I was writing down the complete set list, so that for the remaining ten songs I did not have to take any notes, the only addition on my paper being two “H”, indicating the nice harmonica during the rocking “Cat's In The Well” and during the beautiful “Forever Young”. The musicians on stage were as good as on the previous night, and so I also enjoyed hearing other songs for the second time, most of all the new “Boots Of Spanish Leather”, and the sublime “Every Grain Of Sand”, my favourite of all Dylan songs. Even if he does not get all the lyrics right in all the songs, this voice of Bob Dylan remains the finest instrument in music history. Which brings me to the one big surprise for me on that night, and to the early peak of the show, “Desolation Row”. This simply was one brilliant performance of that great song of his, with some minor lyrical mistakes, but I did not care. This version had many verses, I took some notes during this stellar rendition. 1-selling postcards 2-cinderella 3-moon is almost hidden 4-dr filth 5-einstein disguised 6-(great guitar solo from Freddie Koella) 7-at midnight all the agents 8-(Freddie again on guitar) 9-[harp solo by bob] 10-received your letter 11-(one more fine Koella solo) Anything can happen at a Bob Dylan concert. That is one reason why I keep going. I read today that “Highlands” was sound checked in Karlstad. That would have been nice, as we have seen the only European performance of that song so far, in Glasgow, three years ago. Well, we have four more shows to go to in November, two in our native Germany, and the other two in Ireland, from where I write this review, 44 miles south east of Millstreet. Surprises or not, I suppose we will not be disappointed.
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