Bob Dylan
Sun Theater
Anaheim, CA
March 10, 2000
Early Show
01. Roving Gambler
02. Tomorrow Is A Long Time
03. It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding
04. Tangled Up In Blue
05. This World Can’t Stand
06. Dignity
07. Tell Me That It Isn’t True
08. Things Have Changed
09. Not Dark Yet
10. Highway 61 Revisited
11. Love Sick
12. Not Fade Away
13. Blowin’ In The Wind
Late Show
01 I Am The Man, Thomas
02 My Back Pages
03 Desolation Row
04 Mama, You Been On My Mind
05 This World Can’t Stand Long
06 Dignity
07 Country Pie
08 We Better Talk This Over
09 Things Have Changed
10 Not Dark Yet
11 Highway 61 Revisited
12 Ballad Of A Thin Man
13 Not Fade Away
14 It Ain’t Me, Babe
15 Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Charlie Sexton (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
Tony Garnier (bass)
David Kemper (drums & percussion)
Originally posted on my Substack
The Midnight Cafe’s Review:
I can’t remember when I first started listening to Bob Dylan shows from 2000. I’m guessing I posted some shows on the old blog, and some people highly praised them. That caused me to give one or two a listen, and I found I liked them, so I uploaded more. Those got praised. I listened to more; I collected and shared some more.
It has become one of my favorite years. I know some folks prefer 1999, and I have nothing bad to say about that, but I’m all about 2000. That may be because I listened to it first, or I’ve listened to it more. It doesn’t matter; both years are terrific.
I love that they almost always start with an old traditional song. Bob is steeped in the folk tradition; he got his start there, and starting his shows like this seems to call back to his early days. I love that there is so much acoustic guitar in these shows. I love that they often do a little jamming.
Really, I just love this band. This lineup is something special. Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton on dual guitars is my jam. When I listen to these shows, I wish he’d kept this band forever. But that wouldn’t be Bob Dylan. He’s a changeling. Constantly on the move and constantly doing the unexpected. Besides, to have kept this band would have let us miss so many other great lineups.
So, I thought it would be fun to go on tour with Bob Dylan and his band in 2000. I’m not sure if I’ll cover the entire year or just the Spring Tour. I might get bored of this after a while and want something different. But for now, I’m excited to see where Bob will take us. And on to the show.
I always find it strange when an artist does two shows in one day. I generally assume it’s because tickets are selling fast, but the rest of the tour is booked, so they can’t add a second night at the same venue, so they just double-book the day. But I have no idea if that’s really true.
I also feel like the early shows are a little shorter and not as good. Like the band always seems to be saving their energy a little bit for the second show. But again, I might just be talking out of my arse.
The early show on this day begins with “Roving Gambler,” a traditional song that dates back to the earliest part of the 20th Century. It is wonderful, with some terrific harmonies. Next comes “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” which sounds like an old traditional but is actually a Dylan original.
This is where I admit I have no idea how to tell Charlie Sexton’s guitar parts from Larry Campbell’s. I like them both. “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding” has some great guitar work, whoever it is.
For “Tangled Up In Blue,” it seems like Bob is taking a deep breath before each line, or something. He’s always just slightly late coming in. That’s probably intentional, and Dylan has always had a very interesting delivery. He also screws up one of his lines, which seems unusual to me.
Their cover of Roy Acuff’s “This World Can’t Stand Long” is just lovely. “Things Have Changed” is one of my favorite late-period Dylan tunes, and the band just nails it here. Ditto for “Not Dark Yet,” a song I find myself listening to a lot these days, and it usually makes me tear up.
Some dude near the taper gets super excited when they play “Highway 61 Revisited,” as he hoots and hollers when it begins. He sings the first verse really loudly, and you can hear someone clapping along on this tape.
So many of these shows sound very light and warm to my ears. A lot of that comes from the choice of songs, especially the fun cover songs, but it’s also the use of acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies. It sometimes feels like some fellas sitting on their front porch just having fun.
And yet, they handle the darkness of “Love Sick” really well. You can really feel the heartache and pain of the lyrics.
Then we get “Not Fade Away,” the Buddy Holly song that’s played with utter joy. The early show closes out with a nice version of “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
The late show opens with another cover, “I Am the Man, Thomas,” which I believe is an old Ralph Stanley song, but it sounds like it could have come from a thousand years ago. It is a wonderful performance. Dylan played it something like 60 times from 1999 to 2002, and then I think he dropped it completely.
I’m usually not a big fan of “My Back Pages,” but this version is just lovely and tender. “Mama You Been On My Mind” gives us that back porch feel. It is so casual-sounding. They make it sound so easy.
“Dignity” is great; it reminds me of his performance on that MTV Unplugged thing.
My thoughts on most of the rest of this show are a little hazy. I typically listen to shows I’m going to review on my way to and from work, or maybe to the post office or whatever. These are relatively short trips. Ten to fifteen minutes, maybe twenty at the maximum. That gives me time to listen to two or three songs before I stop. While I’m listening, I make little mental notes, and then when I stop, I jot them down on a notepad.
I have a terrible memory, so if I don’t jot my thoughts down, they disappear. I listened to the back end of the late show on my way to a movie in downtown Tulsa. That’s more like a thirty-five-minute ride. When I got there, I thought I was late, so I rushed in without jotting anything down. When I got home, it was late, and I was tired, so again I didn’t jot anything down.
Guess what? My thoughts on those songs are gone. I very much liked them, but I have nothing specific to say. The only other notes I have are that “Not Fade Away” is spirited and that “It Ain’t Me, Babe” is tender and goes down easy.
In general, I’d say this is a very good show, but not as good as I remember this tour being. The start of the tour is often a little rough, and I feel confident we’re gonna get blown away soon.
For the early show, I listened to LB-440, which Lossless Bob rates an “A.”For the late show, my notes just say it is from a CDR and is probably not the source for an LB. I should note that this is the first review I’ve done on this Substack that is taken from an audience source. Previously, I’ve only done audience recordings. I’ve certainly listened to plenty of AUDs, so that’s no big deal, but I should make a note of it.
These two recordings are quite nice. The late show has a bit of crowd noise, but it isn’t too distracting.