A Creature Void of Form

Just back from seeing Dylan at Nottingham Arena. I'd heard that the venue wasn't quite as soulless and alienating as most other stadium gigs, but this proved not to be the case - it's a shed.

Anyway, Dylan was on tremendous form, his band these days are pretty much a straight up Blues / R'n'B / Swing band, and some of the interpretations of older tunes were majestic - there was a fantastic slow blues version of It's Alright Ma, and a mesmerising Blind Willie McTell. Times like this, the band sounds a lot like the Bad Seeds - a good thing.

It's best to approach Dylan live with a healthy scepticism and a readiness to be disappointed; on the evidence of tonight he was on his best behaviour, appeared to be enjoying himself, and even gave a straight version of Like A Rolling Stone full of feeling and (almost) all the right notes.

Maybe it was all down to a first time in Nottingham, wanting to impress, and a willingness to play up to the recent hype around the No Direction Home documentary and the paperback version of the Chronicles...either way, a night to remember.

set list:

1.	Maggie's Farm
2.	The Times They Are A-Changin'
3.	Lonesome Day Blues
4.	Love Minus Zero/No Limit
5.	It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
6.	Under The Red Sky
7.	Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
8.	Blind Willie McTell
9.	Highway 61 Revisited
10.	John Brown (acoustic)
11.	Floater (Too Much To Ask)
12.	Honest With Me
13.	Masters Of War
14.	Summer Days
	(encore)
15.	Like A Rolling Stone
16.	All Along The Watchtower