Nottingham. October 28th.I arrived on National Express. Nice company.
Usually on time and good service.
Walk the half hour to Madi, my couchsurfing host. 
Him and his friend are from Libia but they had been
living in Nottingham for 7 years.
We chat about their country but then they
have to work. So I ask for the keys and take a nap. 
I've been sick since the rainy night in London when I didn't even find a ticket. 
Cold and bronchitis By 5 pm I walk the way to the motor point arena. 
And of course I've been here before.
Tonight I really want to see the show and I
work hard to attract the attention with my paintings.
The crowd is more sympathetic than Hull.
A gentleman wants to sell me a Tix. But finally he
will come back to me and exchange for a print :). 
Thanks good Samaritan!

The venue is HUGE...10000? AND PACKED!
my seat is not to good but I am inside :)
It's all dark except for the blue lights in the audience
when Bob walks to the piano. 
He's wearing a grey/silver jacket.Right away into "Watching the river flow".
He will move center stage after "Black rider".
And after "Key west".
After "I'll be your baby tonight" he will say "thank you Babies lovers. 
I'm also a Baby lover. We are all Babies lovers".
And say "thank you" another time.The couple next to me can't stop
talking to each other ... And move for drinks.
Also movements in the floor after "My own version of you" and "Key west".
The sound is good though. 
But it's difficult to keep attentive when Bob disappears behind the piano 
(no more draped in black).I have thousands of folks in from of me :
("Every grain of sand". 
And it's supposed to be the last one when Bob disappears
in the dark. But since London 4 I still wait for an encore.
And I'm right.The Band and Bob move back to their instruments. 
Bob at the piano."I don't know if many of you know but Jerry Lee  is gone,  
and we're gonna play this song, one of his. Jerry Lee will live forever. 
We all know that".And they play an emotional "I Can't seem to say goodbye".
Only for that song that worse all the pain to come all the way to Nottingham.
Except for the aficionados I don't know how many folks appreciated that hommage.
By now I'm so sick that I just want to go to bed.I run a high fever all night 
and blow my nose thousands times.
Sacrifice is the code of the road:

The latest in a career of 40 years of a Bob-watching (a total of twenty-one shows - 
I know, a mouse among real Bobcats!), ranging from cavernous arenas (Earls Court, 
Birmingham NEC) Blackbushe, football stadiums, to the new generation arenas, and 
the Apollos, down to the Grand Rex, Paris and the Blackpool Opera House. 

But this one is different. And one of the things that makes this one different is the 
inevitable feeling that - for various reasons - this could well be my last show. It might 
not be, but I can't be the only one who senses an element of 'swan song' in this tour. 
So, maybe all the more remarkable that he hasn't resorted to the Greatest Hits format. 

As everyone knows by now, it is very much a 'Rough and Rowdy' Show, and for the 
most part tonight's show followed the script to the letter. So, perhaps not entirely 
surprising, therefore, that some of the renditions might have felt a bit mechanical. 
The band are flawless, but essentially you feel their job is to be very polished, without 
upstaging Bob. For the most part, they seem quite reined in and keep in the 
background. But that doesn't mean that there weren't highlights.  For me 'Crossing 
The Rubicon' and 'To Be Alone With You', were absolutely right on the money, 
creating something extraordinary in that moment. 

But then, the real surprise was kept until the end. Before I left home to go to the 
show I had heard on the radio that Jerry Lee Lewis had died. Thinking back to Bob's 
Hibbing High School days I joked that he might well play 'Great Balls of Fire' as
a tribute. 

Well, what he actually did was a) did an encore ('But Bob doesn't do encores 
these days!!'); and b) the encore was Jerry Lee's 'I Can't Seem To Say Goodbye'. 
A Stunning end to a stunning show!!

Wow. Just wow. My 37th Dylan show and second of this tour was hands down 
one of the best Dylan shows I’ve ever seen (did I say that about London 4 as 
well? Well this one surpassed it). It might sound blasphemous to prefer an arena 
show like this to the majestic fourth night at the London Palladium, but I had a 
much better time at this show and I thought the performance itself was better.

My seats were a big improvement to last time (tonight I was row 11, level with 
Donnie) so I had great views of everyone and was just close enough to be able 
to see their faces. The sound was louder and clearer than my seat at the back 
of the Royal Circle at the Palladium, and the crowd around me were quiet and 
respectful, the polar opposite of the drunken heathens that were sitting behind 
me in London. As a result I was able to get fully into the show with no 
distractions, and I had my partner with me for her first ever Dylan show. She 
loved it, and she couldn’t have had a better first one.

As always I chatted to the people around me before the show and enjoyed 
hearing stories from one chap whose first show was Blackbushe 1978 when he 
was 15 (jealous!). The arena seemed to be pretty much sold out, with only 
the back couple of rows in the nosebleeds empty.

The performance was sublime. The opening two songs were better than 
London 4, much tighter. On Watching The River Flow in London Bob vamped 
for nearly four minutes before coming out with the opening line “what’s the 
matter with me? I don’t have much to say”, which was clever, but tonight he 
cut straight to the chase, coming in pretty much straight after the opening 
turnaround. Most Likely continues to evolve as Bob and the band continue to 
explore different phrases and riffs. No lyric flubs apart from dropping “and you’re 
thinking of me” from the start of Most Likely, but it seemed intentional. Bob 
seemed to spend more time on the mid to low end of the piano tonight, 
whereas he played a lot up at the top end in London. By the time we got to 
Multitudes the Nottingham crowd was eating out of the palm of his hand. It 
was a tenderly delivered version that lost none of its intimacy in the 10,000 
seat Motorpoint Arena. It’s as soulless an ice hockey barn as you could ever 
find, but I didn’t notice that for one second there in the moment.

False Prophet was a cool groove, and the instrumental breakdowns with Bob 
hammering the keys were fun.

Masterpiece was better than London. I’ve read some criticism of the 
arrangement on this tour, but it really seemed to come together tonight.

Black Rider was solid and My Own Version Of You was an understated version 
that was very powerful and by the end of it every hair on my arms was 
standing on end.

Bob’s additions of “doggone” into a couple of songs made me chuckle:
“everything’s gonna be so doggone beautiful when I paint my masterpiece” 
(which I recall hearing before, perhaps at London or on one of the tapes) and 
then again in Baby Tonight: “tonight is gonna be so doggone fine”, which was
new to me.

There was more Bob talk than London 4, a few “thank you friends!” and then 
after Baby Tonight: “Why thank you baby lovers…I’m a baby lover too…of 
course I am…we’re all baby lovers!”

Some instrumental moments that were utterly transcendent - one part 
towards the end of Rubicon was pure eargasm, the band gelling wonderfully. 
At one point in To Be Alone With You I heard a sort of high end percussive 
sound that I assumed was Charlie hitting the rims, until I looked and realised 
it was Tony getting these incredible rhythmic sounds out of his upright bass. 
The groove was fantastic.

Britt and Lancio were absolutely nailing it all night, while Donnie’s role seems 
to have shifted towards a less prominent position in the overall sound 
compared to years gone by. Nevertheless he’s solid as a rock and you almost 
don’t notice him he blends in so beautifully. You can bet we’d miss him if he 
wasn’t there though.

Key West meandered and flowed in its wonderful way, with some great 
rhythm to the delivery.

I’ve Made Up My Mind employed a more softly spoken style to the refrain, 
which made a nice contrast with London. Hard to say which one I preferred, 
they were both charming in their own way.

Gotta Serve Somebody was STUNNING. He sang it so well, and the 
instrumental breakdowns were absolute magic. Loved this version.

Mother of Muses was gorgeous, what more can I say?

Goodbye Jimmy Reed retained its slinky vibe from previous shows and had 
a real  lean towards the minor key at its end that I didn’t notice in London, 
though that may be because I was distracted by the crowd there. It was one 
of those classic moments where Tony is looking at Bob and you can see him 
thinking “ok, where’s he going with this?” as the rest of the band pay attention
and follow expertly. It must have been quite apparent because my partner 
noticed it too, and she’s not used to seeing the dynamic Dylan has with his 
band.

Then onto Every Grain of Sand, which is one of the consistent highlights of 
this tour. For years I never clicked with this song despite its ‘masterpiece’ 
status among fans. Since he’s added it to the end of the show it’s all fallen 
into place for me and I absolutely adore it. When the harmonica came in at 
the end the crowd roared their approval and nearly took the roof off the 
place. But the perfect ending was yet to come.

I turned to my partner and said “get your coat on, he’ll come back out for 
a curtain call and then he’s gone, so let’s try and beat the crowds on the 
way out.” We stayed put though and I’m glad we did.

Bob and the band shuffled back onstage, and then Bob moved back behind
the piano. Something exciting was happening! I turned to my partner again: 
“you’re about to see something very special”, thinking we might get Friend 
Of The Devil.

Bob said “I don’t know if you know, but Jerry Lee is gone” and then 
something along the lines of “we’d like to play this song for him”.

He then treated us to the most beautiful performance of “I Can’t Seem To 
Say Goodbye”. The general vibe of it reminded me of that lovely snippet of 
You’re Too Late from Experiment Ensam. He was putting so much care into
it, and it was glorious. Before the encore I was already blown away, but this
took it to the next level. Just sublime in every way.

Have I got a case of the “I was there so it was the best show evers”? 
Perhaps, but I don’t think so. I’m nailing my colours to the mast on this one: 
Nottingham 2022 is one of the all time great Dylan shows. I pray the 
recordings do it justice.

Great that. Mother of Muses, somehow seemed greater than usual
I was on left hand side first block on the side, over looking the floor. The 
same kind of area as Krefeld. Similar sound to Krefeld there. As in Krefeld 
when Bob sang closer of further away from mic, the volume seemed to rise 
and fall, similar with piano.. I went to all the Palladium shows, and didn't 
notice that. Also good to see him side and on and behind piano. I had 
binoculars, good view from the side there. Gotta Serve Somebody really 
worked well and seemed somehow different. I'll be your baby tonight seemed 
somehow different to all the Palladium shows. I've been to Krefeld and 
Nottingham, both arenas, both at the nearest block on the side on left 
hand side looking at the stage, and they've both sounded great, both up 
there with palladium night two.

After I'll be your baby tonight, a few lines about being for the baby lovers, 
and that he's a baby lover too.. We're all baby lovers

A few why thank yous. Straight band intro. A bit of pointing by Bob with 
his right hand, but in a more relaxed way than Krefeld, he seemed to be 
enjoying what the band were doing,.. Krefeld a few times he seemed a 
bit annoyed.

.. And then at the end.. Returned after he left the stage, with the 
encore after every grain