This was the most animated Dylan I have ever seen. A Dylan more at ease with himself and his audience than at any other time in the last 10 years or so. As he faced the audience and sang High Water – his face illuminated and so expressive under his wide brimmed, bright white hat, I saw (just for a second) the Dylan of the 1975 Rolling Thunder Tour. I know that he was so much older then, but he seemed younger than that last night.
-Cook & Sew (boblinks.com)
The tape of the benefit performance shows that Dylan’s voice had recovered significantly during his six weeks off; unfortunately, it also suggests again that the two-guitar acoustic set format was not very stimulating for Dylan as a performer in 1988. These are again lackluster, uninspired performances, interesting solely because this was only the third time in his career that Dylan is known to have performed “Pretty Boy Floyd” on stage and because, as he had at the October shows, Dylan added Lo “With God on Our Side” a verse about the Vietnam War that he didn’t write – the Neville Brothers had added it when they recorded the song on an album produced by Daniel Lanois earlier that autumn.
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist Volume 3: Mind Out Of Time 1986 And Beyond)
Oakland Coliseum Oakland, California 4 December 1988 An all acoustic evening of music to benefit The Bridge School.
Thunder on the mountain, fires on the moon
There’s a ruckus in the alley and the sun will be here soon
Today’s the day, gonna grab my trombone and blow
Well, there’s hot stuff here and it’s everywhere I go
Chicago, Illinois
Wintrust Arena
October 27, 2017
Bob Dylan – piano
Tony Garnier – bass
George Recile – drums
Stu Kimball – rhythm guitar, maracas
Charlie Sexton on lead guitar
Donnie Herron – violin, electric mandolin, pedal steel, lap steel