Recommendations of the Editorial team
Bob Dylan has the latest stage of his Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour on Saturday night (March 21) at the Orpheum Theater in Omaha, Nebraska. He made some fundamental changes: Instead of the usual nine, he played only six songs from the album “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” swapped his grand piano for a small keyboard in the middle of the stage and rearranged the arrangement – guitarists Bob Britt and Doug Lancio played acoustic instead of electric. An electric guitar sat on Dylan’s amp all night, but he never touched it for a moment.
The evening began in the usual “Rough and Rowdy Ways” manner with “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” but then immediately went in a different direction: Dylan pulled “The Man in the Long Black Coat” from the album “Oh Mercy” out of the hat – for the first time since 2013. Songs like “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and Bo Diddley’s “I Can Tell” – which he had only played at outlaw festival shows in recent years – also appeared in the set. The biggest surprise came towards the end when he played Eddie Cochran’s 1958 classic “Nervous Breakdown” on a stage for the very first time. Cell phones were banned at the show and no video has surfaced, but fans managed to get clean audio recordings.
Dylan’s last appearance in America was at the conclusion of the Outlaw Festival tour in September 2025. They were extremely strange shows, even by Dylan’s standards: he wore a hood pulled tightly over his head, placed a music stand and bright lamps next to his piano, making it almost impossible for the audience to see his face.
He never explained this behavior, but it’s almost certainly related to fans constantly filming and photographing him over the summer. At his headline shows in theaters, he can force fans to put their cell phones in bags at the entrance – this was simply not possible at the large open-air amphitheaters on the Outlaw tour.
Bumpy premiere in Omaha
The fans in Omaha had a clear view of him all night Saturday night. Nevertheless, there were some stumbling blocks. “[Es war] “The bumpiest concert of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour,” says a report by Matt Simonsen in Ray Padgett’s newsletter “Flagging Down the Double E’s.” “We should all say a prayer for the roadie who set up Bob’s microphone tonight, because Bob sat too far away from it, looked pained when he leaned in, and picked it up and threw it down about ten times (each time with a louder bang than the previous time).
The loudest instrument of the night was actually the microphone stand as it slammed onto the stage floor! Bob’s voice may sound weak on the recordings, but when he was comfortable with the microphone he sounded really good. At other times he could hardly be heard because the distance between him and the microphone was simply too great.”
Dylan’s spring tour continues Sunday evening at Mary W. Sommervold Hall in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and ends May 1 at Abilene Auditorium in Abilene, Texas. More US shows are planned for this summer, but so far he only has the June 6th and 7th dates at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville, Washington and July 2nd at WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Oklahoma.
