on stage last night in the Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt-Höchst was like an extra-terrestrian who hadn’t got used to the strong pull of gravity on earth yet. Who came from outer space where he surely will return to soon. Staggering around, looking pretty lost. His knees were hardly holding him. He was so small, so thin, so fragile. Ducked over his cheap looking electronic piano. The microphone was still too low so he also had to bend his head to sing. Weird that nobody from the crew had pity with him and fixed him his mike. Dylan hardly communicated with the audience outside of his songs.

I am glad I went to see him. Somehow I feel this is his last tour. I hope I’m wrong. My personal favourite was Honest To Me. It started with the guitars on full blast in fast forward mode. Power-rock. The slide guitar cutting the air into molecules. And the lyrics are so Nostradamus-like. Remember Love and Theft was released on 9/11. Another highlight was the calm It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue dominated by the pedal steel. Especially Dylan’s mouth harp play at the end. Here it was quite reserved. On a later song (I have forgotten which one) it was wild and mesmerizing. White man's blues if there ever was any. I have always preferred his mouth harp voice to his real one. The setlist is here at Dylan pool. A wonderful site with setlists of all concerts from 2001 on and discussions on most of the songs he performed yesterday.

P.S. The first five songs of the set as mp3s (via the discussion board of said Dylan pool). They will be replaced by the next five and so on soon.

P.P.S. Zwei Besprechungen des Konzerts. Eine ziemlich treffende Zusammenfassung von Herbert Heil im Wiesbadener Kurier und ein siebenteiliger Versuch einer Rezension von Harry Nutt in der Frankfurter Rundschau, der zwar nur zum Teil von dem Konzert handelt, aber in seiner impressionistischen Unfokussiertheit auch aufschlussreich ist.