I had the pleasure of seeing both of Dylan's shows in Athens, Georgia, on
Thursday March 14 and Friday March 15, 2024. This review encapsulates the
two shows.

What an experience: doubling down on Dylan ... my favorite artist in any
genre, ever.

I've seen him on consecutive nights just once in the past, at the first
two of three shows he played at Atlanta's Tabernacle, on April 12 and 13,
2004.

These were my 20th and 21st times seeing Bob, dating back to my first, on
August 15, 1989, at Atlanta's Chastain Park. I've now seen him in five
states (Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Louisiana) and at
least once in five different decades.

These Athens shows rank very near the top - which is saying a lot, because
I've seen some great ones.

Here's what made them special:

- An extreme focus on the words and songs, especially on the aspect of
Dylan's art that casual or non-fans most despise: his voice! - No
baby-boomer nostalgia or pandering: the shows centered around his most
recent LP (created at age 79), featuring all but one of those ten songs;
only two songs from the '60s made the setlist - The songs from Rough And
Rowdy Ways can bear the weight of this type of setlist focus, unlike
recent-ish albums I found underwhelming, like Modern Times, Tempest, and
the Sinatra cover records - Subtle, supple band, supporting every word,
never obscuring the vocals - Two wonderful harmonica accents or solos by
Bob in the Thursday show, three the next night

The focus - at age 82 - on almost all new or obscure songs made these
sets, as Jon Wurster pointed out on Ray Padgett's "Flagging Down The
Double E's" blog, "kinda the most punk rock thing ever."

It's true. Not that a punkishly bold setlist is all that's going on here
though; there's a lot of craft and care. These were two of the most
thoughtfully vocal-focused shows I've seen, this side of Abbie Lincoln or
Little Jimmy Scott.

But these shows were also not not about (how 'bout that double negative)
the music as well. The bandmembers served the song at every turn, never
their ego. And THAT is kinda punk too  ~  right? The punk ethos was to
have no guitar solos, and just focus on the words and the short, sharp,
shocked urgency of the music.

But again, it's only a certain ethos and attitude Jon was identifying as
punk - I mean, Dylan did sing a quiet 10-minute ballad each night about
Key West.

Ultimately, the one adjective I'd use to sum up both shows is the title of
one of his better songs:

Dignity.

We fans at Athens' Classic Center witnessed dignity in action: an artist
aging gracefully but with vigor. Not content to be a windup jukebox nor a
pale mimic of his younger self.

These shows were about being in the moment he is in, and we with him. It's
not '66, not '76, not even '84 or '03; it's right now, it's 2024. (For
now.)

Dignified punk. Formal gypsy. Old kid.

Dylan was all of these.

Let's talk about the old kid aspect. Due to having great seats both nights
- 6th row center for the Thursday show, 9th row left side for the Friday
show - I was close enough to see something special: the face of a
20-year-old ragtag kid, just arriving in New York ... now looking at us
with 82-year old eyes.

Mostly, of course, he looked stylishly elder - a dapper/hip grandpa,
moving gingerly. But watch closely; sometimes he'd sing a certain word,
look out at the audience, or crack a joke in a song, and all of a sudden,
SWOOOOOSH, the years would disappear - the Nobel Prize gravitas would
drop, and you'd see that same kid from early 1961 right there: same smile,
same eyes, same imp behind the years and miles.

That was one of the most special parts for me.

But there were so many. Another was the unexpected return in these shows
of a few choice harmonica moments. He played harp twice in the Thursday
show: first, a lot of honking on "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", then more
sustained and subtle playing on "Every Grain Of Sand." The crowd ate it
up. On Friday, we got three songs with harp: a little bit on "To Be Alone
With You," again on "Every Grain Of Sand," but the best of them all was
the addition of harmonica to "I've Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You"
on Friday. One of my favorite Dylan concert moments in my 35 years of
seeing his shows.

That song and "I Contain Multitudes" have been my favorites since R&RW
came out. But I also have come to love a lot of these other recent ones,
with "Crossing The Rubicon," "Mother Of Muses" and "My Own Version of You"
becoming new favorites after hearing them each night - and I mean
favorites not just of that album but of his whole oeuvre.

And boy, "Black Rider" is somethin' else, too. It's so harshly gritty at
points, but I suppose that comes from Dylan's folk training as a youth.
Nurtured by those early folk songs he learned from, I think Dylan feels a
writer's responsibility to be as real and true as he can, and have the
songs cut like a knife. He discusses that in the famous Feb '66 interview
for Playboy with Nat Hentoff:

"Traditional music is based on hexagrams. It comes about from legends,
Bibles, plagues, and it revolves around vegetables and death. All these
songs about roses growing out of people's brains and lovers who are really
geese and swans that turn into angels - they're not going to die."

One last note. I met and chatted with a number of folks on hand, and
almost all said this was their first time seeing Dylan, be they
grandparent age, or a college student I sat next to. Even at age 82, Dylan
draws us in - to hear the best songs of these elder years, delivered
confidently by that young rulebreaker who sometimes peeks out at us,
still, in 2024.

God bless you, Zimmerman.

Noel Mayeske
Atlanta, Georgia
mayeske.noel@gmail.com