Review: Bob Dylan, ‘Rough and Rowdy’ and full of grace in Fishtown

Bob Dylan took a seat at the piano at the Fillmore Philadelphia and claimed to be at a loss for words. “What’s the matter with me?” he asked. “I don’t have much to say.”

Those are the opening lines of “Watching the River Flow,” the 1971 song about finding peace with writer’s block that kicked off Sunday night’s sold-out show on the “Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour,” which arrived back in Philadelphia almost two years to the day after playing the Met Philly in November 2021.

Of course, Dylan was being ironic. At 82, at the tail end of a monumental career, he still has plenty to say as well as a justified belief that his new material stands tall alongside the pillars of his celebrated catalog.

That meant Dylan’s 17-song set at the Fishtown venue — a standing-room-only show, except for seats along the balcony rail — was weighted slightly to new songs over classics.

The entirety of the 2021 Rough and Rowdy Ways album was performed, save for the 17-minute JFK assassination saga, “Murder Most Foul,” which Dylan declined to do even as the 60th anniversary of the tragedy that inspired it arrives this week.

Dylan and his superb quintet of musicians — anchored by bassist and bandleader Tony Garnier and fab new drummer Jerry Pentecost — did nine Rough and Rowdy cuts, one cover (of Johnny Mercer’s “That Old Black Magic”), and seven vintage songs. The oldest was “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” from 1966′s Blonde on Blonde.

If you’re a Philly Dylan fan keeping score at home, that means no Philly-centric song was performed. Dylan has dotted several shows this fall with covers with connections to the city he’s in, with a truncated version of Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” in Manhattan last week as the latest example.

» READ MORE: Here are 10 Philly songs we think Bob Dylan should sing at the Fillmore this weekend

He left that feature out at the Fillmore, however, sticking to his standard set list. (Don’t feel too bad about that, Philadelphia; Boston didn’t get any localized songs either.)

Stage patter was at a minimum, which might have been for the best since Dylan reportedly seemed to come to the defense of justifiably disgraced Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner at a show in New York last week. Some in attendance seemed to think he was joking. Still, best to keep it to yourself, Bob.

In Fishtown, he limited his remarks to introducing the band, praising the group, which included guitarists Doug Lancio and Bob Britt and multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron.

“These songs aren’t easy songs to play, and this band can really play them well, don’t you think?” he asked. “Let me hear you say yeah!”

(One entertaining aspect of a Bob Dylan show: Things that would seem normal coming from any other performer Dylan makes seem deeply strange.)

The person most deserving of praise on stage, though, was Dylan himself. Many of his longtime fans have fallen away, tired of corrosive vocals, endless rearranging of beloved songs, and trying to understand a snippet of garbled lyrics.

But a funny thing has happened over the past decade. Dylan has found a new way to sing. Starting with Shadows in the Night in 2015, Dylan released three consecutive albums of pop standards, many associated with Frank Sinatra.

And what seemed like a typically perverse Dylan career move has paid musical dividends, which rewarded the crowd at the Fillmore, which included plenty of people in their 20s and 30s, along with those closer to Dylan’s age.

Tender songs like “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” from 1967′s John Wesley Harding and “To Be Alone With You” from 1969′s Nashville Skyline, as well as Rough and Rowdy cuts like the mysterious “Key West (Philosopher Pirate)” and swaggering “Crossing the Rubicon,” banged on with ramshackle aplomb on instrumental passages, then eased up on the verses.

That allowed Dylan to sing quietly, with his sandpapered voice sometimes even reaching for moments of sweetness. And since it was a no-phones show — audience members kept devices with them, locked inYondr pouches — the crowd was forced to be as present as Dylan was.

So whether he was enunciating his need to connect with his people in “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You” or rhyming “like William Blake” with “I have no apologies to make” in “I Contain Multitudes,” the crowd was right there with him.

Dylan is not the smoothest pianist, but he took many solos himself and ably eased his way into several songs before the band came rumbling in, most righteously on “Gotta Serve Somebody” and with welcome high-stepping verve on the penultimate “Goodbye Jimmy Reed.”

The closer was “Every Grain of Sand,” a still underappreciated spiritually-seeking masterpiece from 1981′s Shot of Love that gleams with at-one-with-the-universe grace.

Until that point, Dylan had only played piano. But for the song’s coda, he pulled out a harmonica, bringing the song to a conclusion that circled back to his folk troubadour beginnings. It felt like one final crowd-pleasing magic trick.

“Watching the River Flow”

“Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)”

“I Contain Multitudes”

“False Prophet”

“When I Paint My Masterpiece”

“Black Rider”

“My Own Version of You”

“I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”

“Crossing The Rubicon”

“To Be Alone With You”

“Key West (Philosopher’s Pirate)”

“Gotta Serve Somebody”

“I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You”

“That Old Black Magic”

“Mother of Muses”

“Goodbye Jimmy Reed”

“Every Grain of Sand”