Last Night in Austin (by Lee Ranaldo)

2024-04-06, ACL Live at the Moody Theatre, Austin, TX

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Photo from New Orleans April 1, by Duncan Hume

Last night in Austin, Bob Dylan played the final show of this leg of the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour. In fact, by most indications, this was the final show of the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour period. This summer he’s joining the Outlaw tour with Willie Nelson and friends, then who knows what’s next?

I’ve got a big series coming shortly looking back at the entire tour, but first, a morning-after report from Austin last night from Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth and beyond. Lee last reported in from Newark a few months ago and I’m thrilled to welcome him back to write about what sounds like a very special show—with one major, major change from the two-and-a-half years of shows that preceded it. Over to Lee…

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Last thoughts on Rough and Rowdy Ways (not likely)

“and just like that, it’s over”
I was so happy that a confluence of things found me in Austin this week to attend what seems to be the final show of Bob’s 2 1⁄2 year long R&RW tour odyssey. November 2021 thru April 2024, pretty consistently. One of the most focused tours of his career, with a specific, limited and mostly unwavering, set list. I saw two of the New York City shows on the second week of the tour in Nov 2021, and a few others along the way, with tonight’s tour finale as a bookend. Let me say at the outset that Dylan - his life and his work - is a joy and an obsession, and I’ve been happy to share remarks, thoughts and impressions about the tour w some of you fellow travelers along the way. Nothing inspires me more or give me more joy than to be in his presence and in his preferred place – the concert hall. Which one matters less than that it’s a place where music is performed for a crowd to witness, and that’s where he wants to be, performing songs for us. It’s always been where he wanted to be. Nothing said below takes away from the fact that there’s nowhere I’d rather be than at a Bob Dylan concert and nothing he could do would ever been less than fully fascinating to me. Roll on, Bob.

I saw my first Dylan show in Binghamton NY in 1978 on the Street-Legal tour, and have spent 45 years or so going in and out and then in and further and further in w Dylan’s music. He and his works are to be treasured.

Sonic Youth played some rather large theatres in Austin, but I’d never been to tonight’s venue, ‘ACL Live at the Moody Theatre’ before. I’d heard that there wasn’t a bad seat in the house, and indeed it felt very good inside – sightlines were good and the house didn’t feel overly large. We were upstairs in the front row of the balcony, just left of center, a great viewing position, but unfortunately right in line w the ‘flown’ stage right PA speaker stack. I find myself more and more sensitive to the sound in these rooms these days, and these venues – every last one of them, pretty much – is always a new, nightly challenge for the Front of House sound folks that work in them. What sounds good on the floor doesn’t necessarily sound good up a level or two, and it’s hard to make it sound good everywhere. The band has been playing more quietly behind Bob as this tour has progressed, and Bob’s voice and piano have become more featured than ever. His piano playing on this tour has moved more and more into the foreground, up load and clear, and he’s been playing with a new confidence and abandon, which has been so exciting. His voice & piano both occupy a similar midrange section of the mix, and it’s not always an easy paring to mix well to every corner of the house. It was too treble-heavy where we were, and the harsh high end was frying my ears a little bit. My own personal complaint, not really much to do with the show itself. I heard it sounded better down on the floor.

The band came out full-on no-nonsense matter of fact almost as soon as the opening fanfare music came on and the lights dimmed, and started right in on Watching the River Flow and we were off.