From the opening notes of this show I knew it was going to be one for the
ages. From my distant vantage point in Row X I could see only little ants
onstage but could hear them just fine. I had not been following the set
lists, so pretty much everything was a surprise since this was my first
Dylan show since 2022. If there were a live album comprised only of this
show, it would garner five star reviews among the critics that Dylan
sometimes antagonizes.

I'm sure others have mentioned this lately but Dylan's voice is no longer
froggy. Did he have vocal cord surgery? His delivery was impassioned and
clear, and plenty loud in the mix. Same with his piano playing. Both of
these things delighted me throughout the entire show.

The first three songs were powerhouses. The band even got to play
occasional hot guitar solos. I hadn't seen a Dylan band do that in
forever. The arrangement of Watchtower is fantastic, with its added chord
changes. The song should have always been arranged like this. Rainy Day
Women was unrecognizable at first, and fun once I got it.

I didn't hear any obvious reference to the fact that it was the 60th
anniversary of Dylan's controversial performance at the Newport Folk
Festival. I fully expected some kind of sly clue like a polka dot shirt or
a solo acoustic encore. But nope. He either didn't remember or
deliberately ignored it -- unless I missed something!

Steve Seachrist

Dylan never stops moving.

A year ago, I attended Dylan's show in this same modern, breezy
amphitheatre, when he first joined Willie Nelson's Outlaw Tour.
Speculation was rife then about where that inflection point might take
him, setlist-wise, after three solid years of Rough & Rowdy Ways
immersion.

That 2024 show turned the setlist algorithm on its head, including three
songs he still has only played on that one night ("My Babe," "Cold, Cold
Heart" and "The Fool"), as well as a reacquaintance with older songs
mostly left behind in the R&RW era.

Last night's show in the same venue - with Dylan remaining the penultimate
act in a traveling circus of acts led by 92-year-old Willie Nelson -
yielded few surprises compared to recent Outlaw shows this summer. But we
did get a pair of songs not heard in some time - the first "Positively 4th
Street" since 2013, and first "Rainy Day Women" since last year. "Blind
Willie McTell" didn't make the cut this time, but the two-for-one trade
feels like a worthy bargain to me.

Dylan often gets critiqued by folks like me for unvarying setlists. But
last night, only two songs were repeated from the prior year's set - two
of my least favorites, "Early Roman Kings" and "Under the Red Sky." Things
have changed.

Other changes were part of the mix too - actual guitar solos! A lot of
volume! After seeing Dylan on two other occasions last year - the two R&RW
shows in Athens, Georgia last March, which were generally reserved and
subtle, as most R&RW have been - the overall volume of this show was up a
few notches even from last year's Outlaw shows.

And folks, I got to hear "To Ramona" live for the first time! I remember
thinking, during Bob's Sinatra and Rough & Rowdy Ways eras, we'll never
hear certain slightly obscure Dylan ballads again, favorites like
"Tomorrow Is A Long Time," "Fourth Time Around" or "One Too Many
Mornings."

But if "To Ramona" can be played regularly in 2025 ... minor miracles can
rise to meet us in the modern day. The vocals were oddly urgent at times
("They HYPE you and TYPE you MAKing you FEEL that you MUST be exACTly like
THEM!"), especially compared to "Watchtower" getting all melodic and
contemplative on us. But you can tell he still feels the song. It sounded
like a statement of independence, as much as of romance.

I was also gifted with not my first "Desolation Row" since 2001, the
show's highlight - a galloping, commanding, volatile vehicle that gained
speed as it went along. Morbidly danceable, it featured actual guitar
solos - the type we used to wish Bob would allow the restrained Charlie
Sexton to do more of some years ago. Its velocity had me wondering if an
84-year-old could remember so many words, while also banging hard on his
piano on a 90-degree summer's evening. He did.

Other set highlights included the brilliant 2025 arrangement of "Forgetful
Heart" - much better than its original Together Through Life arrangement.
This was a minor song for me before, but I now rate it as one of his best
post-millennial songs.

The mostly-here-for-Willie crowd roared at "All Along The Watchtower."
With a few pretty random covers in the set - one-fourth of the current set
of a Nobel laureate lyricist is covers - I admit it was nice to have a
song everyone knows. There's a shared joy in hearing it together - that
smile of recognition, even if that comes on Dylan's terms, with the song's
Van Morrison-inspired 2025 arrangement.

My second-favorite song this night was "'Til I Fell In Love With You" - a
loose-limbed, rumbling, skeleton-dance arrangement that blended blank
spaces and tasty guitar licks.

It was a hoot to hear "Gotta Serve Somebody" take on the exact shuffling
cadence of "Shelter From The Storm" - or perhaps an outtake from his most
underrated LP, 2009's Together Through Life. (Where my Together Through
Life people at?) Like a sped-up cousin to "I Feel A Change Comin' On."

You always want to be at a Dylan show where the setlist changes, and it
was fun to hear a piano-driven arrangement of "Positively 4th Street."
It's remarkable how close to a cappella some of these songs are ... it was
just his voice at first, with downward-cascading piano flourishes and
subtle guitar licks, no drums for the first two minutes, just brushes. I
can't think of anyone else of his age attempting this except Paul Simon
and, well - Willie.

After that song, he spoke his only 12 words of the night (no band intros),
"I didn't really write that song about anybody ... just wanted to write."

"Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" isn't a major Dylan song for me, but I enjoyed
it making the set again and earing its new, relaxed arrangement.

In aggregate, the 16-song set (one more than recent Outlaw shows) was
powerful, with much of that big, roadhouse sound Dylan allows his band to
deliver on Willie's tour - so different from the generally subtle Rough &
Rowdy Ways vibes. It was also noticeably blues-inflected, especially on a
leg of the Outlaw Tour stacked with straight-up country artists - Willow
Avalon, Charles Wesley Godwin, and Turnpike Troubadours played prior to
Dylan and Willie.

So until we got to Bob (and after his set, too) it was pretty much all
twangy fiddle 'n banjo country music - all eaten up by the cowboy hat 'n
boots-adorned crowd.

For those of us on this Dylan train for a while - this was my 23rd Dylan
show, starting in August 1989 - a new show being "added to the collection"
prompts reflection. Last night, I found myself viewing these Outlaw tours
in the context of the Rolling Thunder Revue tours starting in 1975. I
believe you can draw a line to other traveling-circus tours he's been on,
including multiple years of minor league ballpark shows 20 years ago, the
Americanarama Tour in 2013, and these Outlaw Tour shows. All of them being
delights that only we in America have been gifted - I don't believe he's
ever participated in a caravan tour outside of North America.

Willie Nelson topping the bill also prompts reflection. The first concert
for each of my sons (now in college and high school, respectively) was
seeing Willie open for Dylan (with John Mellencamp also on the bill both
times) in minor league ballpark shows. Those were in 2005 (Savannah, GA)
and 2009 (Simpsonville, SC) respectively. Hearing Willie sing "Georgia On
My Mind" both times - last night too - is a memory that will last. Another
would be a 2012 Willie show with Jimmy Carter in attendance, where he
called the president up to the stage at one point to sing "Amazing Grace."
Transcendent.

Willie looked and sounded good last night, by the way. He was ill for last
year's show in this venue and didn't appear - his son Lukas Nelson took
the reins and did an amazing job. Which is remarkable ... I mean, let's do
some math. Add Willie's age to Bob's and you get a number almost
three-fourths as old as ... America itself (or at least the Constitution).
So, seeing these artists still performing is like looking up at Mount
Rushmore ... and seeing those faces start to sing.

Is it all still rolling, Bob?
Why, yes, it really is. Thank you so much - to my favorite artist ever.

Noel Mayeske