May 15, 1998
General Motors Place, Vancouver - May 14, 1998

VANCOUVER - Which is more culturally relevant?: The Seinfeld finale or a Bob Dylan concert?

For the 15,000 baby boomers who filled Vancouver's General Motors Place last night, the answer was as obvious as the hair on Kramer's head. Throw in Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell and it was no contest. It was the triple bill of the decade, the first stop of a seven-city tour winding its way down the West coast.

It could've been a case of loving them for who they are rather then what they did, but this trio of rock legends - together for the first time since The Last Waltz more than two decades ago- delivered a stellar show that lasted nearly four hours. Each three 75-minute sets could've stood as a complete concert in its own right - Van the Man with his blue-eyed soul, Joni with her provocative songs you need an English degree to fully appreciate, and Bob rocking out the hits till midnight, warts and all. All three were brilliant.

Jerry who?

Dylan was an especially pleasant surprise last night. He displayed real passion, from the opening country rocker "Absolutely Sweet Marie" to the last encore, the famous "Rainy Day Women #12 & #35", which brought the crowd to its feet shouting "everybody must get stoned"! Given the amount of fragrant blue smoke in the arena, the sentiment went over well.

It was a remarkable transformation.

Dylan had been in an apathetic fog for years, not seeming to care that he'd written some of the most vital songs in pop history - and then he mysteriously bounced back. Maybe it was his near-death experience last year from a heart ailment. Maybe it was the gig playing for the Pope. Or maybe it was winning three Grammy awards. Who knows? Dylan is not one to explain himself.

As he said while introducing "Tangled Up In Blue", "There's a story behind this song, but I'm not going to tell it."

With a solid country-rock-flavored band behind him, the highlights were many: The loose groove of "Cold Irons Bound", a boogie-woogie blast of "Silvio", the swampy back-porch feel of "Cocaine Blues", a strange, folky take on "Mr. Tambourine Man", and many more. The crowd ate it up.

Dylan may be a terrible singer who can't play a guitar solo to save his life, but he proved last night that he's still a powerful performer, a true original and utterly free of pretension. He is, in a word, untouchable.

Making an exceedingly rare live appearance, Joni Mitchell lost some of the crowd with her pensive, self-indulgent set, but for those willing to pay attention, she was mesmerizing. With her beautiful, smoky voice in fine form, Mitchell showcased many of the songs from her upcoming album, Taming the Tiger, along with some obscure material from her past.

She played only one hit, "Big Yellow Taxi", which she performed solo and introduced as if she were doing everybody a huge favor. "I'll just give this one to you", she said. Impersonating Dylan during the third verse was a nice touch.

As for Van Morrison, the man has to be the best white soul shouter in the business. With a tasty set of '50s-style soul that spanned "Astral Weeks" to his latest album, "The Healing Game", he made the Blues Brothers (which he happened to dress like) look lame. He had help, of course, from a killer eight-piece band that grooved like nobody's business.

Overall, it was an exhaustingly glorious trio of shows that will surely go down in history as the best package tour of the '90s. Condolences to those who decided to watch Seinfeld instead.

BOB DYLAN SET LIST:

Absolutely Sweet Marie

Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)

Cold Irons Bound

Positively 4th Street

Silvio

Cocaine Blues

Mr. Tambourine Man

Tangled Up In Blue

Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again

I Shall Be Released

Highway 61 Revisited

ENCORE:

Forever Young

Love Sick

Rainy Day Women #12 & #35

JONI MITCHELL SET LIST:

Night Ride Home

Crazy Cries of Love (new)

Harry's House

Slouching Toward Bethlehem (new)

Just Like This Train

Black Crow

Amelia

Hejira

Facelift (new)

Sex Kills

The Magdalene Laundries

Moon at the Window

ENCORE:

Refuge Of The Roads

Big Yellow Taxi (solo)

VAN MORRISON SET LIST:

Burning Ground

It Once Was My Life

Raincheck

Fire In The Belly

Send Me Some Lovin'

Sometimes We Cry

Domino

Jackie Wilson Said

In the Afternoon

Ain't That Loving You Baby

Days Like This

Tupelo Honey/Crazy Love

Not Feeling It Anymore

It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World

ENCORE:

Cypress Avenue

JAM! Rating: 5 out of 5