A third show on the European leg of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour brought no changes to Bob Dylan‘s setlist.
The veteran performer has taken his recent album on tour for the last four years and has kept a relatively similar set for UK audiences. His recent show in Copenhagen, Denmark, had Dylan perform the likes of Desolation Row, Every Grain of Sand, and When I Paint My Masterpiece. Mixed in with those classics was all but one song from Rough and Rowdy Ways. The performance at the Royal Arena last night (October 21) had Dylan play tracks from John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, and Bringing It All Back Home. It marks the third performance on the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour so far. A full setlist for the show can be found below.
- I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
- It Ain’t Me, Babe
- I Contain Multitudes
- False Prophet
- When I Paint My Masterpiece
- Black Rider
- My Own Version of You
- To Be Alone With You
- Crossing the Rubicon
- Desolation Row
- Key West (Philosopher Pirate)
- Watching the River Flow
- It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
- I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
- Mother of Muses
- Goodbye Jimmy Reed
- Every Grain of Sand
Dylan played the same set on the first night of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, though there may be scope in future sets for changes to the setlist. The show comes nearly a year after Dylan performed in Europe on the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. Rough and Rowdy Ways celebrated its fifth anniversary earlier this year.
Dylan has performed all songs from the album, except for Murder Most Foul, extensively since 2021. The album was recorded in “last-minute” fashion according to drummer Matt Chamberlain, who explained Dylan’s style when making the album.
Chamberlain said: “Yeah, well the Dylan thing is, the tour was very last-minute. I played for a couple of days, and he wanted me to tour, literally, it was like a three-day window, and he asked me to hop on this tour.
“So we did like six weeks and got back, and then after the first year, we started his record, and that was an education because he’s so last-minute, in-the-moment about the way he makes his records.
“It’s almost like playing with a poet jazz musician because he’s just always changing it up; anything can happen at any time, things can just get trashed, and we’ll do a whole new version of a song. He’s amazing. He’s Bob Dylan, so…”
Though it may seem daunting to play along with Dylan and find the right groove, Chamberlain suggested it was “pretty fun” to experience. Rough and Rowdy Ways would mark another critically acclaimed release from Dylan, and his first release of original music since the release of Tempest.
Chamberlain added: “Pretty much, yeah. He might have like a reference point for a groove or a feel, and then we’ll just kind of jam on that.
“And then he’ll start trying to sing over it, and then he’ll get on the piano and add some extra chords, and we’ll kind of work out the arrangement, and the next thing you know we’ve tracked the song. It’s pretty fun…”
