Bob Dylan in 2024

Hmmmm.

I'd have to imagine Tony will be back in the Dylan cockpit by the time 3/1 rolls around. The odds of him leaving the Neverending Tour at this juncture, seem pretty slim. 

It would certainly be quite the interesting development however.

We will find out soon enough on March 1. 

With him doing this tour, it sure doesn't seem like he's about to retire from the road.

I think he is leaving her tour in time for Ft. Lauderdale on the 1st. I have tickets for both nights but not

yet sure if I can pull them off....I went to the last show of the last tour in December in Indiana, (which was very strong),

so I figured I might as well pick up where I left off....

    I really hope he stays with the band; he's been the band leader for so long that I know how much Bob needs his help.

Time will tell. Always interesting....

2024 is continuation of Rough & Rowdy Ways. Same set up, same band. Tony should be there unless something really weird happened.

The Dirty Knobs was an incredible one-off but the days of him heading out on the road with a new band are long gone. This current incarnation appears to be a final passage. 

Maybe that long awaited tour with the Plugz;-)

Wow. Very interesting and unexpected on the Dylan front. Mellencamp and Willie must have cornered him at Farm Aid. 

Similar to Spinal Tap's ill fated free-form jazz exploration performance, I can't imagine him rolling out too much of Rough & Rowdy's delicately intricate music, before a festival crowd. This opens up a new realm of possibilities. 

The lineup for the Gorge is stellar.  The August 10th date concerns me though, because that has been a peak time for excessive heat and smokey skies from wildfires here.

Add Dead $ Corp to that lineup and the largest stadiums ever built will sell out. 
Dylan & The Dead 2025 baby!

Thanks for the code:  outlaw24  I just picked up a great seat for Hershey.  Cheers!

hard to say goodbye when they keep playin'. iconic double bill.

In for the Gorge for $81.23 for the lawn.  Thanks for the presale code!

Spokane Stadium and The Gorge back-to-back. Peculiar.

Bob loves being on his bus. It must be one hell of a bus.

Picked up 2 for Great Woods (or whatever they call it now). Haven't been there since The Dead 2004 shows.

In for GA at the Gorge. Rumor says no Bob fall West Coast theater dates.

>>Bob loves being on his bus. It must be one hell of a bus<<

merle haggard died on his bus

he loved his bus so much when he was off tour he'd park the bus in front of his house and live in it

I really tried to make it Fish, but it didn't help that the people I work part time for were/are literally going 

to Florida at the exact same time....of course not for the same reason.....

     Considering I had a pretty weird blowout with them about going to the last show of the tour in Evansville in December,

I decided I had to let this go.....which sucks!!

Thankfully I got 4th row for Shoreline and second row center for the hellhole venue outside of Sacramento....

      Last time Bob played there (opening for Phil), it was almost 120 degrees....I thought half the audience and the whole band was going 

to die, because naturally they were all dressed in black suits and facing the sun for the entire set...we were on the rail and they were all clearly uncomfortable, but they still did a Raging set.....

Bob, too cheap to have the onstage Air Conditioning like the GD used at the end....

    Weir played with Lukas Nelson last night at the Fillmore. I already tried to put it in his head that if they're back from Vegas by August 3, he Needs to

show up and play a song with Willie, or Dylan, or both....time will tell......

Pretty damn cool you are getting shows in Buffalo and Syracuse....

I feel obligated to make it back for one or the other and visit my Mom in Rochester.....

.....And "Phew" is right....exactly what I felt....Waa pretty certain it would be all good.....

Tony isn't going anywhere yet!

Kind of a downer that he's playing almost the whole R&RW album at his shows (or at least he did last night). It's a great album, but it's almost 4 years old now and he's got a lot of other repertoire to fill his sets with. 2-3 tunes from his last album would suffice, IMO.

I snagged tickets for that "hellhole venue outside of Sacramento" as well. Calling it a hellhole is being kind. But, it's the closest show for me.

>>>the hellhole venue outside of Sacramento.... Last time Bob played there (opening for Phil), it was almost 120 degrees....I thought half the audience and the whole band was going to die<<<

That was the first year that venue was open and was my first time there. I swear I had heat-stroke after that show.

I've called that place Surface Of The Sun Amphitheater ever since.

And I'm very disappointed that he's part of Willie's tour out here. Huge generic amphitheaters are bad venues for him in the best of circumstances, especially considering the gentle, muted style of his shows these days, but in this case more than half the crowd won't be there for him, they won't pay attention and will be partying and blabbing endlessly throughout his set, which will also be shorter on a multi-act bill.

Meh.

I heard a snippet of ...Masterpiece "sung" over an Istanbul (Not Constantinople) theme on da yootoobses last night.

It's good that he's having some fun.

And Tony is indeed on bass... thankful for that!

If you're local Bay Area ... I'm with Lovin Dead today at 4pm Ivy Room in Albany. Two sets of Dylan-Dead songs from the 1987 summer tour. Should be a great time!

Sunday in Orlando

Weeeeeeee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZB7QJjqmL0

When I paint my masterpiece in Ft Lauderdale

Played in Santa Cruz in 2000......Last time? I can't remember...

Real lively show tonight in Ft. Myers. Bob sounded great. Roll Over Beethoven in the Big River Slot. 

Awesome Fabes! Thanks for the report; Glad you made it, wish I was there....

After listening to the Ft. Lauderdale show I was not ready for last nigh. Ft. Lauderdale sounded like a slow and a lackluster performance of an 82 year old man. Last night Bob and Band had some energy, and it seemed the tempo's were upped. I was looking forward to the Gotta Serve Somebody, but got the Roll Over Beethoven, and it was fire. That got people up and dancing, and the ushers let people in the large outer aisles on the floor, mind you this is Wrinkle City, but the old folks, including myself were in it all night. 3300 in a small basketball arena with no upper deck, Gym Rock to the max, and Bob and Company delivered.

Fantastic night of Dylan

Best part...No Cell Phones ALLOWED!!!!

People were freaking

Sunday in Orlando

>>>

Best part...No Cell Phones ALLOWED!!!!

<<<
 

love that

Great Tim. I heard it was a ripping show....

Seeing if maybe I can pull off the last two nights of the tour in Austin....

Looked at at setlist last night. Couldn't believe it...Then I remembered the date.

  I saw him do Roving Blade from a front row table at the Reno Hilton,

24 years ago yesterday. He said "I'm going to do one of my old songs....for St. Patrick's Day..."

It was amazing.

   Great to see it broken out again.

No one expects to get to see Robert McZimmerman.

Hahahaha no he wasn't. Thanks for posting.

> was he dressed like a leprechaun then too?

And if so (or not), was Bob magically delicious?

Awesome, you going back again tonight?

Enjoy Fish, always great to see him in a small venue, and GA to boot...

The smallest I saw was capacity 750. Amazing.

   Have a blast tonight, hopefully he pulls something out of the hat....

My thought exactly on Bob's vocals, only attended one other Bob show back in 09 maybe? Merl Haggard opened for him

I thought he sounded a lot better now than back then 

thought you might get the Roll Over Beethoven last night, but it's looking like I got the one-off of the tour 

My thought exactly on Bob's vocals, only attended one other Bob show back in 09 maybe? Merl Haggard opened for him

I thought he sounded a lot better now than back then >>

I've been seeing Dylan since 1975, dozens and dozens of times. You don't go to see Bob Dylan because of his vocals. His voice sucked in 1975, in 1978, in 1980 and 1981. It hasn't gotten any better. It is what it is and often it's more than a head scratcher.

^^^ I couldn't agree more.

Someone on Facebook mentioned he had sound problems at the last show and got kind of pissy about it.

Bob debuted his cover of Hank Williams' "Jambalaya" last, night in Wichita, Kansas at the Century II Performing Arts Center:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KvRvGMg6oAI&pp=ygUTQm9iIGR5bGFuIGphbWJhbGF...

A more somber reading than the original.

Lafayette makes more sense.  I looked up his tour itinerary on Billboard, and they listed Wichita for last night.  Guess he changed it?

A sick way to end a great tour.....

Fish, I hope you are hitting Syracuse coming up...

I'm going to try to come back for that one and visit Mom in Roch...

Time will tell, can't wait for the next show.

I listened to the 4/5 show today. Nice to hear Zimmy finally mix it up more. I thought he did sound better but labeling it as singing is a real stretch. That doesn't particularly bother me. In fact I embrace his shift in style as it drives some fresh deliveries. I'm left wondering how this will work in large outdoor venues on the Outlaws tour given how quiet it is at times? 

Interesting closing night of this long run of the ongoing R&RW tour. Jimmy Vaughn replacing Doug Lancio on guitar for much of the show. Not sure what's going on? Maybe a hint of a summer tour lineup change or just a guest spot? Vaughn was out for a good amount of songs. Lancio came back out for Key West and I've Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You. The switch happened at I'll Be Your Baby Tonight. That's pretty early in a show that sees a very similar set that has been in use for most of the tour. Like he's been doing, Bob throwing in an occasional choice cover song. This week he added three songs that seemed connected to the towns he was in. New Orleans, Lafayette, and Austin. Up next is the Outlaws tour with Willie Nelson. I'm hoping for some guitar like he did at Farm Aid in 2023 with Dirty Knobs backing him. It's anybody's guess as usual trying to predict what Dylan will do. He's in fine form for almost 83 years old as these past shows continue with his vocals, piano and arrangements to be really good.  

When I just went to Dylan's site the Outlaws tour was still up, but I couldn't get the site to work at all.

???

> Now Jimmies website has postponed his entire summer tour... hmmm

The shows he had scheduled with Clapton too?

I see that the Dirty Knobs have a summer tour going. I guess we know it won't be them on the Outlaws tour backing Bob. Maybe he will just do the oldies and cover songs from current setlist and cut out the R&RW songs? Maybe just R&RW songs? That would have the crowd on their feet. Maybe Murder Most Foul, Brownsville Girl, Tempest, Lily Rosemary & Jack Of Hearts and call it a set with 3426 words. Bob as always has the fans guessing. 

I think it will be just what we've been seeing. I hope I'm wrong.

I love what he's doing but a change would also be nice....

I looked at good tickets for Syracuse. I believe face value is higher than for the California shows!!

>> Murder Most Foul, Brownsville Girl, Tempest, Lily Rosemary & Jack Of Hearts and call it a set with 3426 words.

That would be fanstastic, actually. Except he'll play L,R&JOH to the tune of "Where Teardrops Fall" and it will take 35 minutes

Well, the Outlaw dates are now labeled under the Rough & Rowdy World Wide Tour.

www.bobdylan.com/on-tour/

Either A) Bob is planning on doing the hushed intricacy of R&R in front of amphitheater festival audiences or B) his digital marketing people don't know what he has planned, so they are filing it under the R&R tour page for the time being.

Just broke down and got tickets for the Outlaw Fest up at the Gorge.  With fees, the tickets were only $80 a pop.   Amazing deal for Bob, Willie, Johnny Cougar, Billy Srings, and Britney Spencer.    And there was no way I am going to miss Billy Strings' first show at the Gorge.  I suspect he will be headlining it next year and would nor be surprised if he sat in with Willie and family (and Bob if he lets him).  Seems like Billy has been slipping in a lot of Dylan songs lately.

Now that Neil & CH have announced The Gorge, it's a toss-up between that and Outlaw. Outlaw definitely has more bang for the buck unless Neil adds a big-name opener / co-bill (Dylan would have been good). However, the Outlaw crowd will probably be more diluted (hey I'm all for diversity), but there may be a lack of focus (ie. chatter) from factions of the crowd during the various acts. Maybe not, though, idk.

I just picked up a couple of $25 tickets for the Outlaw Fest at Hollywood Bowl in July.

Nice Mike....the beer there will be almost as much as the ticket...

I agree with Mosthigh, unfortunately there will be chatter....

I'll be going to Shoreline, Sacramento and possibly Buffalo.

> the beer there will be almost as much as the ticket...

Good thing I'm California sober.

> unfortunately there will be chatter

It's a Hollywood crowd. That's a given. Lots of folks there just to see and be seen.

I was psyched to finally get in for the cheap tix. Seemed like ticketbastard's system was flaking out for the longest time, but then I got in. The seats are near the top of the Bowl, but I can think of much worse places to spend a summer's evening.

Some set times have been posted.

Looks like 75 minutes for Plant, 75 minutes for Bob and an even 60 for Willie.

-----------------------------

For the Shoreline bill I'm only interested in Dylan, who has been nailing it these days, which especially at this late date is something that should be seen whenever possible.

I've seen Mellencamp many times and I say a resounding meh to him, and god love Willie Nelson, but I've seen him SO many times over so many years that I don't really need to see him yet again, so initially I thought, "Fuck this generic shed show. Who wants to see this delicate version of Dylan in a huge amphitheatre, before the sun goes down, where two-thirds of the crowd won't be there for him and will be jabbering throughout his set? Naaaah."

But now I'm re-thinking it. I could get moved to a really killer seat for somewhere around $70, where MAYBE I could avoid/ignore most of the talkers (it galls me to ever have to pay anything to get into that particular venue, but that's another long story and is ultimately how time & life works).

So I guess I should make the effort. Bob Dylan is a living legend, he's playing well and he won't be around forever, and neither will I, so I guess I should......

Go to the show.

(What's a little gall for a legend?)

I've heard, although have not confirmed, that Jerry Pentecost has other dates scheduled for this summer. A different drummer would perhaps indicate a rejiggering on the other band member as well.

1 day away. Very curious on what the band will look like beyond Keltner.

I'm thinking same band as before plus Keltner, playing a similar, but of course shortened, set.

I just don't see him changing the program much at this point....

Bummed that I'm not coming back east for a show or two, have to wait till August.

With Willie out, maybe Bob can open with Whiskey River.

Yes, sick, so glad to be wrong.....

Thanks for the updates Fish.

Going over to ER

You coulda' had a million people fill out a setlist card and nobody would have come close.

5 covers, 4 (or maybe 5?) songs off Tempest, as well as Red Sky. 

Really only two songs (Simple Twist and Things Have Changed) that the festival hoi polloi might recognize. A bold play of the cards.

I wonder what will happen from here out. Perhaps he'll continue to use Tempest as a base and then mix in other covers and selected classics. It's going to be fun run.

Review of opening night, from the esteemed Ray Padgett:

---------------------------

This was Dylan’s first non-Rough and Rowdy Ways tour since the pandemic, so advance speculation had been flying. Would it be more of the same songs? Would it be a greatest-hits setlist better suited for casual outdoor crowds, many of whom aren’t even there to see him?

Nope and nope.

We knew we were in for something different from the first few notes. It wasn’t “Watching the River Flow,” which has opened just about every show for the past three years. It wasn’t even a Dylan song at all. It turned out to be—and due to low mic volume on the first few songs, it took a while to figure this out—a cover of Little Walter’s 1955 Chicago blues classic “My Babe,” a song he’s never sung in public before. He’d rehearsed it once in 1978 (it’s on my Not At Budokan comp), but that’s it.

Cover of old time chestnuts he’s never sung live before would be a recurring theme of the night. He did four more too: The Chuck Berry tune “Little Queenie,” continue his recent run of Berry covers; the 1959 Fleetwoods hit “Mr. Blue”; Hank Williams’ classic “Cold Cold Heart”; and the Lee Hazlewood-penned 1956 hit for Sanford Clark “The Fool.”

If that sounds surprising on paper the morning after, imagine how surprising it was in person. As he started singing each cover, we’re all frantically trying to figure out what it is. Some songs I knew, like “My Babe” and “Cold Cold Heart.” Others I’m Googling lyric snatches for. What the hell is “The Fool”? Someone commented after that it was like The Philosophy of Modern Song: The Tour. Was he going to sing “Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy” next?

Interspersed with the WTF covers were his own songs. But even those choices had an dose of WTF. For one, the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour is clearly over. Not a single song from that album—or indeed from that entire tour (slight exception for “Early Roman Kings,” which was part of the initial Fall 2021 leg). In fact, he treated last night like it was the Tempest tour fourteen years late. A full 50% of the original songs he played, four of eight, came from that 2012 album: “Pay in Blood,” “Early Roman Kings,” and the show-closing twofer of “Scarlet Town” and “Long and Wasted Years.” 

They were selling Tempest tour tee-shirts in the merch booth. Was that a clue? Did he tell them far enough in advance: “I’m gonna be playing a lot of Tempest, dig those shirts out of storage”? No, it turned out these were new tee shirts, manufactured just for this tour even though they had 2012 dates on the back. So how long has he been planning to go so Tempest-heavy? One of many mysteries last night.

That left just four other songs, only one anything like a well-known classic: “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’,” “Simple Twist of Fate,” “Things Have Changed,” and—the wildest card of all—“Under the Red Sky,” not played in over a decade. So the set was, in total, five first-time-ever covers, four Tempest tunes, and four everything-else. 

It made for a fairly whiplash-inducing night. Certainly the most bizarre Dylan show I’ve ever seen. I joked to my buddy after, “That was an amazing show. But was it actually a good show?”

Mostly yes, but it was at times quite ragged. As often happens at this shows, and particularly tour-openers, Bob’s voice warmed up as the night went on. “Cold Cold Heart,” the Hank Williams tune, was the turning point of the show for me seven songs in. An absolutely beautiful vocal performance that recalled the vocal heights of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. He hit a high note on the chorus just like the one in “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You.”

That was a rare connection to the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour though. This was as clean a break as I can remember between tours, even though they were only two months apart. It’s not just that were no songs repeated from the spring last few years. The sound was entirely different. Everything I’ve written about recent shows—the tender vocals, the prominent piano, the increased harmonica—was gone. This show was loud, it was guitar-driven, he barked and yelped and shouted more than he crooned, and he didn’t touch the harmonica. Though the setlist still had its share of ballads, the mood couldn’t have been more different from a few months ago. All that poise and polish was out the window. This was, hilariously, far more rough and rowdy than the tour of that name.

Some of that comes down to two major band changes. For one, after 15 years, multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron is gone. His absence was felt. On Saturday Night Live in the ‘90s, Phil Hartman was nicknamed The Glue; you could put him in any sketch, even one where he wasn’t the star, and his consummate professionalism would hold everything together. Donnie was The Glue of that band. He was rarely featured—you often couldn’t even hear him—but you noticed when he was gone. The leaner guitar-driven lineup threatened to collapse on several occasions, especially early on. The band watched Bob even more closely than usual, occasionally conferring with him or with each other. It’s a testament to their skill that, even in uncharted waters, they managed to hold things together. If the first few songs get repeated, I expect they will tighten up quickly.

The other bandmember change: After 20 years, our friend Jim Keltner is back on drums! When I interviewed him, my headline mentioned “thirty years of drumming for Bob Dylan.” Well, make that fifty years. He first played with Bob in 1973, and, 51 years later, he’s still at it. Alas he was seated right behind Bob’s giant piano so I could not see him one iota, but he sounded great. Of course he did. He’s Jim Keltner! Sounding great is kind of his whole thing.

Afterwards, I gathered with some fellow superfans. Everyone was excited and elated, of course. But there was a palpable sense of bewilderment too. Good bewilderment though; this is why you follow Bob, these wild left-turns. He was, as usual, not capitulating at all to anyone expectations. He played what he wanted to play, and so what if no one else knew why? The set was like Toad’s Place in miniature, just one curveball after the next. Why all the old covers? Why is he stuck on Tempest suddenly? Of all the songs to revive after a decade, why “Under the Red Sky”? You wonder if this can possibly be the new every-night set, or if we’re back to regular changes. (“Tough Mama” was rumored to have been soundchecked yesterday, and he played shorter than his allotted 75 minutes so a couple more could get added.)

As I said up top, I wasn’t planning to attend this show. He’s playing Boston, much closer to home, in a few weeks. I’m taking my four-year-old to that one, her first Dylan show. We’ll sit back on the lawn, eat some popcorn, watch the screens. It’ll be great in a different way. But there’s nothing like an opening night where anything could happen. And, last night, anything did.

Grateful Dead @ Capitol Theater 11/8/70:  My Babe, only time played, out of Mystery Train, also one time only.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoeLgkeFewM

Outlaw Setlist Night 2

Highway 61 Revisited
Shooting Star (First time played since 2013; Bob on harp)
Love Sick
Little Queenie (Chuck Berry cover)
Mr. Blue (The Fleetwoods cover)
Early Roman Kings (Bob on harp)
Can't Wait
Under the Red Sky (Bob on harp)
Things Have Changed
Stella Blue (Grateful Dead cover)
Six Days on the Road (Dave Dudley cover) (Live debut)
Soon After Midnight (Bob on harp)
Ballad of a Thin Man (Bob on harp)
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

https://www.reddit.com/r/bobdylan/comments/1dmawrw/outlaw_setlist_night_2/

Good Stuff BOB!!! Makes me want to go!!!

I'd have to imagine Duquesne Whistle will make an appearance in the next show or two.

Would be great to hear more off Oh Mercy. perhaps Ring Them Bells or Most of the Time.

It's going to be the summer of Bob, slicing his way across the country with old favorites and Americana songbook chestnuts. Life is good.

Cold, Cold Heart

https://youtu.be/9P0a2iWapAQ

Long and Wasted Years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bimJ7vNGiQc

It's so great to see these setlists come in at "real time", and now we know literally ANYTHING could come next...

I haven't heard Shooting Star on a loooooong time, and it was great that both Bobs played Stella last night.

Keep the curveballs coming Bob!!!

Big Dave Dudley fan

maybe he'll cover red simpson next

That's a great setlist last two nights. Lots of different material for the first time in a while. Would love to see a lot of these tunes when he heads west later in the summer.

After mixing it up the first two nights, Raleigh looks to be a mirror image of Charlotte, including a surprising back-to-back of Stella.

--------

Raleigh, North Carolina
Coastal Credit Union Music Park

June 23, 2024

1.Highway 61 Revisited (Bob on piano)

2.Shooting Star (Bob on piano and harp)

3.Love Sick (Bob on piano)

4.Little Queenie (Bob on piano) (song by Chuck Berry)

5.Mr. Blue (Bob on piano)(song written by DeWayne Blackwell)

6.Early Roman Kings (Bob on piano)

7.Can't Wait (Bob on piano)

8.Under The Red Sky (Bob on piano and harp)

9.Things Have Changed (Bob on piano)

10.Stella Blue (Bob on piano) (song by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia)

11.Six Days On The Road (Bob on piano) (song by Dave Dudley)

12.Soon After Midnight (Bob on piano and harp)

13.Ballad Of A Thin Man (Bob on piano and harp)

14.I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (Bob on piano)

From an album perspective, Raleigh is as follows....

--------------------------

Not on an album: 4

Highway 61 Revisited: 2

Tempest: 2

Time Out Of Mind: 2

John Wesley Harding: 1

Oh Mercy: 1

Things Have Changed (Single): 1

Under The Red Sky: 1

Looks like VIP section gets your own spay bottle of water Thanx for video