...I always feel like my birthday is pretty special - for one thing, it's also John Lennon's birthday - but, besides that, here in N.H., Mother Nature celebrates with me in such grand style. This year, the weekend was Indian-summer-like, almost balmy...

my friend gave me a ticket to see Dylan in Boston on my birthday. So, I spent the morning hiking in the country of New Hampshire and the evening being serenaded to, by my favorite poet, in the city of Boston...what a great birthday!

and what a great show! He did FOUR - count'em - FOUR encores! He made LOTS of contact with the people down front - pointing at people, clapping for the audience, shaking hands with some front row people, the band had huge smiles as they played the encores - I would venture to say that he had a very good run in Boston...

He seems to be very comfortable with the musicians he's playing with now...I would say just about every song was drawn out and opened up into a jam at one point or another.

One of the band members plays steel guitar -which is an absolutely beautiful sound to hear weaving through. Dylan played harmonica quite a bit - and that was mighty nice too - sometimes he would quickly flip up his rack-thing and start blowing away and the band would back down and provide some sort of melody until Dylan got into his groove and then join in to a rousing finish of whatever song they had been playing - sometimes it was seamless.

The highlight for me was the acoustic set - which I think is Dylan's forte - they played Love Minus Zero/No Limit!!!!!!!, One Too Many Mornings and Boots of Spanish Leather!!!!!

Other highlights were Watchtower (when he sang the line about the wildcat growling - HE growled!), God Knows (really extended), Maggies Farm (ROCK OUT!)...he played Lay Lady Lay...and Watching the River FLow was done country/western style into the blues. He did Joey, which is not my favorite song, BUT, it was really quite good the way it was played last night.

It was kind of weird hearing all these rockin' songs and having most of the audience sitting through it. I think the people down front were on their feet alot and I think that's what Dylan was feeding off of - he was having fun.

The first encore was I Shall Be Released!!!!! I couldn't take not being able to dance anymore (I was obviously bothering the people in back of me), so my partner and I moved to the back of the theatre and danced a nice slow dance together (remember, it was my birthday, and this was very sweet for me)...but by the middle of the song, the whole audience was on its feet, so we moved back to our seats to be able to see and still be able to dance. Second encore was It Ain't Me Babe. After that, the band members waved and smiled and Bob waved and smiled, and the band members started leaving the stage...but, Bob didn't. Third encore was "Two Soldiers" a song Dylan said Jerry taught him which starts out with the line something like "he was just a blue-eyed Boston boy.." - and the crowd (understandably) freaks out. The guy who had played steel switched to mandolin - nice. This song winds down - the crowd is going wild - the band starts to leave AGAIN, and AGAIN Dylan stays behind!!! We're turning to eachother with our eyes popping out of our heads ;-)...and they start playing BLOWIN' IN THE WIND!!!!!!!!!!! Never thought I would hear this one in person... I personally thought it was particularly poignant, considering what's going on around the world, in the Persian gulf, in Haiti - and even though it was played in a very upbeat manner, I was quite moved.

After it's over and he put his guitar down, he just faded into the darkness...

Debess

Bringin' it all back HOME.