BOB DYLAN : FIRST NIGHT AT THE BEACON THEATRE 2021

  1. Watching the River Flow
  2. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
  3. I Contain Multitudes
  4. False Prophet
  5. When I Paint My Masterpiece
  6. Black Rider
  7. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
  8. My Own Version of You
  9. To Be Alone With You
  10. Early Roman Kings
  11. Key West (Philosopher Pirate)
  12. Gotta Serve Somebody
  13. I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
  14. Melancholy Mood
  15. Mother of Muses
  16. Goodbye Jimmy Reed
  17. Every Grain of Sand

Label : no label

Venue : Beacon Theatre, New York City, New York, USA

Recording Date : November 19, 2021

Length : 95:50

Quality : Audience recording (A+)

Review : Excellent recording of Bob's first show at The Beacon Theatre in the Big Apple.

Concert review (BobLinks) : This was a great show, trumpeting yet another phase of the man's incredible career. Admittedly, I'm biased when it comes to Bob, so one can take my praise for whatever it's worth. The 80-year-old body may be getting creaky, but the unique musical instrument that is his voice (some people scoff at that, but true Bobcats know better) has found renewed vigour, having benefitted mightily from the pandemic-induced break from touring...and man, he's playing/using it to the hilt right now. It was the most powerful his voice has sounded in years - downright commanding at times, and it seemed to me that he was really having fun with that. Other than his voice, you never know what other instrumentation you're going to get from Bob from one tour swing to the next. On this one, he mostly played his piano and stayed close to it when he wasn't - no guitar or harmonica this time around and he only came out to the microphone at front-centre stage a couple of times, most prominently for "False Prophet" and "Key West (Philosopher Pirate)", my personal favourite song from the recent album, 'Rough and Rowdy Ways'. The lighting harkened to the mood of his noirish-themed pay-per-view event from this past summer, 'Shadow Kingdom', so he was mostly backlit and rarely spotlighted. Regarding the setlist, as the subtitle of this tour denotes, it's a showcase for 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' (already in my all-time Top 10 Dylan albums - it's that good). He played every song from the album except two (and if you're familiar with it, you should be able to guess which ones and why), delivering them all with enthusiasm, weight, and/or gravitas. Also on the program were some real treats from the back catalog - particularly "Watching the River Flow" (the opening number), "When I Paint My Masterpiece" (one of my all-time favourite songs from Bob), "To Be Alone with You" (inspired new arrangement), "Gotta Serve Somebody" (a rollicking rendition), and "Every Grain of Sand" (the concluding song and a great one to end on). Bob also talked to us a little bit at the end, which is something that's rarely happened in recent years. He said "It's awful nice to be back in the Big Apple. With Broadway, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Times Square, all of it. The Empire State Building. Fifth Avenue. Glad to see it's coming back alive." I think this is a reflection of how excited he is to be back on the 'Neverending Tour'. Finally, as per usual, Tony Garnier and the rest of Bob's band were in fine form as well. The only downside was that it all flew by way too fast, but that's not Bob and his band's fault.