Dylan as ever full of surprises Bob Dylan Bill Graham Civic, San Francisco Tuesday, October 17 2006 Dylan starts with “Maggie’s Farm”, follows it with “She Belongs To Me”, “Lonesome Day Blues”, “Simple Twist Of Fate” and “Rollin’ And Tumblin’” and your first thought is that as brilliant as these songs are being played, tonight’s set is going to be a shuffling of the pack. Songs you’ve heard, that is, over the last four shows, simply played in another order, the tour repertoire pretty much what’s been performed so far. Which is when, of course, Dylan starts lobbing in even more surprises. Like a fantastic version of “Boots Of Spanish Leather” almost too beautiful for words, with Donnie Herron’s violin to the fore and a guitar solo from Donny Freeman that sounds like something made of crystal cracking in slow motion. Dylan’s voice, meanwhile, fully recovered and showing none of the occasional fatigue of last night’s show, is a vehicle of profound and wavering loss, a postcard home from some outpost of love and longing that’s way off the map, too much aching grief in what he’s singing to easily accommodate, tears in the eyes of many. Next is a brusing bluesy “Till I Fell In Love With You”, a blistering thing. It’s hotly pursued by a radiant “I Shall Be Released” – the audience finding a voice of its own. Bob giving it everything, which is a lot, and then some more. Then there’s the best version yet on this tour of “Highway 61 Revisited” – played for five shows straight, but more searing tonight than ever, with a Doug Sahm-style keyboard solo from Dylan I swear wasn’t there the last time I looked. The venerable anti-war lament “John Brown” is next – as scarily appropriate as the version of “Masters Of War” played in Portland, Dylan finding another way of reminding us of the dismaying repetition of history, a fuming anger burning within it at what continues to happen to too many people in too many places, bullets flying everywhere and bombs going off in every direction. Donnie Herron’s stirring mandolin and George Recelli’s military drums make you want to march down the nearest street under a banner or blow up the White House and whoever’s in it. This is followed by a chiming “Most Likely You Go You’re Way (And I’ll Go Mine)”, keening pedal steel giving it a driving edge. From here, we’re into another tremendous reading of “Workingman’s Blues”, Dylan finding new ways to sing a song that like “Highway 61” we’ve heard at five consecutive shows, but which Dylan continues to invest with subtle new shadings. The closing jamboree of “Summer Days” and the three-song encore are the only things that are predictable, but when those three songs are “Thunder On The Mountain”, “Like A Rolling Stone” and “All Along The Watchtower”, hell, who’s complaining? Set list: San Francisco, California Bill Graham Civic Auditorium October 17, 2006 1. Maggie's Farm 2. She Belongs To Me 3. Lonesome Day Blues 4. Simple Twist Of Fate 5. Rollin' And Tumblin' 6. Boots Of Spanish Leather 7. 'Til I Fell In Love With You 8. I Shall Be Released 9. Highway 61 Revisited 10. John Brown 11. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) 12. Workingman's Blues #2 13. Summer Days (encore) 14. Thunder On The Mountain 15. Like A Rolling Stone 16. All Along The Watchtower

Allan Jones survives a fourth day of the 'never-ending tour' Bob Dylan Bill Graham Civic, San Francisco Monday, October 17 2006 Tonight sees the youngest crowd and the most expensive beer of the tour so far. There are kids as young as 12 running around here - their age the equivalent of the number of dollars you are expected to pay for a beaker of Heineken, a grimly extortionate price that the spirit of wily old promoter Bill Graham lives on beyond his demise, Bill still raking in a whopping profit in whatever afterlife he now inhabits. The Civic turns out to be the first non-seated venue of the current trek, and the place is packed and rowdy and loves Kings Of Leon, playing their fourth show with Dylan and getting into their stride now, buoyed by the crowd’s enthusiasm. For the first time at any of these shows – and despite San Francisco’s strict non-smoking policy and anti-drug laws – there’s a conspicuous whiff of marijuana in the air. I can’t see anyone actually lighting up or smoking anything resembling a spliff, though. Maybe some enterprising young psychedelic technician at work in a basement lab in Haight Ashbury, a noble son of Owsley, has come up with a way of absorbing what you’d normally smoke by rubbing it all over yourself as a body oil. Here’s to him, if he has – and pass me the bath sponge. Tonight’s show, meanwhile, is a dark and turbulent thing – in many ways the most intense so far. The set features only three new inclusions – a gloomy “Lenny Bruce”, as the opening number, which gets a big cheer at the end although I’m not sure quite how many people either recognise it or have even heard it before, a dramatic “Senor” and a skittering “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”, with Bob crooning like he’s auditioning for Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys, and snappy work from guitarist Denny Freeman and Donnie Herron on pedal steel. Bob starts in strong voice, but there’s an occasional hint of fatigue as the result of four shows in six days. He also seems troubled by a cough that makes him fluff a couple of vocal entries. It’s no big deal to anyone in the crowd, apart from the kind of hardcore Bobcats who pounce on such things as if they are the end of the world. Despite rumours of a surprise appearance, there’s no sign of Neil Young, so often a guest at Bob’s Bay Area shows. But the appearance in the audience of the Dead’s Phil Lesh causes a suitably excited commotion. Still, there’s always tomorrow night. Set list: San Francisco, California Bill Graham Civic Auditorium October 17, 2006 1. Maggie's Farm 2. She Belongs To Me 3. Lonesome Day Blues 4. Simple Twist Of Fate 5. Rollin' And Tumblin' 6. Boots Of Spanish Leather 7. 'Til I Fell In Love With You 8. I Shall Be Released 9. Highway 61 Revisited 10. John Brown 11. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) 12. Workingman's Blues #2 13. Summer Days (encore) 14. Thunder On The Mountain 15. Like A Rolling Stone 16. All Along The Watchtower