Bob Dylan has swapped out his show closer during a performance in Phoenix, Arizona, for a song he has played sparingly over the last 18 years.
The veteran songwriter is continuing his Summer 2026 tour and dropped usual setlist closer, Every Grain of Sand. Instead, Dylan and the band rallied through a 16-song set which ended with the deep cut classic, I Shall Be Released. The song has been an occasional feature of this recent tour and returned to the setlist for the first time in 18 years earlier this month. Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II is well represented at the Arizona Financial Theatre show. The performance also included When I Paint My Masterpiece. Songs from Rough and Rowdy Ways, John Wesley Harding, and Oh Mercy also featured in the Julian Lage-featuring performance. Lage had appeared for just a small handful of shows and is seemingly set to perform a few more shows with Dylan and the band.
A full setlist for Dylan’s Arizona Financial Theatre show can be found below.
- To Be Alone With You
- Man in the Long Black Coat
- All Along the Watchtower
- I Contain Multitudes
- False Prophet
- I Can Tell
- Black Rider
- Share Your Love With Me (Bobby Bland cover)
- When I Paint My Masterpiece
- I’ll Make It All Up to You (Jerry Lee Lewis cover)
- Crossing the Rubicon
- Soon After Midnight
- Under the Red Sky
- I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
- Goodbye Jimmy Reed
- I Shall Be Released
The Summer 2026 tour has seen Dylan perform across California following on from his hugely successful Spring 2026 shows. Last year, Dylan joined Willie Nelson and Billy Strings for a series of performances on the Outlaw Music Festival tour. There, he performed the likes of Love Sick, Mr. Tambourine Man, and Masters of War.
Some of the songs featured in this year’s summer setlist had never been performed by Dylan before. He added The Basement Tapes bootleg track Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby to hit set for the first time. I Shall Be Released also returned to the stage for the first time in 18 years.
Dylan has also confirmed three European tour dates for later this year. Whether the veteran songwriter expands the schedule to include the United Kingdom and other European cities is yet to be seen, but it appears likely that Dylan will perform a European tour once again. He concluded the Rough and Rowdy Ways 2025 tour with a performance at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.
There, Dylan performed a cover of The Pogues’ A Rainy Night in Soho. Whether Dylan makes further setlist changes for his shows in Europe later this year is yet to be seen, but the veteran songwriter performed a collection of tracks last year that were then absent from his dates in Europe.
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