In the spring, Itwoshowsin a row at places called the Orpheum Theatre. This weekend, I saw two shows in a row in places called the Xfinity Center. Which tells you a lot about the venue differences between Rough and Rowdy and Outlaw.
Last night’s Xfinity Center was in Mansfield, MA, the same place I attended Outlaw with my family last year. I flew solo this year, meaning I could sit much closer than the lawn and get a better view of Bob. Lol! If you read my piece yesterday, you know how that went. I won’t belabor it again except to say I stand by everything I wrote then. It’s a bummer, and I hope he knocks it off. (Tip: If you’re going to an upcoming show and haven’t bought your ticket yet, aim for the right side and you might get a slim viewing window, like the person who took the photo above did.)
But there was one big difference from Hartford: In Mansfield, the crowd around me didn’t mind. No loud complaints, no one swearing and storming out. People were standing, dancing, singing, cheering and clapping and hooting and hollering. Even though we still couldn’t see much, that energy changed a lot. As I wrote yesterday, the dour crowd vibe was half the problem. I don’t know why Mansfield reacted so differently. Has word just gotten out more by now, so a critical mass knew what to expect? Are Bostonians just somehow used to watching invisible singers? (Did J. Geils Band used to perform behind a curtain or something?) No idea. But the improved crowd energy helped immensely.
What also helped: Dylan’s own behavior. While he remained hidden during the songs, he stood between almost every one. Walked out from behind the piano to talk to Tony a few times. Even once threw a center-stage pose, hand on hip soaking in the applause, right in the middle of the show. So people could see him at least between songs. Different than Hartford where he was essentially invisible from beginning to end (I think he briefly stood once). I didn’t hear any more audience debates about “Is that really him up there?” last night.
Having seen four shows now, with close-to-the-same setlists, I thought I’d break format for my final Outlaw report and do a quick power ranking. How well I think the current setlist songs work, worst to best. Using the rigorous scientific criteria of: What I like.
17. Early Roman Kings
I swear this ranking isn’t just an excuse to dump on “Early Roman Kings” again. Someone the other day asked me if I really dislike this song or if I’m joking. The answer: Both! The one thing I like about “Early Roman Kings” is making jokes about it online. It’s not my least-favorite Dylan song, but it’s certainly my least-favorite Dylan song he plays so damn often.
16. Axe and the Wind
The one dud of the summer covers, which mostly have been show highlights. The song’s written by a dude nicknamed “Wild Child,” and I wish Dylan would bring a bit of wild-child energy to it. It feels much longer than its three-minute-and-change runtime.
15. Under the Red Sky
The fact that Dylan is performing “Under the Red Sky” live in 2025 rules. So I wish I could rank it higher. I’ve just never seen a version that really transcends. They’re fine. I hope he keeps doing it. But I wish it stood out more.
14. To Ramona
I love the beginning and ending of this song right now. The beginning is Bob lurching in, beginning to sing while the band appears unready to start, then they have to catch up with him. He does this every night, so it’s clearly part of the arrangement. And the ending is often a great harmonica solo. The middle, though, is too busy. I wish the band sat back to give more space to his vocals.
13. Soon After Midnight
I was chatting with Michael of the excellent social media account/newsletter Daily Dylan. This is his “Early Roman Kings.” Swapping out “Positively 4th Street” for this a few hows back bummed him out. I get it. I like “Soon After Midnight” though. I’m fine with it.
12. Blind Willie McTell
I mean, it’s “Blind Willie McTell”! I’m sure many of us would be happy if he sang it every night for the rest of his life. The versions I’ve seen were all fine. That’s always the challenge writing these lists, incidentally. It’s easy to have strong opinions on the best and worst, but all the middle ones you want to just write, “It’s fine!” And it is. No complaints. I just thought he generally performed other songs better.
11. Desolation Row
Had I done a power ranking last fall, “Desolation Row” might have been number one. It’s slipped a little because the distinctive surf-rock arrangement I loved last year has grown more muddled and muddied. He still sings the hell out of it though.
10. I’ll Make It All Up to You
An easy high point Saturday in Hartford, with one of the best vocals of the night. The other three I’ve seen, and others I’ve heard on tape, don’t quite reach though heights. The lesser of the two sentimental-ballad covers. Still good though!
9. Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
We’re only in the middle of the list, but at this point they’re all great. It’s just a matter of degrees. “Don’t Think Twice” is the most Rough and Rowdy-sounding song in the set, a minimalist ambient backing from the band underpinning Dylan’s delicate crooning. Beautiful every night. I wish “To Ramona” got a similar treatment.
8. Love Sick
There’s nothing particularly unusual about the current “Love Sick” arrangement, but it sounds absolutely massive in these giant outdoor amphitheaters.
7. Share Your Love with Me
The better, by a hair, of the aforementioned sentimental-ballad covers. He sings it so tenderly. It reminds me of the Sinatra era.
6. Highway 61 Revisited
This is the one song that has dramatically changed arrangement between the shows I saw in August and the ones this weekend, and in doing so improved a lot. As I noted yesterday, he’s basically done a “Watchtower” on it, taking a song that often sounds more-or-less the same and giving it a whole new riff. It changes the way he’s singing it from the usual blues-rock autopilot, and makes it a show highlight.
5. Masters of War
A killer show-opener, appropriately dark and menacing. He growls it beautifully as his voice warms up. Dylan is using a subtle vocal echo effect on this song, and also on…
4. Forgetful Heart
The third in an unbelievable opening three-pack, all of which rank in my top five. It’s the first time after two loud rockers that things quiet down. Well, sort of. Bob sings quietly, but the band jabs through with sharp staccato bursts of noise. Listen to the one in Mansfield last night:
3. I Can Tell
Fantastic performance of a fantastic '50s-style rocker (it actually came out in 1962). Dylan clearly has a lot of fun singing it, bringing heaps of sass to his vocals, sometimes even seeming to laugh during the lines. Bonus points for the first backing vocals, by Bob Britt, since the Larry-Charlie years.
2. All Along the Watchtower
What needs to be said? Maybe the most-discussed song of the summer. He borrowed the music from Van Morrison’s “I Forgot That Love Existed,” a connection Van himself made on a live album where he sang a few “Watchtower” lines at the end of his own song. I could see this show 100 times and it would never get old.
1. ’Til I Fell in Love with You
I mean, I like every song on Time Out of Mind, but I can’t say this one particularly stood out above the others. Until now. This summer’s performances have been nothing short of stunning. It’s like free-jazz meets ambient music meets thunder. There’s a part in my favorite Wilco song, “Via Chicago,” where the band careens off a cliff. They stop playing the chords, they stop playing the rhythm, they just make an insane amount of random noise. Jeff Tweedy, though, keeps gently strumming his guitar and singing the song as if nothing has changed, while chaos explodes all around him. This reminds me a bit of that.
That’s a wrap on my Outlaw summer! If you missed my previous three reports, find them here: Saratoga Springs, Gilford,Hartford. I’ll have another guest dispatch or two before the tour ends in a few weeks. Then it’s back to Rough and Rowdy Ways in Europe.
The night before in Maine, when the Outlaw Tour kicked off its final leg, Dylan changed his stage setup. In an effort to discourage cameras, I assume, he’s added a bunch of obstructions that block anyone from seeing him period. He retained this frustrating new layout in Hartford last night.
Two crazy tree-looking light fixtures sit on the piano, plus four standing light bulbs arrayed in front of him like soldiers guarding the king (brighter than they come across in photos—I have sensitive eyes and got a headache from looking into them). Plus he’s switched to a baby grand piano this leg, which has a music stand on top to hold his lyric sheets. On the off chance you can see around all the lights, that music stand blocks the lower half of his face. And, to take care of the upper half, he wears what looks like a raincoat with the hood up. I had a good seat, 15th row dead center, and that photo shows my view all night. I talked to people sitting in other sections afterwards, and his wall of barricades effectively prevents anyone from seeing him, anywhere in the venue. Just a top of a raincoat hood shifting around.
My next Bonus Track interview from the Bob Dylan Center’s ‘Going Electric’ concerts is guitarist Nels Cline. He’s probably best known as Wilco’s lead guitarist since 2004, but he boasts an extensive discography outside the band showcasing his more experimental and/or jazz sides.
Backstage at Cain’s Ballroom, we started off talking about that evening’s concerts, but soon moved on to missed Jimi Hendrix concerts, Roger McGuinn’s guitar technique, and how much he loves Theme Time Radio Hour. Since everyone was hanging in the same area backstage, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth each popped into the conversation too.
(If you missed my earlier Bonus Track conversations with Lee and Steve, catch up here)
I interviewed 15 different musician forBehind the Scenes of the Bob Dylan Center's 'Going Electric' Concert, and only had room to use a few sentences from each in that big feature. But there was so much more! So, today, as promised, the first subscriber-only Bonus Tracks: Extended versions of my conversations with the musicians who were performed at the all-star Tulsa tribute concert.
First up, two members of the show’s house band The Million Dollar Bashers: music director/guitarist Lee Ranaldo and drummer Steve Shelley. They’ve played together before in fact, in a little band called Sonic Youth. And they were also both in the original Million Dollar Bashers, the band that backed Eddie Vedder, Karen O, and others on the I’m Not There soundtrack. (You might have heard of their bass player then: Tony Garnier.)
All these were just casual hangs backstage at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa. Much looser than my usual deep dive interviews. I didn’t have lists of questions or anything, I was just winging it, and conversations were often interrupted by other musicians wanting to discuss arrangements or just shoot the breeze.
Here’s me chatting with Lee and Steve about the show and about all things Bob. I’ll share more of these soon.
Last night, Dylan played “Masters of War” for the first time since 2016. Maybe even more notably, it was the first time ever it opened his show. The show was outside Buffalo in Darien Lake—the site of Dylan busting out the wrench last year. Bruce Eaton, a retired jazz concert producer and the author of a 33 1/3 book on Big Star’s Radio City, was on the scene and reports in.
After two and half months of FOMO as I watched the Outlaw tour meander about the West and South, finally, last night, it came near me. I attended the show in Saratoga Springs, and will continue onward to Gilford NH tonight. Then I’ll catch it again when it returns to New England in September (strange tour routing to play New Hampshire and Massachusetts a month apart…).
Here are my slightly bleary-eyed observations the morning after a beautiful, chilly night in Saratoga Springs.
The evening’s big surprise came right up top: For the first time since 1989, “Positively 4th Street” opened the show. “Gotta Serve Somebody” was out. It made for a killer opening. Bob really leaned into the growl, while still belting to the rafters. Is growlbelting the new upsinging? A little girl in front of me had her fingers in her ears. Can’t please everyone. No tape yet, but I have do have most of this song:
I wrote the word “jaunty” three times in my notes. Now maybe this is a sign I need to grow my vocabulary, but in all the Rough and Rowdy Ways shows I’ve attended, that is rarely a word that jumps to mind. But things were moving last night! The pace was up across the board. After years of a tempo range from “mid” to “slow-as-molasses,” it marks quite a change. Even a song like “To Ramona” had almost a carnival-esque swing.
The band is notably tighter than last year’s Outlaw run. Bob, on the other hand, was sloppier, at least last night. For much of the show he was unusually mush-mouthed (even by his standards). Lines mumbled, muttered, cast off, swallowed, not sang at all. After a strong start for the first few songs, he settled into a rut it took him until “Watchtower” to pull out of.
But pull out he did. The Van Morrison “Watchtower” arrangement is even more fun live than it is on the tapes, but what really turned things around was a stunning “Til I Fell in Love with You.” Bob croons the lines over an arrhythmic, atonal backing, the band just making noises behind him without really playing “music.” It sounded like something Tom Waits might do (but quieter). From then on things were pretty solid.
Bob Britt, who seems like such an unassuming guy, is suddenly in the spotlight. Not only does he sing backing vocals on “I Can Tell” (first Bob backing vocals since the 2000s?), but it was like guitar-solo-palooza up there. After years where “minimalism” was the watchword, suddenly Bob D is giving Bob B the nod all night. A half dozen solos—and real solos too, not like one flashy lick immediately submerged. The pendulum is swinging back it seems. Here comes Denny Freeman 2.0. Brief clip of Bob B’s backing vocals:
The covers he chooses to do every night are wild. Songs you’ve never heard of, songs you’ve never heard him mention before, then suddenly he’s doing “Axe and the Wind” or “I'll Make It All Up To You” 23 times in a row (and counting). It makes you realize just how many thousands of songs in his head could surely get slotted into that role if one happens to pop into his mind during band rehearsals.
Which reminds me, a pre-tour leak mentioned they’d rehearsed covers of Bo Diddley, Rick Nelson, and Bruce Springsteen. The first two have come to pass. Only one to go. All together now: Bruuuuuuuce.
“He sounds like a parody of himself,” someone behind me said at one point. It’s a criticism he’s been getting for decades! In fact, it prompted one of my favorite bits of BobTalk way back in 1986: “Well, I just read another concert review the other day. It said ‘Bob’s sounding like a parody of himself. He sounds just exactly like he’s imitating himself.’ I should like to know who I’m supposed to sound like, you know? I know it’s hard when so many people sound like me these days. [laughs] But someday, somebody got to tell these people that I’m still here. Well, I can’t sound like anybody else. I don’t know how to. If I did, I would.”
No BobTalk last night though. Not even a muttered “Thank you friends.” Also no singing center stage, as he had a few times the week before, to great effect. Alas.
Stage report: It’s hilarious just how far back they set everything up onstage. It’s even more obvious at these daytime shows. The front half or more of the stage, where all the other bands stand, goes entirely unused. A few more feet back and he’ll be performing behind the backdrop. Bob also has a silver mirrored piano backing, that annoyingly reflected some flashing red light from the audience (or front of stage?) for much of the show. Also they set up a black curtain for him and the band to enter from, so you don’t see him until he is already close to the piano. The other acts did not have this.
Not only do the video screens show a still camera positioned a million miles away, but they make the stage a deep blood red, where in reality it was a warm orange. This was just for Bob; everyone else used the regular cameras and lighting. Strange. Compare these two pics, one screen and one not, taken seconds apart:
Did the band get yelled at after Jones Beach? On four separate songs, Tony Garnier made a point to clap in the intros for everyone to follow. Were they too fast last time, or too slow? Tony clearly had been tasked with getting things back on track, though it’s unclear how they went off.
I was reminded of two funny Robyn Hitchcock lines he told me last weekend. He said it’s easy for “Highway 61 Revisited” to devolve into a “colorless boogie”—which, sure enough, it was last night. But he also criticized Bob for the current “Desolation Row” arrangement, saying “it’s one of those songs he loves to reverse a car over at the moment.” But I love it! The surf-rock drums remain, but it’s spookier, more menacing and ominous. “Highway 61” could use a car reversed over it too.
Yesterday was Garth Hudson’s birthday. Given the location—not that far from Big Pink—I was surprised it went unmentioned. By Wilco at least. The last time they played this venue with Dylan, back in 2013, you know who sat in with them? Garth! They did “Long Black Veil” and Garth’s showcase “The Genetic Method>Chest Fever.” This time, Willie’s harmonica player (and recent interviewee) Mickey Raphael sat in, for “California Stars” and The Dead’s “U.S. Blues.” Hope Bob invites him to sit in again before the tour’s over. He did tell me he’s been practicing his accordion…
SPAC is as good as these big outdoor venues get. You park your car in a state park, walk through trees and across a bridge over a creek to get in, there’s a ton of grassy space to explore in between sets. A couple years ago a bunch of old soundboard tapes leaked from this venue. There was at least one Dylan, a great Summer 2000 show with—whaddya know—“Searching for a Soldier’s Grave.” My vague recollection is they came from a retired sound engineer. Maybe there’s a new sound engineer there who can keep the tradition alive.
