Last Night in Toledo (by Caryn Rose)
2025-04-17, Stranahan Theater, Toledo, OH
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Last night, Bob Dylan played the fourth-to-last show of the Rough and Rowdy Ways spring tour in Toledo, Ohio. Music journalist and author Caryn Rose was on the scene.
Caryn’s most recent project is a fantastic newsletter about Bruce Springsteen called Radio Nowhere, and this week coincidentally features a deep dive into the evolution and the history of Bruce’s cover of Dylan’s “I Want You.” She also recently wrote a piece I loved on all the iterations of “Thunder Road” Bruce tried before landing on the Born to Run version (the solo acoustic one is a revelation, it’s like Nebraska before Nebraska). She is offering an exclusive discount for Flagging Down readers if you use this link to subscribe:
So subscribe and bookmark all those links to read after her Bob-show report from Toledo last night!
The Stranahan Theater (“Ample Parking with 1700 well lit spaces”) in South Toledo, Ohio, is a delight of prime vintage 1970s design, crystal chandeliers and dark curved architectural details. As many others have previously noted, these tour dates are in the in-between cities, the places that don’t get stops from artists like Bob Dylan. It was a Thursday night, but the crowd at the Stranahan was acting like it was a Friday. Audience members were overserved before the show began, and the orchestra excitedly stood up as one (and remained standing, much to the consternation of many in my vicinity), as the band came out and gathered themselves into “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight.”
My vantage tonight was mid stage right, about 11th row, with a view straight across the piano. When Bob turned sideways and picked up the guitar, I knew what was happening but it still took a few seconds to do the math of, Wait -- no, that’s not Lancio, that’s not Britt -- oh wait Bob is sideways, it’s HIM. It was loud and bracing and seemed like a good omen. The ending of the song was kind of a mess as Bob replaced the guitar onto what looks like a small Ikea nightstand (I had a great view of it the night before in Kalamazoo when I was hard stage left) and then turned back to the piano. It didn’t end so much as peter out.
But the audience at the Stranahan was psyched! There were hoots. There were hollers. There were multiple, repeated, and thankfully unsuccessful attempts at clapping along. It was another manifestation of the A Complete Unknown bump. The shows are selling out, the houses are full, there seems to be less expectation that Bob will still sing the songs like he did on the record and more simply wanting to spend some time in the same space as Bob.
The intro to “It Ain’t Me, Babe” featured an entire verse and chorus lead melody on piano from Bob. Earlier in the evening, I was telling a friend who is more an appreciator than a fan (she was there with her wife) that I thought she would enjoy this show more than she had in the past because she wouldn’t have to wait to the chorus before she’d recognize the song, that there was an abundance of recognizable melody, especially on the piano.
Watching the intro to this song tonight, I wondered if Bob decided to do this in service of the A Complete Unknown bump or if this is just what Bob felt like doing right now. There were still plenty of moments on the piano where my notes just say PLINK PLINK, and I know everyone reading this knows what that means.
There was a silly and delightful moment during the back half of “It Ain’t Me, Babe” where Bob hits multiple glissandos up and down the piano. Up the keyboard, down the keyboard, at least three times, probably four, and then some more at the end of the song. The crowd loved it. They cheered. They cheered when he stood up, they cheered when he picked up a harmonica.
“I Contain Multitudes” felt languid, lacking a little urgency. “False Prophet” suffers greatly from that thing Bob is doing this tour where he isn’t close enough to the mic and so no one can hear what he’s singing. It’s interesting that he doesn’t even try to enunciate “I’m a false prophet.” He says it all as one word, while that’s not how he’s singing the rest of the lyrics.
On that note, there were multiple lines in various songs tonight (and last night, and other nights according to comments on social media) that nobody could hear because Bob wasn’t close enough to the mic. This wasn’t some kind of acoustic treatment on Bob’s part to sing certain lines off mic for effect, he just either doesn’t bring the mic close enough sometimes and then it takes him a little bit to realize it and then he’ll pull it in closer and all is well again. This is not “a Bob thing,” IMO, this is a technical problem that could be solved.
In my notes for “When I Paint My Masterpiece” I wrote “Bob on harp is revealing the great mysteries” and I REALLY wish I could remember what inspired that comment. The song rocked less tonight, it was more of a steady drone and didn’t feel like it quite got off the ground. The crowd was kind of willing it to, though.
The reaction to “Black Rider” was multiple attempts to clap on the 1 and 3. At this point, folks in the front of the orchestra (I was row K, for basis of comparison) decided they could probably sit down. There would be little pockets of applause completely unrelated to what was going on onstage as different sections took their seats.
PSA: At no time is it acceptable to stand if your seats are right in front of the ADA section. Even if you are doing interpretative dancing.
I had typed “Things started to warm up right around ‘My Own Version of You’” but that’s not accurate. The four sidemen live and die by whatever mood or mode Bob is in. Bob finally warmed up right around “My Own Version of You.” Bob was in better focus so the band was in better focus. He was also emphasizing certain lines, or rather, the delivery of the line made you think about it anew. “I pick a number between one and two / And I ask myself what would Julius Caesar do” is the candidate tonight. It’s not that I figured out what he means, it’s that he made me think about it again. I love that at least one person always hoots at the Leon Russell mention.
The important thing to note about this being the moment where Bob got his groove back is that he’d calmed the crowd down with his focus and attention and delivery. The first two songs were easy, everyone knew what they were, but then the combination of newer material and just a little bit of lack of focus and it’s not hard to lose the audience’s attention. But now they’re back! He’d won them over again.
I thought I heard a little bit of “What’d I Say” at the start of “To Be Alone With You,” although it was the version in the SNL sketch where John Belushi is Beethoven. “Crossing the Rubicon” felt different at the beginning, but by the chorus had shifted back into more of its known form. I have a lot of notes at this moment about Anton Fig so this is the part where I mention that I am not nuts about him being in this band. He is absolutely a fine and very talented drummer, I just don’t think he fits this particular puzzle. (Cards and letters only, usual address.)
Unlike last night where no one heard the first four lines of “Desolation Row,” tonight this song got to have the place it deserves to have. It’s such a fucking gift that we get to hear Bob Dylan sing the words to “Desolation Row” onstage in front of us in the year 2025. The audience loved the martial cadence and really, really wanted to clap along; I said a small prayer hoping it would stop. (It did.) The crowd roared at the end of each chorus, at the mention of Desolation Row, at getting to hear Bob fucking Dylan sing fucking DESOLATION fucking ROW. Amen.
“Key West” is a meditation, like “I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You” is a meditation. When I saw him in Nashville, I marveled at how he was almost conversational, but tonight it was like he was reminiscing. Shoutout to the dude in the balcony who was absolutely wound up and waiting for Bob to get to the “Gulf of Mexico” mention and yelled for all of us. I’m currently in love with the verse about marrying the prostitute. There is always something amazing in his delivery of that verse, it can change with the slightest emphasis on one word.
“Watching the River Flow” was hilarious watching Doug and Tony so intently watching Bob that they kept getting closer and closer together. “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” was another favorite, especially the harp breaks. The crowd loved every time Bob picked up a harmonica and there was the applause of BOB DYLAN IS GOING TO PLAY HARMONICA and then when the harp break was over, a separate wave of applause for BOB DYLAN HAS DONE THE FAMOUS THING. Now, the harp break in “Baby Blue” in Toledo was a very good one, strong and definitive. I’m not saying it didn’t deserve the applause! Just that the quality of the applause was particular in these scenarios.
“I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You” into “Mother of Muses” isn’t new or novel but it is profound for me now, one meditation into an ode. I watch people around me going out for another beer and I get why they’re doing it, they don’t know that the show’s almost over, it feels like a lull. I want to tell them that they’re going to miss one of the best parts but I kind of feel like that about the entire show. It’s also not that long of a show!
During “Goodbye Jimmy Reed” I recalled seeing Elvis Costello sing it in Ann Arbor back in March. And also realized that Doug and Bob Britt were wearing matching hats. I wonder if “Can’t play the record ‘cause my needle got stuck” is a metaphor, especially given the next line in the song.
When this tour started, I read someone complaining about “Every Grain of Sand” staying as the encore and someone responded saying that hearing “Every Grain of Sand” every night was a benediction. I remembered that and made a note to try to see it that way. And I did not think I would manage to get into that headspace at all at this show in particular because of the crowd’s energy but dammit I was going to try, and I think that person was 100% correct. I understand the people who are heading up the aisle halfway through the song but this isn’t a throwaway end of set number, this choice is specific. Right now we can use all the benedictions we can get.
Thanks Caryn! A few more Rough and Rowdy Spring shows to go, then it’s on to Outlaw Summer in May. Subscribe to Radio Nowhere using the Flagging Down discount she created. I read every one of ‘em. She also has an equally excellent newsletter for all things non-Bruce (despite the title) at Jukebox Graduate.
I was there. This is all true. Especially the ‘too far from the mic’ thing but also the great parts. Wonderful review.
This sounds like a concert I'm glad not to have paid to attend, despite the appeal of the venue itself. Partly I'm glad because Bob sounds far from at his best much of the way through, but mostly because if the godawful crowd behaviour. Clapping along is wholly inappropriate and always unwelcome, and clapping on the 1 and 3 beats is even worse (I thought only French audiences did that), and then whaaaat? People go out to get more beer in the middle of a Bob Dylan performance!?!? And worse still - they do it during a quiet song??!! And then start leaving altogether in the middle of Every Grain of Sand! Jeez. Appalling. It really sounds a good one to have missed.