| Reviews Flensburg, Germany GP Joule Arena October 23, 2026 |
Review by Espen Aas
When I locked my front door in Oslo, seven hours prior to the Flensburg
show, and walked to the underground, I felt somewhere between anxious and
excited. Excited to see another show six days after the great opening show
of European tour, anxious because you never know what you will get, and I
suppose also because I was flying to Denmark and then being picked up by
an old mate who were going to drive us to the venue across the German
border, I wasn't sure whether my tight timetable would work out. And
finally, my old friend was going to his first Dylan-show, mine was the
38th or thereabouts, so I was hoping he would enjoy it.
Luckily, traveling went so smoothly that we arrived even before the doors
of the venue had opened. It turned out that the mixing desk was placed
where our seats were supposed to be, so the manager at the venue had to
put us in slightly better seats closer to the stage. A smaller arena than
Oslo Spektrum, according to my friend the Flensburg Arena takes 4.000
people.
Almost exactly at 8 o'clock the lights went down and the band, without
Dylan ,walked on stage and started "To be Alone with You". The played for
a few minutes before he came on to loud cheers and found his place behind
the piano. Something wasn't right, so he kept on pointing and signalling
to someone on the right hand of the stage. No idea what was missing, and
as far as I could tell no one came out with anything. His vocals sounded a
bit weaker than in Oslo last Saturday, but they sometimes do at the start
of the show. As in Oslo he kept standing behind the keys, at least for a
while. As soon as the song was over, he turned a page in his notes...
Here I sort of expected "Man in the Long Black Coat" but it took me only a
few seconds to recognize he was doing "Blind Willie McTell" (which I had
hoped for). A few of us in the audience cheered loudly, but as far as I
could tell, it wasn't a huge crowd of followers, more a regular concert
going crowd. I absolutely adore this song, having seen him doing it a
handful times before (with London 1997 as the absolute highlight) and also
heard the majority of the 262 performances he has done over the years.
This was not in the top section but I was still pleased to hear it. Anton
Fig had a rest behind the drum kit on this one but got to work again when
they started the 2026-rendition of "It Ain't Me, Babe".
During the song, Dylan sat down for the first time during the performance.
It sounded similar to the one he played in Gothenburg (which I've only
heard on "tape") but pleased the crowd. Again, I thought that his voice
sounded weaker tonight.
As a huge fan of the "Time Out of Mind", I smiled when I heard the opening
notes on "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" which is a fantastic song, which I
have been treated to several times before (with London 2000 a possible
highlight). This song works well, and the lyrics were easy to hear (for
those of us who knows them).
Dylan and the band went straight to "False Prophet" from his latest album,
"Rough and Rowdy Ways". Not a huge favourite, but Dylan delivers it with
conviction, and I think he really likes the song himself.
Tony Garnier switched to stand up bass after this and we got the only
cover of the evening, "I Can Tell" which is often a point where Dylan
delivers strong vocals and plays around on the keys. Tonight it was not
so. The vocals were surprisingly weak and hard to hear, and it seemed like
they had played half the song before he even started singing. The intro
was very long. And the part where he and the drummer normally plays up to
each other towards the end was not very dominant either.
Luckily, he seemed to wake up a bit on "Black Rider". Tony still on the
upright bass and this is also a song I think Dylan sings very well in
concert. So far in the show, Dylan and the mic-stand seemed to have some
kind of disagreement and during this song, he gave up on it. He pushed it
up, so the microphone was a few centimetres (or inches if you please) over
his head. He continued to sing like nothing had happened, and the
microphone still picked him up okay. Dylan nodded to Mike Seal at one
point, and he played a very nice solo. So nice that the audience gave him
an applause afterwards, whilst the song was still going. I cannot remember
that happening before.
He left it up there when continuing on to his new and slow "Tangled up in
Blue" which is so good to have back in the set. I was a bit fascinated
with his apparent annoyance with the mic stand and didn't follow the
lyrics as closely as I did in Oslo, but I think I only picked up one of
the two new verses. Might be wrong here.
Very easy to spot the beginning of "When I Paint My Masterpiece",
although not as dynamic as it tends to be. Dylan picked up a harmonica at
the start of the song and started blowing it. He was still sitting, whilst
the microphone was high above him, so it was not very dominating in the
mix. In Oslo the crowd clapped to the rhythm of the melody, the German
crowd kept calm. (I'm never sure whether they base it on "Istanbul"
(not Constantinople) or "Puttin' on the Ritz", but then again they
are closely related). We got a new harp solo towards the end, then Dylan
was standing and thus closer to the microphone.
A short and sweet "Girl From the North Country" followed, I had hoped
he would do this. I haven't seen him doing this since Stavern, Norway in
2014. And of course, thinking about more than 60 years that has passed
since he wrote and recorded it, combining it with the approximately 600
times he has performed it... It was a treat.
Back to recent songs with "Crossing the Rubicon", which started out
strong and rocking. Not a highlight, but as Dylan continues to enjoy
playing it, I play along and enjoy it too.
"Recent songs" in my head often refers to everything from "Oh
Mercy" and up to date, so we continued in that period with "Soon After
Midnight". This was the second time Seal got a round of applause from
the audience for his solo. Dylan nodded to him for when to start, and when
to finish.
The microphone stand was still where Dylan had left it many songs ago. And
when they continued on to "Spirit on the Water", Dylan seemed to sing
for himself, more than us. He looked a bit lost at the start there, just
sitting with his hands down and drinking something from a plastic cup. And
because of the distance to the microphone, we didn't hear his vocals
very well either. A third applause for Mike Seal's guitar work here.
Finally, on "Under the Red Sky", Dylan seemed to remember where he'd
left the microphone and he pulled it down and started singing straight
into it again. It was much better. At least around where we were sitting,
this seemed to be a song the crowd enjoyed quite a lot. Interesting how he
continues to play this song from what I consider one of his weakest
albums.
A slow "I've Made up my Mind to Give Myself to You" was next, and
luckily Dylan continued to sing into the microphone. That gave an extra
tenderness to the deliverance, and the latter part of the show was by far
the best performance from him.
"Goodbye Jimmy Reed" was the best musical deliverance from the band in
my head, and I saw how Dylan's left hand beat the rhythm on the side of
his keyboard, which is a good sign, whilst Mike Seal did yet another nice
solo.
Last song of the show turned out to be "I Shall be Released". A crowd
pleaser where Dylan blew his harp again, which was very nice. When the
song ended, the whole hall stood on their feet and applauded as Dylan and
the band came out and greeted us. After a few seconds, Dylan turned and
walked, the band followed. I was hoping for an encore with "Every Grain
of Sand", but Dylan's crew quickly came out with a box and gathered
his harps and lyrics, and soon the guitars were gathered too.
My friend was very pleased to see Dylan for the first time, the German
crowd overly seemed pleased too. I thought it was not as good as the Oslo
opening show, and Dylan did seem a bit lost at times, but he got it
together for the last songs and I was happy.
Review by Vincent Eisert
The band played an intro to "To Be Alone With You" before Bob came on
stage and took his seat at the keyboard. He leaned over to the site and
for a second I thought he was going to pick up his guitar. Instead, he
took a long drink from his cup and started gesticulating wildly at Anton
Fig (or maybe the sound engineer?). He did so several times during "To
Be Alone With You". As the concert went on, these problems vanished and
Bob and the band really got it going. During "Black Rider" Bob nodded
to Mike Seal on his right, followed by a great guitar solo. This
procedure continued on several songs with some great work by Mike Seal
appreciated by both Bob and the audience. Mike Seal seems to be a real
stroke of luck for his band.
Starting with "Tangled Up In Blue" (which seemed to have been shortened)
a series of great renditions followed. On "When I Paint My Masterpiece"
Bob first tested the harmonica a bit at the start before concluding the
song with a nice harp solo. "Girl From The North Country" was sung
beautifully and was my personal highlight of the show. "Crossing the
Rubicon" saw Anton Fig delivering a march-like drumming which seemed
fitting to me thinking of Caesar crossing the Rubicon.
Throughout the show, Bob did not speak to the audience, but you could
hear him exclaim "Jesus!" several times. At times, he combined this with
pushing the microphone away from him. During some songs it was so far
away from him (and above his head) that I was suprised you could still
hear him (some great work must have been done by the sound engineers).
During one song (Tangled Up In Blue?) it had quite an atmospheric effect
when Bob leaned over his keyboard looking into the crowd and becoming
quieter because of the increasing distance to the microphone. On "Spirit
on the Water" however, he sat down for a verse and consequently became
inaudble.
"Goodbye Jimmy Reed" saw Mike Seal and Joel Paterson exchanging great
guitar solos. Joel Paterson's guitar work remained in the background
otherwise (in contrast to Mike Seal's on several songs). Bob finished
his set with "I Shall Be Released" and a beautiful harp solo. Despite
the crowd's enthusiastic response, unfortunately there was no encore.
After some initial difficulties the show really got going and was a
marvellous experience. I am really looking forward to catching Bob
again in Frankfurt and see how things have evolved by then.
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