The 250^th, and final(?) show of Bob Dylan’s 2021-2025 Rough and Rowdy Ways tour took place at the 2,142 seat Community Arts Center in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on April 22, 2025. The concert was a culmination of an over three-year journey and an ongoing deep musical examination of the contents Dylan’s 2020 album.

Starting in the Fall of 2021 and strutting through this concluding spring 2025 evening, the Rough and Rowdy Ways concerts are a chimera. While the foundational aspect of the performances has remained consistent, their approach, arrangements, and even the musicians involved have changed.

When I attended the tour’s formative shows in the fall of 2021, there was no harmonica or guitar by Dylan, just grand piano. By the Fall of 2023, Dylan started playing guitar and the concerts included idiosyncratic covers (over 30 throughout the 2021-2024 era) like “On the Banks of the Old Pontchartrain,” “Into the Mystic,” and “Stella Blue.”

By this final night of the 2025 Spring tour, it felt like Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Way songs had arrived at their desired destination and reached full maturity. Dylan’s musical intent has been confirmed with onstage success and this evening’s song list was a reflection of that confidence.

While the setlists have settled into a static format, their dissemination is fluid. Dylan is in complete control of the band, set and songs. Songs that are reconstructed, reconsidered, and reorganized nightly. On this evening, Dylan and his band played to a cumulative standard that expressed a consistency of stunning storytelling and understated playing. Not mellow, but collaborative, full of shading and poignant accompaniment. More rock and roll recital than rock concert.

The opening number, 1968’s “I’ll Be You Baby Tonight,” found Bob beginning on piano and then picking up his Fender Stratocaster for a bit of his recognizable riffing. Just as Dylan assured us that he would indeed be our baby tonight, he quickly reminded the crowd that, “It Ain’t Me Babe.”

Dylan again donned his guitar for a run through “It Aint Me Babe’s” opening changes before returning to the piano for the opening verses. The melody of Dylan’s 1964 classic still fully intact was sung by Dylan with a delicate stateliness.

The Rough and Rowdy pairing of “I Contain Multitudes,” and “False Prophet,” followed and featured a “Multitudes,” more tight than loose, and a “False Prophet,” that found Dylan pounding the piano and singing his blues with a snappy syncopation.

A song that has changed continuously throughout the various phases of Dylan’s career, “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” was played perfectly and is a highlight of the show. Dylan opened the song with a beautiful harmonica prelude that lands perfectly into the tune’s current sonic construction. A swinging arrangement that leaves sillage of Irving Berlin’s “Putting On the Ritz,” in its wake.

Both “Black Rider,” and “My Own Version of You,” were gently draped over the crowd like dark shawls. Dylan dictating the lyrics over well-timed piano trills and hard chords. The band swelled in emotive detail adding just the right amount of dramatic coloring to Dylan’s rhythmic recitation of the lyrics. Tony Garnier on stand up bass is always a nice touch.

“My Own Version of You,” is a song that has undergone a series of dramatic changes since its debut. I saw a version of “My Own Version of You,” in Rochester on October 24, 2023 that was played as a haunted and hard driving blues. On this evening in Williamsport, it’s played as a somber parlor piece, highlighted by silence, and comprised of more questions than answers.

A boogie-woogie version of “To Be Alone with You,” acted as the lead into Dylan “Crossing the Rubicon,” as he found his way to “Desolation Row.” “Rubicon,” is a song that feels like every lyric stacks upon the next, increasing the torque of the narrative and tightening the grip of the changes. One of Dylan’s best late era lyrics and played on this evening as a bourbon-soaked electric blues that increased in intensity as it searched through the currents.

“Desolation Row,” seems to have found its rhythmic renaissance with a rolling and tumbling drum accompaniment by recently added drummer and Dylan alumni Anton Fig. Dylan freaks can trace the genesis of this new arrangement to the wrench donning at the Darien Lake, NY concert last year. On this night, Dylan hit all the words and put them in all in the right spots and then took it over the top with a soaring harmonica solo.

Reaching the emotional center of the evening Dylan hit the opening chords to “Key West,” another song that dons new clothes, but emits a familiar vibe. Dylan, sings from the faded remnants of a dogeared notebook, recounting the humid inspiration of Hemmingway’s home. The soft shifting of musical sands by the band encourages Dylan to carry the cadence of the song with his narration. At its emotional conclusion Dylan quipped, “We are playing all the hits tonight.”

The ebb of a rolling “Watching the River Flow,” spotlighted a mid-song guitar solo from Dylan that tumbled over the rocks and falls until reaching a proper conclusion.

Despite an obviously inebriated attendee thoughtlessly screaming for “Like a Rolling Stone,” at the worst possible times during a spectacular, “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue,” it’s performance was a stellar, sparse, and moody. An almost solo piano rendition, the song was highlighted by Dylan’s deep vocal investment and two poignant harmonica breaks. It’s crazy to me that Dylan continues to confound attendees of his concerts so much so that they are moved to voice their dissent, and in doing so, ironically miss the bigger picture.

The concert moved through the set with purpose and patience. A Rough and Rowdy highlight, “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You,” was played like a hymn, a devotional. The song, the close kin of “I Believe in You,” could be the most important cog in the Rough and Rowdy canon. The soft circles of the melody and the unabashed expression of surrender make the song the axis point of Dylan’s set construct.

“Mother of Muses,” kept the introspection high and Dylan’s singing soft and pointed. A proud song that acts as a tribute and sounds like a salute, Dylan’s affinity for the song is tangible. A choogling version of the appropriately placed, “Goodbye Jimmy Reed,” picked up the tempo and closed the set properly. Dylan and the band let loose with some straight R&R, blowing off steam and concluding the set.

The finish of every Rough and Rowdy Ways performance since 2021 has been with “Every Grain of Sand,” from Dylan’s 1981 Shot of Love record, and this evening was no different. One of Dylan’s greatest lyrics and one of his most intimate expressions of faith and consecration.

At the the conclusion of “Every Grain of Sand,”Dylan and his band stand together for the last time on the tour as the house lights come up.  Continuously confounding expectations; who knows what Dylan’s next move will be, if any? For me I’m just glad to have yet one more evening in the presence of the guy who still gets it, and who continues to provide the perfect narration and soundtrack for my and many others human experiences.