Bob Dylan fans are full of praise for the Spring 2026 tour, which saw the veteran songwriter perform at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium last night (April 20).
Dylan is set to stay on the road through to August 2026, announcing new dates earlier today (April 21). The Spring 2026 tour has featured songs from Dylan’s most recent studio album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, as well as hit songs from the likes of Time Out of Mind and John Wesley Harding. The setlist, while broadly unchanged from night to night, has been praised by show attendees as the perfect setlist for die hard fans, a market Dylan appears to actively appeal to while freezing out the passing listener. Fans argue this is a choice by Dylan, who is performing at smaller venues across North America this Spring and Summer.
A full setlist for the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium show in Spartanburg, South Carolina, can be found below.
- To Be Alone With You
- Man in the Long Black Coat
- All Along the Watchtower
- I Contain Multitudes
- False Prophet
- Black Rider
- Love Sick
- Goodbye Jimmy Reed
- I Can Tell (Bo Diddley cover)
- I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
- Crossing the Rubicon
- When I Paint My Masterpiece
- Forgetful Heart
- Soon After Midnight
- Nervous Breakdown (Eddie Cochran cover)
- Every Grain of Sand
Fans have since taken to the r/BobDylan subreddit and shared their thoughts on the shows so far. One fan suggested Dylan is performing songs that can be considered hits, but not his best-known works. They wrote: “Who else could get away with this but Bob? I’ve been to a few Dylan shows, and anyone else who has knows that he doesn’t play many of his big hits.
“He plays notable fan favourites like All Along the Watchtower, When I Paint My Masterpiece, It Ain’t Me Babe, etc., but if he were like other artists, he’d be playing Like a Rolling Stone, Tangled Up In Blue, Blowin’ in the Wind, Mr. Tambourine Man, etc. My question is two-fold: Why does he get away with this from a fan-appreciation perspective? Are there any other artists who you think could, or that you would like to see try?
“Do you think The Rolling Stones would get good reviews if they refused to play (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Gimme Shelter, Paint It Black, etc., and opted to just run through 90% of the Hackney Diamonds album and then throw in a song like Ruby Tuesday, Casino Boogie, or She’s a Rainbow somewhere in the set?”
Another Dylan fan disagreed, adding: “I’m not sure to the general public he does get away with it. He’s effectively winnowed it down to the diehard fans and people who don’t know what he currently does with his approach.”
A third added: “Literally everyone I’ve talked to who isn’t a Dylan fan has said it was a horrible experience.”
Others believe Dylan has done right by himself and his music in avoiding the stadium shows of his contemporaries. One fan wrote: “Dylan doesn’t play stadiums as the other big names do. Dylan probably would’ve lost his mind a long time ago had he only geared towards the mainstream. Neil Young comes to mind as the closest analogue.”
Another added: “Well, I think most fans want him to play what he wants to play, because when he plays what he wants to play, he plays better than when he plays what he doesn’t want to play. Also, speaking for myself, I don’t really go around wishing him to play Blowin’ in the Wind or Mr. Tambourine Man, he has done that hundreds of time, if i can see him play a weird new version of Goodbye Jimmy Reed, I’m more happy about that, or even better, pull something out from the ol’ catalog which you never would’ve expected.”
