Saturday, April 5, 2025
We went to the Sonnentag Center in Eau Claire to see Bob Dylan tonight. We found out the Erbert and Gerbert’s on Water Street is closed. It has been there a loooong time, so we were sad, but we were happy to find out there is another one up off Clairemont.
The Sonnentag is on Menomonie St – a completely new place to us. There used to be…um…nothing?…there. Maybe a cement company. I am imagining cement trucks there now. Mmm. I don’t know. Anyway, it is a nice-looking place where apparently University students who play basketball can play basketball. It is farther than I want to walk from campus, so I wonder if they run shuttles. Or if it is just for GAMES. I know actually know nothing about this place.
Not true! I do know that there is limited parking, and they have shuttles for events from three different parking lots. We went to the farthest away lot, which was closest to Erbert and Gerbert. There were very few cars there as we followed the bus into the lot. We were the only ones who got on. Afterward, the bus was SRO and stuck in traffic for a while. We were sitting, so it was no big deal.
I will let Keith jump in and give you his review of the concert first…
I enjoyed the concert, but more for the experience and the fact that some tunes had interesting beats than because I thought it was good music or because Bob moved me in any way. I didn’t understand practically any words that he sang. I mean he’s famous for mumbling, but I didn’t expect that I wouldn’t be able to understand anything and had no idea what any of the tunes were about. And I couldn’t really discern any noticeable melody anywhere. One song mentioned Key West several times; at least those were the couple words I could make out, so it was probably about Key West. I enjoyed the fact that many in the audience were very excited by some songs, yet I couldn’t make out anything different about those songs. So, I was mostly lost throughout the entire concert and was a bit intrigued by that. I was disappointed that Bob did not talk to the audience between songs. I probably wouldn’t have understood him anyway.
Now for my review:
I loved it. It was the best new music I had ever heard. I am not usually a fan of new music – it takes me a few listens to get going on most songs, but I was just loving the music tonight. Keith asked if I understood the lyrics – No! Not one bit. It didn’t matter. It was like a soundtrack…just taking me away into a story…without there having to be a story. We were in a smallish arena with the band lit by gentle yellow lights -you could certainly see Bob (I had a good profile of Bob, if I leaned a little around the very large headed man in front of Keith) and the four-man band, but then again, you couldn’t. It felt like sitting around a campfire – you can see, but you don’t need to. I liked every song, particularly the one that was Putting on the Ritz with a rumba feel. Keith laughed so hard when I told him that. He missed it entirely. I was just dancing in my seat, humming every note in my head.
We couldn’t take a potd from inside the building because everyone had to put their phones in little locked pouches (that you kept with you). No phones were allowed during the concert, which was honestly pretty awesome. On the way out, they unlocked the pouches, and you got your phone back. It went surprisingly smooth and quick. So, the potd is a monitor outside the entrance.