Last Night in London…Again

2022-10-24, London Palladium, London, England

My second show in London, and the final night of his four-night run there. Same setlist (it hasn’t changed all tour), but plenty of other differences. 

Like I did yesterday, here are some quick next-day notes, with audio clips by way of example and a full tape at the end.

• Ordinarily I wouldn’t tell you where my seats were, because who cares, but I had lucked into a private box on the side of the stage. The unique vantage point offered an extremely close-up side view of Bob (hence the photo I got up top). Great way to watch guitarist Doug Lancio and multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron too. And the three on the left side of the stage, Tony, Charley, and Bob Britt? Forget about ‘em. Fully blocked. I’m taking it on faith that they were even there last night.

  
  The most interesting aspect of this particular view is that I could see behind Bob’s piano. And there’s a lot of action back there. Like a conductor, Dylan regularly thrusts a hand out behind him, gesturing to the band to wrap up a song, or take the volume down a notch. He would also periodically point to someone to take a brief solo for a bar or two, usually Herron. You can see why the entire band watches him like a hawk all night; you never know when that hand will dart out, and that’s all the direction he’s likely to give ya.

• Another funny thing I could see easily: Bob’s piano bench. He places it perpendicular to the piano, where it juts out behind him like a long tail. Why bother lugging around a full bench if you’re only going to sit on the very tip? Just get a stool! You can see it in this photo:

• The show got going faster than the last one, with fewer songs early on sounding rough (not rowdy). This gives this show the slight nod over the last one for me. They were equally good at their peak, but sitting through only two shaky songs last night beats five the night before. Though god help anyone whose favorite Dylan song is one of the openers, “Watching the River Flow” and “Most Likely You Go Your Way.” They almost never seem to sound that good.

• One of those openers, “Watching the River Flow,” got off to an especially odd start with a long instrumental intro. However long you are imagining — it was longer. To the point where I wondered if something was wrong. Is he never going to start singing?