Bob Dylan at 3Arena, Dublin on Thursday November 25th, 2026
If you’re going to burn down a legacy, you may as well make it a big one. Having lit a fire under the folk scene in the sixties, Bob Dylan has seemingly taken a similar approach to his own career – particularly on stage. While his heavyweight contemporaries have largely retreated into becoming their own tribute acts (Paul McCartney will forever play an extended version of ‘Hey Jude’, the Stones are a reliable jukebox musical and Springsteen can’t escape his own hits), Dylan has cheerfully – well sort of – been doing his own thing on the Never Ending Tour since 1988. Stories of his erratic approach to live performance are legion yet his audience seem to have made their peace with it and, while he won’t be getting the Glastonbury headliner call anytime, he’s comfortably filling arenas around the world.
What keeps the crowd coming back, with hope in their hearts? Tonight offers a number of reasons why. Effectively deconstructing the arena experience, Dylan and his small band huddle together on a dimly lit stage, dressed in black against a black backdrop and with the star of the show largely hidden behind his piano. By the second song he has turned his back to us to pick his guitar for the only point in the evening, launching into a jam that eventually reveals itself to be ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’. Whatever the context, it’s a thrilling moment.
Not that it’s all solid gold. The Rough and Rowdy Ways album forms most of the set (this is the last date of a run of shows that started in 2021) and truth be told, it’s not vintage Dylan. We’re firmly in country, boogie woogie and blues territory but it can still sparkle, even if some of the enthusiastic nodding along smacks of over compensation.
When he’s good though, boy is he good. The voice is surprisingly strong, he knows his way around a piano and when he blows on the harmonica (not the most beautiful of instruments) it’s quite moving. Of the classics, only contorted versions of ‘Desolation Row’ and ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ make an appearance alongside deeper cuts from the likes of Nashville Skyline and Shot Of Love. Yes there are so many songs you would love to hear in any form, yet they already exist in the world and you can listen to them when you get home – or if you’re quick on the back of a flashing rickshaw outside the venue.
For a night spent in the company of an 80 year old man you can’t really see playing songs you don’t really know it’s pretty fine. The absolute highlight however comes right at the end as a shaky intro to ‘Rainy Night In Soho’ causes the place to erupt in a manner that it has threatened to all night. It’s perfectly imperfect, a raggedly beautiful reading of a song by a writer who on his day was Dylan’s equal. The respect and love is clear, the emotion heightened by the presence of Victoria Mary Clarke in the crowd on the night before what would have been her and MacGowan’s wedding anniversary. It is genuinely breathtaking. Now we know why all these people keep coming back to the frustrating, elating genius of Bob Dylan. We might just well join them.