Last Night in Omaha

2025-04-01, Orpheum Theater, Omaha, NE

Last night, Bob Dylan played the Orpheum Theater in Omaha, Nebraska. Tonight, Bob Dylan plays the Orpheum Theatre in Sioux City, Iowa. I’ll be at both. They call this doing the “Double Orpheum.” (No one calls it that.)

Why Omaha? Why Sioux City? I’m going to save that for my Sioux City writeup tomorrow. I took too many notes last night at the show itself, so let’s dive right in:

• April Fool’s! For the first time since September, Bob did not open with “All Along the Watchtower.” Instead, he opened with a song that as far as I can determine has never before opened a show [update: fake news! thanks for the corrections]: “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight.” Okay, not the wildest surprise—lord knows he played it plenty before its six-month break—but the first setlist change in some time. It was a new arrangement too, not the multi-part epic (slow start, funky guitar riff, halftime breakdown on the “mockingbird” bridge) he’s done for so long. A more straightforward and upbeat country-rocker, driven forward by the new player this tour…

• Anton Fig! A few months ago, someone in the know whispered to me that Jim Keltner had left and there would be a new drummer this spring. One hint they gave me as to this mystery person’s identity was “hits hard.” Sure enough, they were right. Gone are the more minimalist approaches of Charley Drayton and Jerry Pentecost. Fig continues and amplifies the more boisterous approach Keltner brought last year (no surprise they play alike, they were the two drummers at Bobfest). The songs used to float; now they push. He did add some quieter percussion touches later on though, particularly what sounded like shaking a bag of shells on “Key West” and “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue.”

• One moment of audience response this tour has been the occasional cheer for the “Key West” line about the Gulf of Mexico (as in, it’s not the “Gulf of America”). Only one clap last night, but a big audience response a few lines later when he sang about the orchid trees. Huh? Turns out Omaha boasts one of the biggest botanical gardens in the Midwest, and two weeks ago they held their big annual Orchid Show. Love those moments of local color.

• Highlight #1: “When I Paint My Masterpiece.” Its “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” arrangement has shifted this tour. A few nights ago (embedded below), that distinctive riff was almost gone, replaced by flamenco-sounding guitar riffs from Doug Lancio. I call it the “Spanish stairs” arrangement. Last night’s blended the two. Britt played the “Istanbul” riff, while Lancio added flamenco guitar. On top of that Bob delivered his best harmonica of the night on the intro, and one of his best piano solos later on.

• Speaking of Dylan on piano, a year or so ago that was such a prominent part of the sound that I joked it seemed like Bob basically wanted to do a solo-piano tour. That has changed. His piano features less prominently, in a show that is overall louder and more rocking (I mean, comparatively) than it once was. His piano used to drive the sound. Now it is driven by aforementioned Anton Fig along with…

• Doug Lancio. He’s on acoustic for much of the set now, and extremely prominent, much more so than fellow guitarist Bob Britt who was often hard to hear. It’s a long way from Austin almost a year ago, when Lancio got kicked offstage for half the show and fans wondered whether he was about to get fired. Funny how the musical power balance can shift. Other Lancio highlights were more flamenco guitar on “Black Rider” and his electric licks on “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You.” And here’s a funny Doug-related moment indicative of how Bob’s band works: