#33:2012.11.21 Brooklyn, NY, Barclays Center, USA # SPOILER AHEAD

[Pottel]

missed opportunity imho.
still, nice to hear the positive reviews.

[Vesper]

Short set! Did MK skip the song between HFB and Marbletown?

[dmg]

5th row centre sounds great but, with some kind of mirror contraption on stage in front of the piano, the sightline to Bob was not great. His performance, on the other hand, was pretty good - lively and engaged, with commentss occasionally interjected in the "standard" lyrics and entertaining if eccentric piano playing - but there was less light and shade compared with the Boston concert.

There was a mix-up with the start time of the Brooklyn show. Some tickets said the start time was 8.00, not 7.30. In consequence, there was a delayed start, with Mark coming on at 7.45 and people still arriving in their seats. Bob did know it was the last show on the tour, adding a 16th song to his set. Sadly, Mark did not join him at the end of the concert, as he had at the final Hammersmith show last year. As has been said elsewhere, Mark's presence on-stage and his contribution to Dylan's set do give the show a lift. Bob tends to raise his game a notch and there is some visual interaction between the two.

Mark's set and performance were of the usual high standard but I doubt I could distinguish this show from the Boston one we'd caught a few days before.  A good show but "So Far Away" got the biggest reaction, I thought, perhaps because it was the one song with which many of the audience were familiar.

We were talking with some folk on the subway back to Manhattan and one asked about Mark's new album and proceeded to write down the title as I spelled it out. I explained that it wasn't actually released in the States but he said he'd search on-line. It was clear he had little pre-knowledge of Mark's  songs but was impressed enough to search the album out.

Based on what we had been told about some of the shows earlier in the tour, security was relatively low key - a quick visual check of bags (nothing too close) and a run-over with some security scanner but pretty perfunctory. I saw nobody actually caught with anything and it was all very freindly. The staff were extremely polite and pleasant.

Nice review.  How did Mrs. twm enjoy Marks set?

PS Hope you had a nice trip.

[superval99]

Tangled Up In Blue - Brooklyn:

[Ann]

Attended the final show of the tour at the Barcalays. I am as big a MK fan as the next and was ambivalent about seeing Dylan. I was there to see my favorite, MK. Here's my take on the concert. First, tickets said 8pm, Barclays website said 7pm then got an email around noon that day saying 7:30pm. Mark took the stage at 7:45 while people were still coming in. By 8:15, they were still streaming in. Annoying. Having followed Guy's site throughout and reading many reviews of each concert, I expected to be blown away by MK and more than likely leave early once Dylan got started. That wasn't the case.  I would say 10% of the audience was there to see MK and he did very little to win over the remaining 90%. The playlist was not lively enough, bordering on downer. Too heavy on the Celtic, Geordie vibe. He lost the attention of most of the audience who were texting and disengaged all around us. Quite frankly, the entire band seemed low energy. Going through the motions after having played the same 15 songs in 33 cities night after night. They are all fabulous musicians but they could play these songs with their eyes closed by now, right? There was no interest in giving the audience a little something...when in NY, sing Radio City Serenade..when in Phillie, sing Sailing To Philadelphia. Marks voice was beautiful and strong but why sing the same songs night after night during this tour when MK has a catalog of lively music that is begging to be played. This isn't Riverdance, it's a rock concert. Also, the entire band looked like they just rolled out of bed, they need a new wardrobe!!! They left the stage to polite applause when it could have been different if livelier music had been played. When Dylan and his amazing band took the stage, what a different vibe! High energy from Bob nonstop, he was awesome! He rocked the house. For all his critics, Bob sang different songs everynight, not the same songs nite after nite. And yes, Bob is on his own trip, you either get on board and play name that tune as he amazes with new arrangements or you don't.  He knows what he's doing and he ended his tour with a great show, croaky voice and all. I left feeling BD and his band gave the audience 100% and MK did not. Bob was high energy, MK was going through the motions. It was still a great concert but Bob blew MK away, just the opposite of what I expected.

[arabia]

Tangled Up In Blue - Brooklyn:

So Far from same show, not much of a closer.

[twm]

Mrs twm enjoyed both shows and thought MK gave a good performance both nights. We were fortunate to be close to the stage at both Boston and Brooklyn, so perhaps gained a better impression of what he and the band put into the show. The Brooklyn venue had some sections both high up and far back and I'm not sure that the "nuances" of MK's and the band's performance would have penetrated that far. I think the earlier comment about Mark and the band being able to produce this performance with, as they say, their eyes closed, is probably true. They are well rehearsed and generally stick to the script. Dylan's tendency is to tear up the script. Sometimes this works and sometimes it "just don't". What I can say is that Dylan really did try to engage with the songs and with the audience. Mrs twm was not impressed by some of his piano playing, which can be wayward at times. He ended with the same three songs both nights and romped through them, which was much appreciated by the crowd, though this was not always suited to their lyrical content. But he does try fresh ways to present his material. Mark, in this sense, is more conventional and, for some, less exciting.  At one point in his Brooklyn set, someone joined the guy on my left and they started talking during the song. Fortunately, I knew the late arrival from way back, though I haven't seen him for a long while. At the end of the song, I leaned over and asked them kindly to be quiet, as mrs twm had come a long way to enjoy MK. They did so and, soon after, moved elsewhere, presumably to continue their conversation.

[Tally]

Tangled Up In Blue - Brooklyn:

Thanks, that riff never sounded better. Go Mark!

[superval99]

Things Have Changed - Brooklyn.      Sound problems on this one!

[communique]

Attended the final show of the tour at the Barcalays. I am as big a MK fan as the next and was ambivalent about seeing Dylan. I was there to see my favorite, MK. Here's my take on the concert. First, tickets said 8pm, Barclays website said 7pm then got an email around noon that day saying 7:30pm. Mark took the stage at 7:45 while people were still coming in. By 8:15, they were still streaming in. Annoying. Having followed Guy's site throughout and reading many reviews of each concert, I expected to be blown away by MK and more than likely leave early once Dylan got started. That wasn't the case.  I would say 10% of the audience was there to see MK and he did very little to win over the remaining 90%. The playlist was not lively enough, bordering on downer. Too heavy on the Celtic, Geordie vibe. He lost the attention of most of the audience who were texting and disengaged all around us. Quite frankly, the entire band seemed low energy. Going through the motions after having played the same 15 songs in 33 cities night after night. They are all fabulous musicians but they could play these songs with their eyes closed by now, right? There was no interest in giving the audience a little something...when in NY, sing Radio City Serenade..when in Phillie, sing Sailing To Philadelphia. Marks voice was beautiful and strong but why sing the same songs night after night during this tour when MK has a catalog of lively music that is begging to be played. This isn't Riverdance, it's a rock concert. Also, the entire band looked like they just rolled out of bed, they need a new wardrobe!!! They left the stage to polite applause when it could have been different if livelier music had been played. When Dylan and his amazing band took the stage, what a different vibe! High energy from Bob nonstop, he was awesome! He rocked the house. For all his critics, Bob sang different songs everynight, not the same songs nite after nite. And yes, Bob is on his own trip, you either get on board and play name that tune as he amazes with new arrangements or you don't.  He knows what he's doing and he ended his tour with a great show, croaky voice and all. I left feeling BD and his band gave the audience 100% and MK did not. Bob was high energy, MK was going through the motions. It was still a great concert but Bob blew MK away, just the opposite of what I expected.

Sounds like the Jersey girl did not enjoy the Geordie boy as much as she thought she would.

[twm]

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/bob-dylan-and-mark-knopfler-rock-the-barclays-center-in-brooklyn/

[Pottel]

picture from that review is from 2005

[dmg]

picture from that review is from 2005

I've always wondered why he felt he needed glasses to play in 2005 but hasn't needed them since!

[twm]

Is MK's set list (above) certain? I think it's wrong.

I collected my tickets for Brooklyn on the day of the show and they came in a "GEICO Atrium Barclays Center" envelope which had an "American Express" logo on the reverse and the words "Official Card of Barclays Center". This is what I used to jot MK's songs down. I say this because the list is clearly not the one I wrote in Boston.

I wrote the Brooklyn list in two parts and this is exactly what I wrote:

WII
CBC
P'g
KoG
IUtoC
S.Liston

Then I turned the envelope round and wrote the rest of the songs over the previous part but pretty clearly:

Bonaparte
HFB
H Away

I didn't write Marbletown or So Far Away down but they were played.  "Marbletown" just about brought the audience to quietness (the odd whistle and the like, as I recall) and SFA was the encore song (of course?) and brought the loudest cheers of the evening for Mark and the boys..

It is "Haul Away" that is additional to the list at the start of this thread.

Was I mistaken?

[dmg]

Is MK's set list (above) certain? I think it's wrong.

I collected my tickets for Brooklyn on the day of the show and they came in a "GEICO Atrium Barclays Center" envelope which had an "American Express" logo on the reverse and the words "Official Card of Barclays Center". This is what I used to jot MK's songs down. I say this because the list is clearly not the one I wrote in Boston.

I wrote the Brooklyn list in two parts and this is exactly what I wrote:

WII
CBC
P'g
KoG
IUtoC
S.Liston

Then I turned the envelope round and wrote the rest of the songs over the previous part but pretty clearly:

Bonaparte
HFB
H Away

I didn't write Marbletown or So Far Away down but they were played.  "Marbletown" just about brought the audience to quietness (the odd whistle and the like, as I recall) and SFA was the encore song (of course?) and brought the loudest cheers of the evening for Mark and the boys..

It is "Haul Away" that is additional to the list at the start of this thread.

Was I mistaken?

No, you weren't mistaken twm, Haul Away was played.  It is on the bootleg of the show.