Bob Dylan : The R0undhouse, 26/04/09

We head into Camden and have dinner in Marine Ices.   Outside the queue to see Bob Dylan snakes all the way up Chalk Farm Road.  It has the feeling of a real event out there.  We all head over to the Roundhouse where there is a huge scrum to get in.  We make our way up to the circle, we have great seats, just to the right of the stage although when the band walks on Ben jokes that he “is glad to see the back of Bob Dylan”.  
The band are immediately electrifying.  Used to playing night after night in arenas across the globe they are so powerful in a venue of this size.   I am just so thrilled to be up close to the man himself, to hear him introduced as “Columbia Recording Artist, Bob Dylan!” I feel so proud.  Third song in he plays “Tangled up in Blue” I can’t quite believe it, my favourie Dylan song, tossed out early in the set, like AC/DC’s “Back in Black”    “Highway 61” is delivered at  a breakneck pace, he sings it as “Highway 65” in case it gets too straightforward.  It is so hot in there.   Then he only goes and plays a killer version of “Like a Rolling Stone”.   It is still good to see Bob finally face the crowd, hold his hands aloft, he does care after all
He returns to encore with a blistering version of “All Along the Watchtower” which is really special, dark and angry.  We get to see him introduce the band and it is wonderful to just here him talk and joke with his fellow musicians.  Then finally he ends with “Blowin’ in the Wind” delivered in a swing tempo before another salute to the audience, all of the band bowing in line and then he is gone.   He did come out from behind his keys for the final number to play the harmonica and it was a wonderful moment.  And that is the enigma.