| Reviews Killarney, Ireland Gleneagle Arena November 23, 2025 |
Review by Thom Hickey
'I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day : the
night cometh when no man can work.' (St. Johns Gospel)
Bob Dylan has lived for four score and four years.
He has been a performing and recording artist for more than 6 decades in
the process altering the entire landscape of popular song through the
Mississippian transformative power of his genius.
He has won the respect and admiration of his peers and has surely joined
the company of that precious band of great artists whose achievements
will endure as long as people desire to be inspired, consoled and
amazed.
He is garlanded with all the prizes that the cultural world can offer.
What more could he want?
surely at his age he should be spending his time swaying lazily in a
hand carved rocking chair on a shady verandah.
Pausing only to sip a fine bourbon, and leaf through his well thumbed
texts of the testaments and the classical masters.
But that is the road Bob Dylan has not taken.
Because he has not had a career or adopted a lucrative lifestyle. Rather
he has followed with faithful devotion a vocation.
A vocation he could not but accept and endeavour to fulfil with all the
protean energy at his command.
So, instead of the verandah he is treading the boards again in Killarney
in the once and future Kingdom of Kerry.
Here playing to an ardent and reverent audience he will demonstrate once
again that he is by a distance going away the greatest songwriter in the
medium of popular song and a deeply charismatic performer combining hard
won craft with flashes of sly humour and in the moment invention.
Supported by a well drilled and highly empathetic quartet of superb
musicians he performed a set that built in intensity of expression and
depth of meaning like the succeeding books of an epic poem.
For me the highlights were the regretful tender 'Baby Blue', the
meditative 'Key West' and the don't breathe this is just so beautiful
'I've made my mind up to give myself to you'
That said every song he performed more than justified its inclusion.
There were many grace notes struck in the clarity and depth of emotion
in his vocals and the infinite sands of time running out wistfulness of
his harmonica playing.
As the last elegiac tones of 'Every Grain of Sand' faded into the
star filled night we all prepared to depart.
But tonight, here in Ireland, the fountainhead of the ballad tradition
to which Bob is heir, a special treat was offered to us.
This was in the form of a stately and deeply moving rendition of 'The
Lakes of Ponchatrain'.
Those who had tears to shed, perhaps for those no longer there to share
such a moment, shed them with abandon.
As we streamed out ecstatic Bob, was of course, waiting for the bus that
would take him to the next way station on his personal camino.
Bob Dylan, faithful to his vocation, will as long as his health allows,
keep on keepin' on - a pligrim heading for another joint.
Review by Colin Lacey
Really enjoyable show. The recordings from this tour don't come close to
conveying what it's like to see and hear Dylan up close in an intimate
venue like this one. And the sound was fantastic too; every instrument and
subtlety in full detail.
Dylan was in top form and sang really well throughout. The band was
astounding; Anton Fig was a standout.
The unchanging setlist didn't change but even the songs I wasn't
particularly looking forward to - My Own Version, Mother of Muses and Key
West - were all powerful highlights, alongside Baby Blue and It Ain't
Me, Babe. Desolation Row was another peak and now sounds closer to Series
of Dreams than to its original.
But the real highlight was the unexpected added extra - a remarkable
version of The Lakes of Pontchartain. After the standard closer Every
Grain of Sand, the band seemed set to exit stage right but Dylan wasn't
having any of it. He rang a few chords on his piano then began a fantastic
version of a song everyone in the audience seemed to know and wanted to
join in with. Dylan saved his best vocal of the night for this one - the
first Lakes of Pontchartain since 1991, according to the official Dylan
website.
Maybe he was inspired by the Lakes of Killarney.
To top this show on Tuesday night he'll have to do something extra
special. Here's hoping!
Colin Lacey
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