It's been a few years since I caught Bob's live act. I'm not sure just which year it was when he was billed at the New Orleans jazz festival ~ probably '05 ~ and we caught his act in the daytime at the fairgrounds and also one evening at a festival-sponsored indoor concert.

He was at his very best at both of those appearances, as most of us who knew what to expect generally agreed, but of course there were still, as always, those who were disappointed that he performed most of his older and more familiar songs with completely new and unfamiliar rearrangements, and/or that his vocal approach, as always, eschewed all efforts at sweetness of tone in favor of expressiveness and accuracy of pitch.

I certainly can believe that he may have had a bad night in San Diego recently, or even that his voice may finally have given out once and for all, but I would reserve judgement. I'd like to know what regular followers of the Dylan tours might have thought about that particular concert. That four individuals were unimpressed would not mean much, if all four of them were generally unfamiliar with the 21st-century, senior-citizen Bob, and all four had unrealistic expectations.

Now, as to the question of ticket prices, yeah, I'm sure they were astronomical enough to make any attendee expect a high degree of excellence and fulfilled expectations as their money's worth. When I caught his act at Jazzfest, the daytime performance was part of the one-price-for-all-day proceedings, and even the evening concert was moderately priced as part of the festival's "evening-concert" schedule. (Those evening concerts, by the way, have ceased to exist as part of the NOJHF schedule.)