= Bob Dylan - Bob Links - Lingen, Germany - Reviews - 10/24/25


Reviews
Lingen, Germany
EmslandArena
October 24, 2025

[Vincent Eisert], [Felix Wenzel]

Review by Vincent Eisert


On Friday, Bob continued his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour at the EmslandArena. 
My train journey to Lingen was tough, but it was definitely more than worth
it. What stood out to me in particular was the new arrangement of My Own 
Version of You. It was a spoken word performance with sparse backing, and 
it was my personal highlight of the show. Bob is sitting the whole time 
now, but he is still developing his songs further. I really enjoyed Anton 
Fig's military-style drumming when Bob mentioned Sherman, Zhukov and Patton 
during Mother of Muses. Desolation Row and especially It's All Over Now, 
Baby Blue received the strongest reactions from the crowd. Bob didn't speak 
a single word during the show. For some inexplicable reason, I heard some 
people complain about this afterwards. As always, Bob finished the show 
with a beautiful harp solo on Every Grain of Sand. All in all, it was 
another fascinating Rough and Rowdy Ways show and I'm looking forward to 
seeing Bob again in Cologne.

[TOP]

Review by Felix Wenzel


There was a palpable disillusionment when the lights went on. *Every Grain
of Sand* is one of my favourite songs, but even that was really not great.
There was no encore, which is fair enough, but it was a deeply
disappointing show.

I've seen Dylan about ten times since my first concert in Wiesbaden back
in 1992, when he was touring the *Good As I Been To You* songs. Among
those concerts were many highlights - I remember one in Munster in 2007
with wonderful renditions from *Modern Times*, and I'll never forget
*Girl From The North Country* on that beautiful summer night in London's
Hyde Park in 2019.

But last night it felt as if a cynical old man wanted to see whether he
could get away with hacking out nasty-sounding scales on the piano, and
even the favourites from *Rough and Rowdy Ways* sounded tired and lame.
Outside the venue, a young man was playing Dylan songs from the '60s in
their traditional arrangements - a painful reminder of what Dylan once
was.

Having said all that, he's still the greatest, and I'm still glad he
was recognised with the Nobel Prize. Next time, though, I hope he'll
bring some new ideas to his live shows.

Felix Wenzel
(@spieltagsgedichte on Bluesky and Instagram)*

[TOP]

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