Well I thought I had rather stopped posting links to Bob Dylan's complete live coverage (I won't say the Never Ending Tour. - "You just said it!" - ED) but Big O has posted a set from his recent gig in New Zealand (Christchurch August 28) that is remarkably listenable for an audience recording. I know I have said I wouldn't post links to audience recordings anymore after the revolution that started boots being made available from soundboards but this is worth checking out. The notes from Big O make this clear as to why. Bob adds two songs from Highway 61 and the arrangements on the rest are absolutely fascinating. It is always worth dropping in to see what Bob is up to and this proves my point I think. Check the re-write of 'Gotta Serve Somebody'  and the arrangement of 'Thunder on The Mountain' complete with drum break! (who does a drum solo break anymore?) 

Bob Dylan - Christchurch, New Zealand 2018 Big O

It's another Naughty Dog production so you know it's at least worth checking out  . . . 

- click here for the Rolling Stone review

Boblinks says

boblinks.com:My first Dylan show was 20 years ago, September 1998, when this Arena (with a different sponsor) opened. I wasn’t a huge fan at that point. I enjoyed the show, but appreciated support act Patti Smith more. By 2000, when I saw Bob in May 2000, in Cologne, Germany, I was a hard-core fan. Those, and the 2003 show here, were in the “high rotation” era and though Bob played some keyboards in 2003 there were some epic guitar duels.By the time of the last 2014 show, there was a fixed setlist and a much more arranged feel, which had a lot of positive aspects, but didn’t have the unpredictable and dangerous feel of, in particular, the May 11, 2000 Cologne, concert, where Larry and Charlie reworked Cold Irons Bound into Led Zeppelin style stadium rock.Before this show I had listened with anticipation to a few of the recent shows from Europe and then Asia and Australia, and the singing and arrangements seemed to be getting better and better, so I was looking forward to the night. I got there early and managed to run into a few dedicated fans I’ve known for some time, from back in the days when you had to transmit bootlegs on physical media…On the face of it, this should have been a similar show to 2014. But for me it wasn’t. For me 2014 was highly enjoyable, but not the same level. The radically new arrangements, and the emotion that he brought to some of the songs gave them a freshness that blew me away.I had a seat out to the side, opposite Bob’s piano, so had a great view of him and the band. The sound was pretty good, and his voice was clear enough to pick up the variations on lyrics (Gotta Serve Somebody is a completely new song…), and the emotional emphasis of key phrases.He swapped out a couple of songs since Auckland, so we got an awesome rendition of “Like a Rolling Stone”, and a slow, heavy, “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry”, with Bob leaving the piano towards the end to do Rock God poses between Charlie and Tony. The bitterness, and the magic, of those ’60s songs seemed remarkably fresh, especially the biting anger of the closing “Ballad of a Thin Man”. Was the last verse a commentary on modern technology or was he was referring to the ban on photographs?“There ought to be a lawAgainst you coming roundNext time you doPlease rememberDon’t forget your telephone…”I felt like I’d been transported back to 1966, and that when he sneered “You are very well read, It’s well known” he was talking to me! Ouch!The safe choice would have been to close with a feel-good “Blowing in the Wind”, as he did last time here. But on this occasion that was the second-last song, and we were left with the scathing accusation that something was happening and we really didn’t know what it was… Genius.

Mike Read