The first Never-Ending tour show of August took place on this day in 1988. Bob Dylan‘s return to the stage would kick off a yearly tradition of the veteran songwriter touring across the globe. He has done so every year since 1988, bar 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Dylan shows no sign of stopping either and has announced European dates for 2026, which marks yet another continuation of the so-called Never-Ending Tour.
His setlist has changed massively since the first shows on the tour, with Dylan performing some classics he has never returned to on this first August date. She Belongs to Me featured in this setlist for the first time since 1981 while Bringing it All Back Home was the most represented album of the show with three songs from it performed.
A full setlist of the show, which took place at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, California, can be found below.
- Subterranean Homesick Blues
- I’ll Remember You
- Tangled Up in Blue
- You’re a Big Girl Now
- Highway 61 Revisited
- Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
- Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
- A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
- Trail of the Buffalo (traditional cover)
- Boots of Spanish Leather
- Silvio
- Every Grain of Sand
- Like a Rolling Stone
- She Belongs to Me
- Maggie’s Farm
Dylan has just concluded his Summer 2026 tour, performing across North America following the end of his Rough and Rowdy Ways performances. The veteran songwriter has performed every year since 1988, excluding 2020. Dylan could not tour during the global Coronavirus pandemic but did release his first batch of original material that year with Rough and Rowdy Ways, his first new songs since 2012’s Tempest. The first-ever Never Ending Tour show took place on June 7, 1988, at the Concord Pavilion in California.
There, Dylan played songs he had not performed live since the mid-1960s and delivered a cover that he would feature intermittently when on the road in the years to follow. Some of the songs featured in his first-ever Never Ending Tour setlist also featured in recent shows on the Spring 2026 tour, and the preceding tour of North America with Willie Nelson. His Outlaw Music Festival shows in 2025 featured the likes of Masters of War and Gotta Serve Somebody.
The first year of the Never Ending Tour had Dylan explore some of his lesser-known songs, revive tracks that had not featured in his setlist for decades by that point, and deliver the first live performances of some of his very best songs. Driftin’ too Far from Shore and Absolutely Sweet Marie were played for the first time at this show. Boots of Spanish Leather was also brought back to the stage for the first time since 1963.
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