The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Saturday April 21 2007
The review below talks about a fan rushing the stage and says that this brought to mind the famous 1966 "Judas!" incident at the Albert Hall. The "Judas!" shout (when Dylan used an electric guitar) is included on the CD called Live 1966: the Royal Albert Hall Concert and on bootleg recordings that claimed the concert took place in London, but it is generally accepted that the incident happened at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester.
Minutes before Bob Dylan hits the stage, the excitement proves too much for one woman. "Where's first aid?" she asks. "I need some woman's stuff. My insides just exploded." Moments later, she returns to her seat to the sound of Dylan singing It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding). At times like this, you believe that Dylan really does have peculiar cognitive powers.
After spending the 80s and some of the 90s sounding like a man who used to be Bob Dylan, Robert Zimmerman again feels like the Dylan of his legend. New album Modern Times has received rapturous reviews and notched up his first US No 1 since 1976. Even Bryan Ferry is charting with Dylan songs. Dylan may mock this renewed interest in Cat's In The Well with lines like, "Now his hair's falling out/ All he's gotta do is keep a tune", though he is soon confessing, "I paid my time/ Now I'm as good as new" (The Levee's Gonna Break).
Stick-thin again, wearing a white hat that shadows his face and pointy boots, from row J he certainly looks uncannily like the musical gunslinger of the 1960s. The voice David Bowie once described as "sand and glue" is now Macy Gray meets Donald Duck, but his curious rasp sounds more powerful than it has for years. The biggest surprise is how fired up he seems by his own music. We're even treated to the unlikely spectacle of Bob Dylan dancing. His new songs prompt as much fervour as the old ones.
The nightly changing setlist shows particular attention to detail. An unlikely House of the Rising Sun may honour Newcastle's the Animals; the Ministry of Defence/Iran hostages fiasco surely prompted a spinetingling Masters of War. The way Dylan often wreaks havoc with his old classics prompts much debate, but arrangements are surely altered to keep himself interested and suit his changing voice. In fact, as his vocals rise in volume, Highway 61 Revisited and Desolation Row sound, thrillingly, like the 2007 Dylan dueting with his 60s self.
The sense of a vintage performance grows during Spirit on the Water's wry challenge of "You think I'm past my prime/ Show me what you got." As he tears into All Along the Watchtower, a fan rushes the stage. It's a dangerous instant with fleeting echoes of the famous 1966 "Judas!" incident at the Albert Hall, but somehow it's unsurprising when the young man simply kneels at Dylan's feet.
Touring.
