Armando Relano
le 04/04/2008
I have just arrived from the show. I'm not going to be very objective, because I missed last two tours, and I really needed to see Mark on tour again. I enjoyed a lot the show. Maybe Mark's guitar is not so fast as it was a few years ago, but his sound is still there, and I love it.
Here it is the setlist. After the title of the song, I write the guitar that Mark used on it:
1.- Cannibals (Telecaster). A great surprise for me. Good work from the whole band.
2.- Why aye man (Les Paul). Nice version, but bad sound. Mark's guitar was too loud and it resounded a bit. Fortunately, this problem was fixed in the next songs.
3.- What it is (Red Stratocaster). Very nice Fender sound. A bit slower than in Sailing to Philadelphia Tour.
4.- Sailing to Philadelphia (Red Stratocaster). Great version and great guitar.
5.- True love will never fade (Red Stratocaster, with plectrum). Great version. More elaborated than in the album, with more instruments.
6.- The fish and the bird (National). Another big surprise. Mark's voice has really improved during the last few years.
7.- Hill farmer blues (Les Paul). Wonderful! The best of the show! The rithm, the guitar, all the instruments... everything was fantastic. I understand that many people like to listen the old tunes from the Dire Straits period; but, please give credit to this song. I have liked it since the first listening, but I have always missed a final solo. There it was the final solo! Powerful!
8.- Romeo and Juliet (National and Red Stratocaster). Great ovation to Mark. I prefer to listen to more recent tunes, but I recognize that it was a very nice version. Final solo, with the red Fender Stratocaster, sounded very good.
9.- Sultans of swing (Red Stratocaster). Short version. Only Mark, Richard, Glenn and Danny. Not bad, but I prefer the long version.
10.- Marbletown (Acoustic). Mark introduced the band... and ¡surprise!, it was not Done with Bonaparte, but Marbletown. Great version, with all the band. I liked specially the rithm, very different from the version in the album.
11.- Daddy's gone to Knoxville (Acoustic). Another big surprise. It seemed that Mark wanted to retrieve The Ragpicker's dream, a good idea, in my opinion. Great work from Richard.
12.- Postcards from Paraguay (Red Stratocaster). Very good version. Thanks to John McCusker, it sounded more like a southamerican folk song. I liked Mark's rithmic guitar.
13.- Speedway at Nazarerth (Les Paul). Powerful! Impressive! The hall seemed to fall down! Among all the songs from Mark's solo career, it was the one which people liked more.
14.- Telegraph Road (National and Pensa). In this tune, Mark frightened me. As usual, he started with the National, but he did not change the guitar before start singing. Richard, with a red Stratocaster, was doing the electric parts! I like Richard's playing, but... Thanks god, just after "... six lines of traffic, three lines moving slow...", Mark changed to the Pensa Shur (what a beauty!) and, after the piano part, he started the first solo. Finally the song sounded fantastic! It was the best Dire Strait song of the show.
After this song, the band left the stage, but they came back in less than five minutes.
15.- Brothers in arms (Les Paul). Great version. Better that the ones in the small promo tour of september/october.
16.- Our Shangri-La (Sunburst Stratocaster, with a plectrum). Nice song. I liked it a lot.
17.- So far away (Sunburst Stratocaster, with a plectrum). Powerful version! All the crowd was singing.
18.- Going home (Red Stratocaster). Long version, with the whole band. I really enjoyed this. Great end for the show!
That's all, I think. Mark was on stage arround two hours. He did not sat down this time. Maybe it means that he is feeling younger.