Sunday 29 June 2014

The "Bob Dylan" experience

By: Z.

Hey guys,

it's probably for the best that the first post from me should be about Bob Dylan. 'Cause if there's only one thing you should definitely know about me, it's that I genuinely love Bob Dylan for his music.
So let's get started, shall we?

I left Nitra (my hometown) with the feeling of excitement the day before the concert. I took the bus to Bratislava (the capital) where I slept at my dorms and got packed for my trip to Košice (the place in the eastern Slovakia, where the concert took place). Even then I was fully prepared to love the concert no matter what.

My preparation for the concert

Day D: after short and restless night it was time to meet my brother and his GF at the train station and to catch our train. The sight of travelling for 5 hours nonstop was frightful but when my friend D. got on the train at the next stop in Trnava it got better. We kind of talked the way away

Me arriving at the Bratislava train station

At Košice, when we got of the train, the first sight was the Bob Dylan tour poster in front of the station. 


Then we went to dormitories at Košice, where we were supposed to spend the night after the concert. We checked in, unpacked and left to see the town. But first  my brothers.'s friend  U. had to take us to his favorite bar purely out of nostalgia. It was called "At Ďurko" and it was reaaaaaaally cheap. We ordered rum and although I did not intend to drink before the concert I did one shot (I'm not much of a drinker btw). 


After that, since it was my/our first time in Košice U. showed us around and we did some sightseeing (unfortunately for me, we stopped at like 5 more different bars).







We also stopped at some restaurant to have our dinner and then finally the highlight and the purpose of our trip approached. All of us arrived at the Steel Arena  and I was feeling excited as never. My heart was pounding from joy and expectations.


At eight pm the concert began.
For better understanding you should probably know that I dreamed of seeing Dylan live for more than seven years and never did I thought that it would actually happen. But it did and I loved it. You could probably say that it is not a very objective opinion since I was prepared to love it anyways but well... it is my opinion and this blog post is about my experience after all. 
The band was absolutely perfect and Bob sang surprisingly well for a 73-years old man. He played and he sang and he proved that he's still got it. Most of the songs were from his latest album Tempest (which I think is great) but he did Tangled up in blue, Blowing in the wind and All along the watchtower which are his old hits. The atmosphere was amazing despite the fact that the Steel Arena was only half-full and not sold out as I expected. I loved his rearrangement of Pay in blood and Forgetful heart, adored the opening with Things have changed and over all completely enjoyed the whole thing and for a second I thought I might even shed a tear of happiness.  
It was definitely one of the best things I ever experienced. And I don't think I can express it any better but at least I tried. 

(Sorry, I have no photos from the actual concert as I was fully concentrated on the performance so I did not take out my camera)

After that, we had a little "after party" at a beer pub but it did not last very long as we were tired as hell. So we returned to the dorms and I had a dreamless short night. 
The next day we took the train home at lunch-time and I left Košice with some of the best new memories. It is highly unlikely that I should see Dylan live again but at least I got to see him once. :-)   

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave your thoughts below.
Bye~