Well, with your permission, dear reader (as authors say and as we all wish
they wouldn't), I will just continue this rolling travelogue that I
began on Ray's Flagging Down the Double Es: show reviews mixed with the
great epic adventures of an American who wants to close his door and turn
his back on the world for a while. 

Friday began with very long but pleasant train ride from Edinburgh to
Nottingham, with Disney's "Robin Hood" on the iPad, as one does when
one goes to Nottingham. (It hit a little harder today than it might
usually, as the villains all reminded me of people from the news a little
too much.) The town didn't look much like the cartoon, but I asbolutely
loved Nottingham when I arrived. People were out walking on pedestrian
streets. There were shops that weren't just souveniers and gifts.
Winding Dickensian streets lined with buildings that had some character,
and a churchyard where a man with a rake showed me the grave of George
Africanus, Nottingham's first Black entrepreneur. It was a church where,
according to legend, Robin Hood was arrested by a monk and ended up
busting his sword over the head of the sheriff, which reminded me of some
Chicago history stories.  

I had an Irn Bru pizza at a place that played punk rock and continued my
quest to get proper filter coffee, which I found has gone out of style in
the U.K. The whole world seems to have lost its way sometimes. But I still
loved Nottingham. 

Before the show I ran into Sue and co, repaired to a pub and listened to
her friends telling me stories about Johnny Rotten. In the arena I took my
seat next to Nathan (but not his gran tonight, regrettfully), a few seats
from Nightly Moth. Chatted with Ian Gallon some more, and reflected once
again on how grateful I am for this community of friends that can
materialize when I'm so far from home.

The Motorpoint Arena was very large for a Rough and Rowdy show, live
Liverpool, and full of odd vendors, like a Pick-N-Mix candy place,
popcorn, cotton candy, and other foods that suggested we were about to see
a circus. The floor chairs were tight, so that if I leaved back my
shoulders would be in my neighbors' nostrils, the not staggered, so I
had to crane my neck to see around the guy in front of me, who was craning
HIS neck to see around the guy in front him him. At a crouch with my neck
contorted into a position like that dog in the gramaphone picture, I
managed to have a fine view. 

Dylan continued his custom of playing long guitar bits, with his back to
the audience, for the beginning of the first two songs. This
"Watchtower" is one of the ones that loops back around on its moebius
strip lyrics to sing the very first again at the end. It was apparent
early on that this was going to be a good night when Dylan sang "You
know, the hour is getting soooooooo late." He was locked in, singing the
lines like he was really thinking about what they meant as well as the
rhythm. Some nights it seems to be more about the rhythm and the phrasing
than the meaning behind the words, and it still works fine, since the
meaning is always there anyway, but some nights he really does seem
focused on telling the story of the songs, and things are up on another
level. 

The trend continued. "Black Rider" was haunting, "False Prophet"
soared, "Masterpiece" continued to be tight and bouncy.  "My Own
Version of You" seemed to have been rehearsed a bit - Bob seemed to
remind Jim of something before it began, and the band moved in closer, all
huddled around Bob. I mentioned in my last review that the few nights they
seemed to be seatching for a groove that they never quite found for that
song, but tonight they found it. (Not that I have any illusions that they
read my reviews, but as they say on the trains: "See it. Say it.
Sorted"). 

"Rubicon" was again a highlight. "Desolation Row" barrelled in,
and included, for the first time this week, the "Einstein disguised as
Robin Hood" verse. I'll remember a lot of great things about this
show, but I imagine I'll cite it most frequently as the night I saw him
sing the Robin Hood verse in Nottingham. 

"Key West" has been stripped down for a few nights, like the 2018
"Don't Think Twice," and tonight it seemed stripped down even
further still, until it was nearly solo piano, and then nearly "a
capella with the occasional Thelonius Monk chord." The arena seemed to
be silent.  "Baby Blue" is following a similar arrangment of nearly
all piano, with a "Shadow Kingdom" version of the vocals. 

"Watching the River Flow" was particularly strong; there were nights
when it was a strong opener with inventive vocals, but that's more
common now that it's in the middle of the set. 

"I've Made Up Mind Mind" earned Keltner an introduction as "Jim
Keltner - the great Jim Keltner - on drums."  He's been getting
particularly creative on that and "Mother of Muses," after taking
nearly all of "Key West" off (which he probably needs after that
powerhouse "Desolation Row" arrangement.)  

What more can I say? His vocals were strong, locked in, and inventive
throughout the night. Despite the horrifically uncomfortable pose I was
in, I had a fine time. The man in front of me turned and asked if I was
that poor guy who'd been in Scotland without a ticket the other night
and wrote about it, and shook my hand. Nathan and I met up with Nightly
Moth and Maddy, and made our way from bar to bar, having adventures in
that wonderful "Just saw a great Dylan concert" buzz. We thought we
saw a ghost walking in an attic, went to investigate, and found a door
saying to beware of ghosts. (See it. Say it. Sorted).  Everywhere we went
we found ourselves sitting with other fans and comparing this show to the
last time he was in town (general verdict that this band isn't as tight
- it's rougher and rowdier here in Rough and Rowdy Ways II). A woman on
the street noted how random it was that I was American (which I'm not
sure is what 'random' means but I thanked her kindly). I have a vague
memory of juggling ice cubesa around the time we got our train tickets to
Wolverhampton set. In the morning I found myself looking serious at
"Help Wanted" signs and ran into Trev Gibb, whom I'e known forever
online, at the train station. What a great show, what an adventure. Every
town has its ups and downs. Sometimes ups outnumber the downs. I love
Nottingham. 

Bob Dylan took command of the arena and his band last night. His rough and
rowdy troupe showing extreme sensitivity on the ballads and a raucous
cacophonous edge on the bluesier numbers.

Opening the set with a one chord version of Watchtower which felt
something like a combination of Masters of War and Political world, Dylan
played some nice near chromatic licks at times finding his way into the
song.

It Ain't Me Babe followed and it was a joy to hear his voice so strong
and powerful. In fact during the whole evening he was singing powerfully
and strong. Never too much or too little.

As he eased into the Rough and Rowdy songs, from where I was sitting a lot
of the instruments seemed to be sharing a little too much of the same
frequency space that added a murky character to the proceedings, but
within it you could hear some very cool interplay between Bob Britt and
Doug Lancio. I Contain Multitudes was quite beautiful.

False Prophet followed but didn't hit me with the same pulsing strength
the album version does. Some of the great Jim Keltner's (as Dylan
introduced him) signature rolls weren't quite landing in the pocket to
my ear and that seemed to be the case in a number of the blues-oriented
songs.

At the end of one of the songs, and it may have been False Prophet, I did
notice Bob reach out his arm half salute in Jim's direction, though
I'm not sure what the gesture was an indication of.

Masterpiece and Black Rider followed and things started to take a turn as
the band eased in and their dynamics and Bob's every nuance seemed to
align to perfection.

My Own Version of You seemed to pass me by, although according to reports
from others at earlier shows on this tour, this was the best version so
far. I tried to grab hold of it and go for the ride but I just couldn't
slide into the songs movement. It felt much the same during To Be Alone
With You, although the piano playing from Dylan was dominant, driving and
superb, but again sitting upper right from the stage isn't always the
best way of picking up the stereophonic sound of the band. The energy
however shifted to joyous extremes with Desolation Row in its Series of
Dreams drum version.

And then there was Key West. This was a real turning point for me. It was
the moment he took full control. The band slid back into the shadows and
Dylan's incredible vocals punctured the passing chords and piano stabs.
His voice was just incredibly strong all night. Singing with such
conviction and purpose. You could see a beam of light emanating from the
stage, he was like a prophet embalmed in light and an audience rapt by his
every utterance. In fact in my limited number (20) of concerts I've seen
in a quarter of a century this may have been the best I've ever heard
him sing.

Then followed a run of perfectly executed songs, with a great River Flow,
and Baby Blue in its new version with the new minor 3rd chord change which
reminds me somewhat of Joni Mitchell's piano demo version that would
later morph into her song Not To Blame. I felt Baby Blue was the true
grand ballad of the evening. It seems capture the moment we're in now,
with the shadow of the US election just a few days passed.

Then followed a stunning version of Made Up My Mind, the stillness and
focus in the audience clear, with Dylan reaching high squeezing out the
last notes of the progression "nobody told meeeeeeeee it was just
something I knew".

Mother of Muses is a real favourite of mine and was for me when the album
first came out. It's a beautiful song of praise, gratitude, a requiem to
history and a higher level calling and understanding of the relationship
between the dark and light parts of history, something that floats above
the histrionic static noise of todays "everything is political,
everything is divided". Inside the song are the songs of history, the
great divisive figures of history and the beauty that weaves all of these
images and events together as one long tapestry of humankind. It's one
of the great Dylan melodies for me and fitting that it nearly bookends the
final song of the show Every Grain of Sand.

Goodbye Jimmy Reed injected some light relief before the other grand
ballad of the evening provided the grand finale.

Restored to its original glory with the original guitar part from the Shot
of Love album, with precision and emotional intensity by Doug Lancio and
quite fitting to have Jim Keltner who was there at the original recording
session guiding the song along with the gentlest brush drums.

I found myself close to tears and hanging in the balance. Dylan knows
what's ahead and up the road for him and he's delivers his fans to
that enchanted place also, reflecting on the wonder, the beauty and the
sadness of life and the strength and faith to gently let go to the will of
our maker and the beauty of creation, and with that he closes one of the
best concerts I've ever seen. 

This was my first Dylan show since Fall 2022, when I attended London 4th, 
Nottingham and Oxford. I'd deliberately refrained from listening to any 
recordings from this current European leg of the tour before attending, 
and was really pleasantly surprised by how much more the band seemed to 
be gelling than they were at the Outlaw shows.

The whole package is more polished now than it was on Outlaw, but the 
spirit of looseness and improvisation is still there: Garnier emphasising 
rhythm with nods of the head to Keltner and moving the neck of the 
upright bass in time like a giant metronome, directing the ending of 
Rubicon in particular. Dylan turning to Keltner and gesturing at a couple 
of points, in a guiding way rather than in annoyance.

For those of you keeping track of the outfits, Bob was wearing his 
sparkly gold jacket like it was 1996 all over again and looking very 
snazzy.

"Bob was in fine voice" is perhaps the ultimate Dylan concert review 
cliche, but it was true tonight and the voice was the thing that stood 
out above everything else, both in the sound mix and the arrangements 
themselves. I agree with the earlier comments here about more energy 
than Fall '22.

Nearly all RaRW songs felt very different to Fall '22, where Nottingham
saw a magnificent concert in the same venue. Multitudes was great, with 
Keltner adding some extra energy that was most welcome. False Prophet 
sounded better than Fall '22 to my ear too: beefy guitars with lots of 
swagger. This latest arrangement of My Own Version Of You isn't the 
strongest compared to the others it's had - that alternating 
descending/ascending motif on the album version is one of the most 
interesting things he's done in years in my opinion, but the new 
arrangement is very similar to Beyond Here Lies Nothin'. A perfectly 
serviceable minor key blues, but it lacks individuality and doesn't 
serve the lyrics as well as past arrangements have. Key West on the 
other hand was a standout in its new stripped down form, for me much 
stronger than Fall 2022 versions - Britt and Lancio add some colour 
with the guitars and Garnier brings weight to the low end of the mix, 
but their playing is so subtle it felt like you could almost mistake 
this for a solo performance. The latest uptempo arrangement of Goodbye 
Jimmy Reed was fun and wouldn't have sounded out of place on Bringing 
It All Back Home.

It was really nice seeing them tackle some of the older songs again, 
especially When I Paint My Masterpiece, which for me was the best song 
of the night hands down. A punchy, exciting, almost hip hop vocal 
delivery from Dylan, especially during the first couple of verses, 
reminding us that he's still the master of phrasing. Bob left the 
piano during this one, taking the mic in one hand and using the other 
hand to punctuate the lyrics. Desolation Row was another highlight - 
Keltner really injecting this one with some life, I can't recall 
hearing such an uptempo version before, and Dylan sang it 
fantastically. I'd love to see him sing more verses on this one - he's 
got the time to do it now that the tempo has increased. Come on Bob, 
give us a bit of Nero's Neptune in Wolverhampton! Lovely to hear Baby 
Blue again, a tender and sparse arrangement that really lets the 
lyrics shine. Probably the second biggest highlight of the night for 
me after Masterpiece.

Lots of harp tonight, which is always a good thing. Loved seeing him 
leaning on top of the piano with both hands cupped around the harp. At 
one point I thought to myself how much he looked like 1964 Dylan, and 
in those moments you remember just who you're in the room with. Magic. 
Absolute magic.