Almost back to Bob
The first time was also at the AFAS, then still known as the Heineken Music Hall. It was 2012 and there was a thunderstorm outside. Dylan played a phenomenal version of Boots of Spanish Leather. I couldn’t believe I was seeing him live.
I’m just assuming that Monday will be the last time. The man is now 81 years old and his wonderful 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways sounds like a swan song. After decades, the title ‘Neverending’ has disappeared from the tour’s name. This is simply the Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour. For the first time, there is an end date, which is somewhere in 2024.
In the run-up to Monday, I’m falling into a black hole. The anticipation for a Dylan concert is different from that for other concerts. Every day I visit expectingrain.com, for about a thousand years now the main hub for Dylan articles, videos and audio. The site looks like it’s a thousand years old too; I hope that never changes.
The same goes for boblinks.com. That site is updated every day but still looks like a page from the 1990s. You can find all the dates for the current tour there, information about the venues, with links to the setlist and visitor reviews. The website owner is Bill Pagel, aged 80, and the proud owner of Dylan’s childhood home.
“Turn that light off”
I certainly read the Dutch Dylan site debobdylanaantekeningen.blogspot.com at least once a week, but this week I’ve been refreshing it several times a day. It’s a delight to read the musings of owner Tom Willems. A visitor sent in a review of the recent concert in Krefeld. “A fantastically beautiful concert (…) a standing ovation.” It’s lovely, too, having a blogspot domain like that. Websites by Dylan enthusiasts are time machines.
On boblinks.com, people describe the atmosphere surrounding the concerts on the current tour. I read that Dylan looks frail as he walks across the stage, that he holds onto his piano for support, but that he sounds full of life and is really up for it.
Except when people are taking photos or filming, despite the strict ban on mobile phones during this tour. Online, I watch a video in which Dylan interrupts Every Grain of Sand to address his audience. “Someone over there is shining a blue light,” he says. “That light has to go off. Please turn it off… it’s shining in our eyes.”
On YouTube there are clips of people secretly filming for a few seconds. You mainly see backs and poorly lit figures on a stage. Complete audio recordings can be found from Berlin, Oslo and Krefeld, among other places. Would Dylan still tolerate that? “Some of those bootleggers, they make pretty good stuff,” he once sang in Sugar Baby.
Dylan, the mystery
I look at the top tweets for the search term ‘Bob Dylan’ and see a photo of the singer arriving at a concert hall in Paris. At least, that’s what the caption says. Dylan is unrecognisable, completely wrapped up. Long trousers, thick coat, gloves on, face mask on, hat on, hood over it.
The mystery of Bob Dylan. On boblinks.com there is an account by someone who tried to catch a glimpse of Dylan before a performance. Together with a handful of fans, he stands by the tour bus waiting for him to come out. Security guards are stationed along the path from the bus to the concert hall. “At 6.30 pm, a car appears to arrive, behind the people watching the bus. He steps out of it, wearing a hood and with two people at his side, so that no one really sees him go inside.”
Dylan reveals himself to his audience only on stage. From behind his piano, he shuffles towards the spotlight, a hand on his hip. The mystery reveals itself, briefly, one last time.