Best show of this leg for me and surely on par with his best shows in recent
years, which were Spring 24. The truth and depth in his voice, unbelievable.

It has been clear to me during the Scarface-Pacino verse in 'My Own Version
of You': a kind of exhuberant mid-tone on Bob's voice, perfectly sustained,
truly deep, articulate and commanding. Not upsinging, not downsinging, just
as if a reborn voice within him had taken the place of his usual
singing-performing voice.

He sounded at the same time himself more than ever and another mused spirit
altogether. It has made me think about the "glowed like burnin' coal" verse
in 'Tangled Up In Blue' and also the episode in 'Chronicles' where he claims
to have found, through the mastery of an unnamed jazz singer, a new way of
singing that didn't depend on emotions or will. Maybe a speaking in tongues
sort of?

The whole show has felt quite like that to me, but from 'Version of You'
onwards it has been even more present and powerful, the band with a
tightness that came close with that voice, and a miriad of incredible
nuances that came, line after line, in an unstoppable succession.

I have thought about the perfect tightness and blinding energy of Spring '24
but this has the rough-rowdiness that is such an important part post-Outlaw.
I was a bit worried, after the non-extension of the tour into the East Coast,
but without gasping into the future, the present Bob Dylan is living in is
shattering, rooted and echoing, full of an impossible hope that each given
night can change a day in the life.

Watch out for 'Ain't Me Babe', 'Version of You', and, in fact, from 'Rubicon'
until the end. 'River Flow' and, again, 'Mother of Muses', out of this
f***ing world.

'Watchtower' had a surprising ending à la mid-2000s when it used to end the
shows and Bob went full high pitch ("know what aaaanyyyyy of it iiiiis
wooooorrrthhh!") which was funny as now is the opener. And it has a more
raw approach, crazy how it keeps getting better and better, thanks to
J. Mellencamp maybe!

One song had a similar patter to 'Things Have Changed', not sure if it was
'Version of You' or another one though!

The long pauses between "Louie", "Jimmie" and "Buddy" in 'Key West', REALLY
long pauses, that silence and more so the contrast between name and silence
is what give sense to all this.

Picasso painted with light later in his career, Bob paints with voice.
 

"Watching The River Flow" in Saarbrucken - In no other place has Bob Dylan
been able to feel safer than this Tuesday, 22.10.2024 in the Saarland state
capital Saarbrucken. Why? At the same time as the Bob Dylan concert in
the Saarlandhalle, the football match of the local 1st FC Saarbrucken
against HansaRockstock took place in the Ludwigs-Park-Stadium, just 100
meters opposite. In addition to about 13,000 football fans in the sold-out
stadium, numerous hundreds of police officers were also present in and
around the stadium for fear of riots. This, in turn, was also the reason
why the access routes to the hall and the stadium were completely closed
from the afternoon. There were almost no parking facilities close to the
event for Bob Dylan concert visitors and football fans. Most of them park
in the city center and walk the almost half hour to the event locations.
More than 600 men and women in police uniforms regulated the traffic chaos,
said a police spokesman. Nowhere else on his "Rough And Rowdy Ways" tour
has Bob Dylan been able to park his tour trucks and the four nightliner
buses more safely than in Saarbrucken. 

The Saarlandhalle was also closely guarded in a different way.
Concertgoers, mostly of baby boomer age, who paid between about 100 and 250
euros for their tickets, had to be searched for unauthorized items by
martially dressed security personnel at the entrance gate of the hall,
which was open from 6:30 p.m. Quite a few concert goers found this
treatment, apparently amused and exaggerated by the securities, disturbing.
In Frankfurt and Stuttgart, the so-called "body check" was carried out a
little more discreetly and also by friendlier and better dressed, probably
also better trained staff in black suits with shirt and tie. Style is just
different. Anyway, after the body checklock, the admission ticket was
scanned and you were told to have smart phones locked in the Yondr pockets. 

After this procedure, the obligatory visit to the merchandising stand was
announced for many. At around 7:45 p.m., a first gong sounds, shortly
before 8:00 p.m. another one. The first half of the third league football
match is already over and the score is 1:0 for the home team (- the game
ended 2.0). Pyrotechnics are ignited outside the stadium, inside the
Saarlandhalle with its 1970s charm (built in 1967) the lights are dimmed.
Bob Dylan starts his concert punctually at 8:00 p.m., which is completely
without any effects and offers no intermission. 

Bob Dylan enters the stage in the dark. He sits down at the piano, grabs a
guitar behind him and plays a song with his four-piece band for the first
three minutes as if there were no audience. Then he turns around, plays the
piano and he starts with the first lines of lyrics to "All Along The
Watchtower". The audience then immediately appreciates the initially
unrecognized song with enthusiastic applause. Those sitting in the front
rows recognize a smile on Dylan's face.

About 3000 visitors in the hall, which is almost 80% full, experience the
same scenario again at "It Ain't Me, Babe". At the end of the song, Dylan
grabs the harmonica and the auditorium goes wild right at the beginning.
The atmosphere is extremely relaxed and (hospitable) friendly from the
beginning, almost as if an expectation is fulfilled that, as is well known,
should not exist with Bob Dylan. Then Dylan goes into "Rough And Rowdy
Ways" mode for two songs to reach into his back catalog one more time
with "When I Paint My Masterpiece". The pattern of the current concert
format is quickly learned. It starts with two older songs (from the 1980s
and 1960s) and ends with arguably the most significant song from his 1981
"Shot Of Love" album, "Every Grain Of Sand". Between these songs of
the seventeen-song performance, which act as an intro and outro, nine songs
from the "Rough And Rowdy Ways" album can be heard. Another one or two
older songs can also be heard. The curious thing is that even the much
older songs sound as if they could also be represented on the "Rough And
Rowdy Ways" album. At least that's how the entire concert sounds, in which
Dylan mixes acoustic folk songs ("I Contain Multitudes", "BlackRider",
"Mother of Muses", "Key West (PhilosopherPirate)") with electric blues
numbers ("False Prophet","Goodbye Jimmy Reed", "Crossing the Rubicon"),
with the ballad "I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You" and with the
song "My Own Version of You", which is rather difficult to assign to
a music genre, to an atmospheric sound density. There is no musical break in
the live performance between these songs, some of which are 60 years old
("It's all Over Now Baby Blue" (1965)) and the most recent songs, which
were only released in 2020. These turning points between the songs seem to
please the Saarbrucken audience. After each song there are cheers and
applause, which also increased from song to song. Dylan seems to notice
this and mumbles a"Thaaaaaaank, ya" into the microphone every now and
then. Not only those who have already experienced Dylan several times on
his current tour experience Dylan in Saarbrucken in a good playing mood.
Perhaps it is also the reflection of the audience's mood and, of course,
the perfectly harmonizing musicians that make the evening sound so
successful. Dylan acknowledges the attention with concentrated performance
of his lyrics, the musicians imitate him with concentrated music perfectly
matched to Dylan's singing. Bob Dylan's concert in 2024 is the third in
Saarbrucken after 2009 and 2015. In 2009 he headlined the then Saar Music
Festival and his singing seemed rather roaring and biting at the time. In
2015, his concert included a lot of Sinatra material from his then-just
released "Shadows In The Night" album, and his vocals sounded like those of
a crooner at the time. In 2024, Dylan's speech singing is more located
between the monody method and the belcanto genre. Dylan recites the lyrics
of his most wordy album to date in a monodistic sense like a poet with
chordal instrumental accompaniment to his four-piece band, which harmonizes
with each song. The musicians are introduced at four song
endings: guitarist Bob Britt on "False Prophet", guitarist Doug Lancio
on "Black Rider", bassist Tony Garnier on "To Be Alone With You" and drummer
legend Jim Keltner on "Crossing The Rubicon". Garnier, by the way, has been
accompanying Dylan since 1989 and is thus the musician who has accompanied
Dylan on his concert tours for the longest time and has played almost 3500
Dylan concerts together with the Saarbrucken concert

Dylan shows where silence can touch you when he tells his stories with a
sometimes slightly choppy sounding, sometimes briefly pausing voice on a
song like "Key West". When he switches to the belcanto style, he is
concerned with the softness of the tone. When he tries to express the
slightest gradations, to make imperceptible differences perceptible and to
alternately distinguish, strengthen or diminish his voice, he gives even
more expression to the spoken word, sometimes sung or "crooned". 

This happens particularly impressively with songs like "Key West" or
"BlackRider". Both songs are further examples of slow lyrically dominant
songs of the evening. In both cases, he often stands up and feels his way
along the concert grand piano to the middle of the stage. Sometimes it
seems a bit awkward or shuffling, which can never be accused of an artist
in his 84th year. In any case, it seems pleasantly strained when he steps
out of the darkness behind his piano to show his kind of closeness to his
hospitable, welcoming audience in Saarbrucken, not demanding, but
enjoying. A noble black piano, to which he sometimes seems to hold on, may
serve as a support.

No,"Bob Dylan in Concert 2024" is not a concert of the usual kind, not only
because of the smartless atmosphere without constantly glowing smartphones.
"Bob Dylan In Concert 2024 in Saarbrucken" seems like analmost two-hour
jam session, in which Dylan sets a groove, sings a bit about it, then adds
a few chords on the piano or blows into the harmonica, for which his band
then looks for the right arrangement. In Saarbrucken, the band
always found the respective song arrangement quickly and everything sounded
as if in flux from a single mold. The audience observes, listens
attentively and appreciates it again and again with scene applause, shouts
of bravo and enthusiasm. Driving and loud, bluesy and rocking is what it
sounds like on "False Prophet". It sounds downright jazzy and swinging in
"WhenI Paint My Masterpiece". But it is always the spoken word that is
the focus and is just as easy to understand in Saarbrucken thanks to good
hall acoustics - at least for Dylan's way of expressing himself. Everything
fits in Saarbrucken. Art, artist and auditorium merge into a unit. There
is not much to hear from Dylan's often criticized "non-singing".
"BlackRider" is a musical as well as epic highlight. Much even
soundswell-accentuated and understandable. The song seems like a symbol of
the power of silence when Dylan pauses his voice to give the "Black Rider,
Black Rider" an echo. In fact, not the slightest noise can be heard in
the audience in the concrete and steel construction of the Saarlandhalle,
so concentrated is the listening. In these moments, the Cellphone-Free
experience becomes particularly intense and the concert briefly seems like
a song meditation. A magical moment for those who want to feel it as
magical. In any case, the song is the most emotional moment of the
Saarbru cken concert evening. There are no cheers, no applause, no getting
up, nothing disturbs. For a brief moment, the concert mutates into a
devotion for someone who knows what sermons can sound like, but has long
since renounced them. Dylan concentrates on drawing literary images with
nuanced musical accompaniment of jazz, swing and,above all, blues tones.
This can be heard both in "I Contain Multitudes", when he explains that he
is a multi-layered personality, as well as in "My Own Version Of You", in
which he ironically and romantically promotes the possibilities of
different points of view. "Just You and I", he sings in "To Be Alone With
You" and practices a little louder and occasionally swinging in the
crooning again. With "Crossing The Rubicon" it gets very bluesy and
something happens that you haven't been able to experience at a Bob Dylan
concert for a long time. A middle-aged woman - the rest of the audience was
on average from at least 50 upwards - stands up in about the 15th row,
walks up to the stage with a DIN A4 sign to show it to Bob and probably
also to hand it to him. You don't know if he reads it, and you don't know
what it said. The woman could not hand him the sign. Two of the
martial-looking securities, wearing black fishing jackets and combat boots
of about 185 cm tall, equipped with all sizes of flashlights, pounced
omnipresent on the 160 cm tall woman and dragged her back to her place. No,
she was not expelled from the hall, but she was admonished with a
raised index finger never to do that again. What a heroic deed? The small,
highly harmless incident did not detract from the good mood of the artist
and audience. On the contrary, when Dylan sang "Key West is the place
to be", you had the feeling that "Saarbrucken is the place to be". With the
classic "It's All over now, Baby Blue", one of the few older songs that are
still based on the original, you are once again torn out of the melancholy
of the "Rough And Rowdy Ways". Whenever Dylan starts playing his harmonica,
it becomes nostalgic. You get the impression that Dylan is covering himself
here or even satirizing himself with the staccato chant of "I've -
(Pause) -Made - Up - (Pause) - my - Mind - (Pause) - To Give - Myself
- (Pause) - To You). The performance on this evening captivates
with versatile singing and speaking skills and perfidious interplay of
the musicians. The 105-minute concert doesn't seem boring for a minute,
hardly anyone leaves the hall to get beer, no one wants to miss anything. 

The Saarbrucken audience witnesses how the song "Watching The River Flow",
played quickly and loudly, is lived. Nothing stays the same. Dylan sings
"Goodbye, Jimmy Reed", a "rock'n'roll-heavy" and last Rough And Rowdy Ways
song of the evening, which is slowed down by a very quietand slow "Every
Grain Of Sand".

Bob Dylan, what remains after Saarbrucken? Nothing stays the same. The
musicians put the instruments out of their hands and take a step towards
the edge of the stage together with Dylan. The audience finally practices a
dissolved standing ovation with long-lasting applause. There is no encore.
The lights go out and come back on seconds later. Bob Dylan is gone.
Nothing stays the same. The audience walks towards the exit. Behind me, I
hear one baby boomer say to the other baby boomer in Saarland dialect: "Do
hatt enner uffname gemacht. Butisch honn niggs gesachd unn ne mache losse"
(Someone took recordings or pictures, but I didn't say anything and let him
do it). This small expression of solidarity is symbolic of the whole
evening. On this evening, the Saarlandhalle was a perceived unity of all
participants with a deep atmospheric density. Ok, except for the "Martial
Art Securities". And wouldn't it be a shameif such a small magical moment
of cultural-historical significance were not documented in the sense of
cultural studies, whether in word, sound or image? 

While the concertgoers slowly leave the hall to have their smartphones
freed from the Yondr pockets, Dylan sits in one of the nightliners behind
the hall and probably waits until the traffic situation calms down. Then he
will leave Saarbrucken. Perhaps when he left the Saarlandhalle, he would
see the graffiti on the opposite stadium entrance that reads: "Forever and
ever" (in reference to a fan friendship). Perhaps some passers-by thought
of Dylan's classic "Forever Young" when looking at the graffiti. The song
was not played inside, but outside, by the "Busking Man", whom I had
also heard days before in Frankfurt and Stuttgart. After his southwestern
German city triangle Frankfurt-Stuttgart-Saarbrucken, "His Bobness"
would not spend the night in Saarbrucken, it is said. He would drive
through the night to Paris, where Dylan would perform at "La Seine
Musicale" two days later. Only one day later, the media coverage of the
concert began. Some tried their hand at the usual Dylan chit chat about the
"nasal" singing and his getting older in the radio morning shows, others
tried their hand at the usual 80-100 or 120-line surface typing of 36
characters each for the respective local daily newspaper. One of them
initially shone in her rather distant follow-up report with a factual
error. "Bob Dylan was in Saarbrucken for the first time since 2009," it
said in the introduction. DELETE: Bob Dylan was in Saarbrucken for the
first time since 2009". ADD: "Bob Dylan was in Saarbrucken for the first
time in 2009. Then in 2015 and 2024 for the third time in total." The
"Current (TV) Report" of the SAARLANDISCHER RUNDFUNK understood better how
to reproduce the good atmosphere at a profound concert with original sounds
from concert goers. Each of the interviewees expressed themselves positively
and enthusiastically. In the end, we all just stood by the river one more
time and are "Watching The River Flow". - Nothing stays the same. 

(More Infos and photos from the Saarbrucken-Gig (also in German language) you
find in my blog.leonardcohen.de:http://blog.leonardcohen.de/?p=31677 )
 

In the stadium nearby there was a football match at the roughly the same
time as the concert, and there was lots of police cars, police officers,
and enthusiastic football fans singing and shouting.

In the Saarlandhalle, it was a bit quieter. At 8 o'clock, Dylan started
with "Watchtower" - I couldn't see him well behind the piano, and
as far as I could say, he played the guitar first, sitting behind the
piano.

"I Contain Multitudes" and "False Prophet" were the first
highlights of this evening, then the band played obviously "Putting on
the Ritz" and Dylan sang "Masterpiece" – what a masterpiece
indeed! Lot of energy, great fun!

"Black Rider" with some echo effects - marvelous, "To Be Alone
With You" sounded like on "Shadow Kingdom", even with the same
lyrics, another one of my favorites!

"Desolation Row" was a classic, Dylan played many songs from "Rough
and Rowdy Ways" record, which sounded differently from the studio
recordings - and I really enjoyed that.

The concert ended with "Every Grain of Sand" - breathtaking to hear
this song live!

I have enjoyed the concert from the first minute to the last! Very
dynamic, sometimes a bit loud, sometimes the harmonica or the piano did
not really fit in, but who cares? Roll on, Bob! If you have the chance to
see and listen to one of his shows, go!