Last weekend my university hosted a Bob Dylan concert as part of Homecoming Weekend. It was held in our fairly new basketball arena - a nice smaller venue seating about 5000 with much better acoustics than the football dome. The concert looked to be almost a sell-out with just a few upper bleacher seats empty.

There was no opening act for this show - Dylan and his band simply strolled out at the appointed time and went right into Rainy Day Women followed by one of my favorites, Don't Think Twice and Just Like a Woman. Bob's voice as he sings (or should it be as he speaks) his lyrics as only gotten more "Bob" over the years! He is sounding a bit like Jimmy Durante! Between my older ears and his older voice, sometimes it was hard to tell which song was being performed until I caught a bit of lyric. I'm afraid for this reason some of his new numbers were lost on me - maybe the folks in the front rows could understand him, but I needed subtitles!

But it was great to re-experience the songs of my youth and look around at all the others likewise re-living earlier days! 

Bob wore a rather formal long-jacketed suit (maybe a tux since the pants had a satin stripe down the legs) and wide-brim white hat. I was pleased that Dylan moved around more than the last time I saw him perform. In Omaha he stayed behind his keyboard almost the entire night and never looked at or said a word to the audience. Here in Iowa he regularly moved between the keyboard and playing his guitar or his harmonica. He interacted with his lead guitarist and did actually look out at and gesture to the audience - about as expressive as he seems to get!  Don't think twice - it was alright Bob!

Unfortunately Columbia Records sent out their "Web Sheriff" and asked (very nicely) that I remove my YouTube videos from the show. Gosh, that is just not the Bob Dylan we used to know, is it?? The clips are too long to post here so I just have to settle for a couple quick ones.