Originally printed in Quench. This was a bit of a rush job, had a lot on at the time, so apologies if not up to my usual standard.
I arrived at Cardiff International Arena to see a crowd weaved around the block. Before long, we were all hushed inside, locking our phones inside a pouch, and waiting with bated breath for that evening’s sell-out performance. It was almost spiritual. Many had arrived in t-shirts - including myself - adorned with images of the act, who had not performed in Cardiff in over a decade, throughout his sixty-year career; some highpoints including as a folk-troubadour, the electric bohemian, and the rolling thunder rocker. Times have been a-changing, although there were no signs of the difficulties with live performance that comes with being eighty-one years old. The performance was such a credit to Bob Dylan that the body of work surrounding his latest record, ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’, is well deserving of joining the ranks of his greatest periods.
At first Dylan was seen shadowed and mysterious, whilst the band got a feel for the jam on “Watching the River Flow”. “They’ll put the lights up in a second”, I whispered to my girlfriend, slightly unsure if they would. Then, suddenly, he popped his head above the wooden piano and sang, to a cacophony roaring of applause and cheers. It was a joy to see him immediately in good spirits. As he was getting warmed up, he missed a piano note and made a half-stern look and laughed, not a world away from the lovably confrontational attitude of Dylan in the mid-sixties. We had great seats – he was about twenty-feet directly in front of us, and regularly smiled and poised, even walking out into the middle in full-view to poise to show his appreciation for the loudest applauses.
The setlist was extremely good from my fan-perspective. It mostly made-up of his latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, released in 2020. These were so exciting – my favourites were a darkly-atmospheric My Own Version of You, and Key West, a languid, passionate ode to the songs heard on a wireless radio: “I'm searching for love, for inspiration, On that pirate radio station…” A regular complaint about Dylan shows is that he mutters through songs he doesn’t care about. That couldn’t be further from the truth on this tour: you could tell he had carefully chosen a repertoire of songs he loved playing and gave it his all.
One of the best features about the show was that it was entirely ‘phone-free’. It paid dividends for attention-spans in the entire audience. Upon arrival, you were given a pouch to place your mobile into – this pouch was then magnetically-locked until the end of the show. This made the show even more intimate and personally emotional; an impressive feat considering the size of the arena. It was a small, very-skilled band and an unflashy dressing on the stage – all focus was on the songs.
Though casual audiences may be deterred by the omission of any big hitters like ‘Blowin in the Wind’ or ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, there were a few classics from his masterpiece albums wonderfully updated to fit Dylan’s current style. He’s not his own tribute act. From the epic album Blonde on Blonde, Bob was suave and bold on “If you go your way… and I go… MINE!” which was totally ecstatic, and the gorgeous When I Paint My Masterpiece, a fan-favourite demo recorded in the early seventies which finally feels finished and truly gorgeous on stage. A fantastic night concluded on a stunning version of Every Grain of Sand, with a few note-perfect bars of harmonica meaning nobody was going home dry-eyed. We can only hope Bob felt the adulation for him and his art in the two standing-ovation curtain-calls; a striking moment that felt to some that the enigmatic, unpredictable Dylan was saying goodbye. Hopefully they’ve predicted wrong, and we see a true songwriting master return to Cardiff soon.
thank you billy very cool :)
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