Nov 2, 2021: Bob Dylan Opens First Tour in Nearly 2 Years
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Bob Dylan singing “I Contain Multitudes” in Chicago, on opening night of his 2021 tour
Bob Dylan opened his “Rough and Rowdy Ways” worldwide tour on November 2, 2021, nearly two years since he last performed before a live audience. The Bard’s 2020 tours of Japan and the U.S. had been canceled due to the pandemic. At the Riverside Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisc., on a Tuesday night, he returned with an 18-song set that leaned heavily on Dylan’s most recent studio album. (See the setlist below.) As has been the case for several years, Dylan did not play guitar, performing throughout the evening on piano.
He was joined on the fall tour by multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron, bassist Tony Garnier, drummer Charley Drayton and guitarists Bob Britt and Doug Lancio. The band performed eight of the 10 tracks from Dylan’s well-received 2020 album for which the tour is named. After performing two well known songs, “Watching the River Flow” and “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine),” the band launched into the first of the newer tracks, “I Contain Multitudes.”
Watch him perform “I Contain Multitudes” on the tour’s second night, Nov. 3, in Chicago
Dylan dedicated the opening night show to Les Paul, who hailed from the area. The 21 concerts that autumn were solely in the midwest and northeast U.S. The tour was announced on Sept. 27.
On the tour’s second night, Nov. 3 in Chicago, he made some minor adjustments to the setlist, including replacing “Simple Twist of Fate” and “Soon After Midnight” for “When I Paint My Masterpiece” and “To Be Alone With You.”
Watch Dylan perform “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” on Nov. 3
Dylan’s previous live concert was Dec. 8, 2019, in Washington, D.C., following a 10-show residency at New York’s Beacon, part of a lengthy fall 2019 U.S. tour.
On July 18, 2021, a streamed concert, called “Shadow Kingdom,” was made available via Veeps.com. Dylan had turned 80 on May 24, 2021.
Related: Our review of Dylan’s streamed performance
Bob Dylan, Riverside Theatre, Milwaukee, Wisc., Nov. 2, 2021 Setlist
Watching the River Flow
Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)
I Contain Multitudes*
False Prophet*
Simple Twist of Fate
My Own Version of You*
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
Black Rider*
Melancholy Mood
Mother Of Muses*
Gotta Serve Somebody
Key West*
Early Roman Kings
Soon After Midnight
I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You*
Goodbye Jimmy Reed*
Encore
Love Sick
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry
*From Dylan’s 2020 album, Rough and Rowdy Ways
Tickets to see Dylan perform are available here and here. Rough and Rowdy Ways is available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
Related: Listings for 100s of classic rock tours
1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationHere is a fantastic rendition of Serve Somebody in Bloomington Indiana November 7,2021
https://youtu.be/oreCgseZnSE
Here is When I Paint My Masterpiece performed Cleveland Ohio Nov. 5, 2021
https://youtu.be/d3HymZRBJdQ
Here is: Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)
https://youtu.be/6AEfKRbxvUc