Bob Dylan dusted off his song ‘Desolation Row’, giving it its first live debut since 2018 with the addition of a tiny wrench.
On Tuesday (September 17), the legendary musician closed out the final night of the Outlaw Music Festival tour at the Darien Lake Ampitheater in Buffalo, New York. Dylan played a 15-track set which featured his hits such as ‘All Along The Watchtower’, ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ and ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35’ as well as covers including the likes of Chuck Berry‘s ‘Little Queenie’, The Fleetwoods’ ‘Mr. Blue’, Grateful Dead’s ‘Stella Blue’ and Paul Davis’ ‘Six Days on the Road’.
The highlight of the night came when the musician performed ‘Desolation Row’ live for the first time in six years, adding a little flare to it with the help of a tiny wrench. Fan captured footage shows the moment in which Dylan whips out the small wrench while sitting at the piano and begins to tap his microphone with it.
Fans took to X/Twitter to share their reactions to the unexpected moment. “Hello, I can’t come to work today becasue i’m preparing a 10,000 word think piece on why Bob Dylan is smacking a WRENCH against a microphone’,” wrote one fan while another shared: “Oh my God it was a WRENCH! Bob Dylan was tapping on the mic with a *tiny wrench*. Bob the Builder, forever innovating. What a man. What a mind.” Check out more reactions below.
‘Hello, I can’t come to work today becasue i’m preparing a 10,000 word think piece on why Bob Dylan is smacking a WRENCH against a microphone’. pic.twitter.com/wkLPxHcKSn
— Ben Burrell (@benburrell) September 18, 2024
Oh my God it was a WRENCH! Bob Dylan was tapping on the mic with a *tiny wrench*.
Bob the Builder, forever innovating. What a man. What a mind.
(Clip from “Outlaw-b7w” on YouTube) pic.twitter.com/a7zLP9S9ae
— HarryHew (@harryhew) September 18, 2024
I’ve got tickets to see Bob Dylan’s final show at the Royal Albert Hall and if he doesn’t play with a miniature wrench I’m asking for my money back.
— Kat Lister (@Madame_George) September 19, 2024
More of you should understand that last night Bob Dylan performed “Desolation Row” while banging a small wrench rhythmically on his microphone
— marc tracy (@marcatracy) September 19, 2024
In other news, last week, Dylan treated his fans to a performance of ‘All Along The Watchtower’ marking his first time playing it in six years.
Dylan first played ‘All Along The Watchtower’ at the launch of his reunion tour with The Band on January 3, 1974. Since then, it has become his most played track, racking up a total of 2,285 times performed live. His performance of the song has been referred to as a cover of a cover due to the influence of Jimmi Hendrix’s version.
Back in August, Dylan played ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35’ for the first time in almost a decade at an Outlaw Music Festival touring stop in Boise, Idaho.
When the ‘Outlaw Music Festival Tour’ kicked off, Dylan started it off with a typically unpredictable setlist of ‘50s blues and country covers and deep cuts.
Dylan has also announced his own UK headline tour for later this year – including a trio of shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
He is due to bring his ongoing ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’ world tour to the UK in November and will be playing 10 shows across the country – starting in BIC Windsor Hall in Bournemouth (November 1). The use of cameras and mobile phones will be prohibited at the concerts.
Elsewhere, the ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright’ singer is set to release a new box set called ‘The 1974 Live Recordings’ – a compilation of his arena performances across the year.
Tomorrow (September 20), the set will feature 417 previously-unreleased performances, as well as newly-mixed recordings and liner notes written by journalist and critic Elizabeth Nelson. You can pre-order the box set and check out the full 431 tracklisting here.
In other news, it was recently confirmed that Dylan has recorded a cover of ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ for the upcoming Ronald Reagan biopic.
The upcoming film, Reagan, has been in the works for several years, dating back to its announcement in 2020. The film is set for release in late August in the US – a UK release date has yet to be set – and will star Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan.
For the film, Dylan has recorded a cover of Cole Porte’s 1934 song ‘Don’t Fence Me In’. The song was later popularised in the 1940s by Gene Autry, who Dennis Quaid is a third-cousin to.
Dylan’s own biopic, A Complete Unknown, is set for release in the US on Christmas Day, while it receives a UK release sometime in January.
A Complete Unknown stars Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, and will feature performances from Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz and Scoot McNairy.
The biopic is set to explore Dylan’s transition to using the electric guitar in the ’60s, his rise to fame, and his subsequent achievement of icon status in the folk-rock music industry.