Things aren’t what they were, as Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways tour posters note. But inside this plush maroon theatre, Dylan’s first night of four in London manages to conjure up a classy yesteryear that’s near as dammit to timeless: no photographers, phones in Faraday pouches, decorative house lights eking out a few warm watts, everyone rapt – a hush that’s interrupted by a lusty cheer when, on I Contain Multitudes, Dylan name checks “them British bad boys, the Rolling Stones”. (Another mentionee, William Blake, gets a lone “Yeah!”)
For most of the gig, Dylan himself remains obscured by an upright piano, the kind that normally backs on to a wall. Amusingly, the business end of this piano is the best-lit element on this low-lit stage. But perhaps that’s fitting, given that the singer’s piano playing turns out to be one of the crowning glories of this very special night.
