FLAGGING DOWN THE DOUBLE Es : Last Night in Troutdale (by Dave Depper) 2026-06-04, McMenamins Edgefield, Troutdale, OR | RAY PADGETT

Last Night in Troutdale (by Dave Depper) 2026-06-04, McMenamins Edgefield, Troutdale, OR

RAY PADGETT JUN 5 So of course who should pick up the story about a song not played for 59 years ago but our very own Ray Padgett at Flagging Down the Double Es . . . . !! he adds a first hand account of someone who was there (he frequently does - sic) Dave Depper

Photo via @marchibeth

Last night, Bob Dylan kicked off what is officially called—according to a t-shirt on sale in the merch booth at least—the Long Hot Summer Tour. He played alongside openers Lucinda Williams and John Doe (who I interviewed last year) in an outdoor venue in Troutdale, Oregon, near Portland. The setlist featured a number of songs returning from last summer’s setlist as well as, for the first time, a few Rough and Rowdy Ways songs played at a non-“Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour” show.

The big news though was the debut of an extremely deep Basement Tapes cut: “Baby Won’t You Be My Baby.” I crunched the numbers and this is the longest gap ever between Dylan recording a song and playing it live. 59 years! That easily tops the previous record-holder, “Outlaw Blues” at 42 years (I did a whole list if you wanna see more).

Dave Depper was on hand to report in for us. Depper is a member of the iconic indie-rock band Death Cab for Cutie, who have a new album out today, I Built You a Tower. (I also highly recommend his solo album covering the entirety of Air’s landmark electronic record Moon Safari.) Since he had a million other things on his album release day to-do list, Depper called me on the phone a couple hours ago, and I pulled his remarks together into this piece.

(This will be the first of many show reviews from this summer’s tour, including a few by me when the tour heads east. Most go out only to paid subscribers. Sign up here if you want to get them all.)

read on for Dave’s account here