Gern Blansten said:

I see that Dylan will be playing near me soon and I've never seen him live.  I can't say I am a big fan but I have always respected what he's done.  I saw a documentary of his beginnings and was kind of impressed.

I checked out some recent live footage on YouTube and was absolutely shocked at how awful it was.  Then I read some reviews where people that are fans seem to understand that Dylan will do what he wants and sometimes you get a real show and sometimes you get a show where he is basically unintelligible and reworks his popular songs to the point that they are unrecognizable.

Has anyone seen him live?  What was your opinion?

I've seen Dylan a few times, and he's hit or miss. He usually has great opening acts, though, so if it's a miss, you still get your money's worth. And his band is top notch, too.

One thing I've read about his recent shows is that he's revisiting how his songs came together and sounded in the studio. I haven't seen him since the minor league ballpark shows about five or six years ago (middle-of-the-road), but I don't think I've ever seen him play a studio version of any of his songs live. I remember seeing him in 2005 and not realizing that he played "Mr. Tambourine Man" until I looked at the setlist the next day. If this kind of thing bothers you, maybe skip it. I'm a big proponent of deconstruralism myself, so I've always appreciated it. That 2005 gig was a rough one overall, though. And Merle Haggard's opening set was so damn lit that Dylan just seemed like a corpse after that. There's some sad irony there, I suppose.

Gern Blansten said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

First time I saw him in 2004 I was like "what is this..?"

Second time I saw him in 2011 I was like "this is so bad! Why did I go a second time! (at least Mark Knopfler opened)"

Third time I saw him in 2019 I "got it" and it was PURE BLISS.

I say go for it.

https://youtu.be/Ip01n-M7N_M

And -- whatever you do, do not listen to @JPPJ84

Interesting...I'm afraid I would regret it since I've never been a big fan.  The live stuff I heard almost sounded like someone who was trying to sound like shit.  Not the band, just vocally.

Well well well, if the Swede tells you not to listen to me, maybe listen to my parents who have loved Bob Dylan all their lives. I gave them the tickets for their birthdays. What can I say, we hated it. It was terrible. The songs were unrecognizable, his voice is shot, zero atmosphere in the arena. We were in utter disbelief and fled, alongside a whole lot of other people, before the encore (it’s still amazing to me there were people who wanted one).
save the 100 quid on something worthwhile 

Maybe wait until the opening act is announced and make your decision then. It ain't exactly a hot ticket. Dude's been on the road for 30 damn years.

No opening act in the European tour like Bob-Dylan-Hater @JPPJ84 said.

It was still lovely.

Gern Blansten said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F45Lf_GgMVY

This is bad

Now imagine 90 minutes of that... We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry

On a positive Dylan note, I watched Rolling Thunder Revue on Netflix and it was outstanding. Great live performances. 

Gern Blansten said:

bbiggs said:

On a positive Dylan note, I watched Rolling Thunder Revue on Netflix and it was outstanding. Great live performances. 

Agreed... That's part of why I am so surprised. 

That was 1975.