Electric fury from the heart of 1995. What is not to love? Bob Dylan enchants once more with a tour touted for its experimental endeavours. He is once more in fine form and pulling some of his very best into a mixture of songs he sees as classics. A soft spot for Under the Red Sky remains in this unofficial bootleg, The Thundering Sky. This collection of electric sets is a reminder of the ever-enchanting reason people wish to see Dylan on stage. He has a flurry of confidence and a keen interest in innovation. His makeshift appetite for electric changes remains the strongest part of his setlist. No different for the 1995 tour which heard Dylan crop up in the likes of London and Brussels with Desire tracks and upended classics like Highway 61 Revisited.
Plant your feet and connect your headphones to these rapturous recordings. Opener Down in the Flood feels as raw as it gets for Dylan on the stage. A compilation reliant on thunderous guitar work. It can be heard on both Down in the Flood and When I Paint My Masterpiece. Nothing unconventional about them, just crisp playing and a welcome steadiness at a time Dylan was feeling his way through new material. Slow and steady. It sounds more like Dylan is trying to find a new groove to toy with than anything else. When I Paint My Masterpiece is a well he has returned to time and again, from this recording through to Shadow Kingdom and Rough and Rowdy Ways. What was once a croaked attempt at promising more is now a confident boast. Dylan is not through yet. Even if his best works are behind him, this performance and later outings suggest he has more to give.
Under the Red Sky remains an unconvincing inclusion yet does warm the heart. It is Dylan in a nosedive following the release of Oh Mercy. It was quietly retired from the track list and there it goes. That’s it for it. Jokerman and What Good Am I mark exceptional inclusions. The Thundering Sky goes a long way in refining the Infidels and Oh Mercy albums. They are titans of the stage. Lived-in experiences that pound and wail with an intensity like no other. Another for the “Bob Dylan covers The Grateful Dead” scrapbook with this delightful West LA Fadeaway cover. Move along to the likes of Joey, a nice Desire rip but lacking that something special. It is all to play for with compilation closer Highway 61.
The Thundering Sky ends with a whimper. It is a strong collection overall and a revealing one at that. This is Dylan slipping into poor practice which dominated his live performances through the 1980s. He has learned plenty from those performances, but the rushed desire and shaky vocal servings crop up occasionally here. When he is connected, he could not sound better but this inconsistency would plague his work for a little while longer. Is it all part of experimenting on stage? Yes. Dylan was constantly shifting in this period and it was not until Rough and Rowdy Ways, almost twenty years on from these releases, that a theme was present in his work. For now, it was enough to rattle out a few hits and contemporary efforts but having heard what he can do when given the tools, it pales in comparison.
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