Yeah, this is the “Judas” show — and if that’s all it really was, then this’d be a neat little novelty. But if that presumably embittered folkie who yelped that accusation at the recently-gone-electric Bob Dylan had been in the john instead after “Ballad of a Thin Man” concluded, this would still be one of the most fascinating and incendiary live sets ever bootlegged. In its expanded, official-release form, we get the full concert as it was split into two distinct sets that only emphasized the folk-versus-rock dichotomy Dylan had found himself straining against and defiantly hybridizing, and the solo acoustic first half is only made to feel more stark, more personal, and more direct by comparison. The run of “Visions of Johanna,” “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” and “Desolation Row” at the heart of that set reveals just what kind of heart-in-your-throat connections the purists were afraid of losing — no wonder they were so pissed off. But then The Band join Dylan onstage and they leave no ass in the house unkicked; the blend of rock, country, blues, and soul that fuels it absolutely explodes with the first drumbeat of “Tell Me, Momma” and sustains such furious energy through its 47 minutes that it’s impossible to single out a peak. Is it getting to hear “I Don’t Believe You” and “One Too Many Mornings” in plugged-in form? Is it the revelation of Blonde on Blonde's sardonic blues-rocker “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” obliterating the audience a month early? Is it the aforementioned “Thin Man,” already a gut-stab of a performance, segueing by heckler-spurred chance or by premeditated choice into the played fucking loud door-slam of “Like A Rolling Stone”? Why ask so many questions when you’re listening to an exclamation point?

– Nate Patrin