Bob Dylan has been on his so-called Never Ending Tour since 1988, playing about 100 gigs a year. At this one, he might have been advised to issue the audience with earplugs. Dylan has never exactly been a conventional vocalist but nowadays the husky, broken rasp he emits scarcely counts as singing at all. Crouched over a keyboard in a cowboy hat, Dylan veered back and forth through his legendary oeuvre and rendered it utterly impenetrable. On Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again he barked or yelped every third word, seemingly unable to keep a straight face at his own eccentric enunciation. Just Like A Woman appeared to be the work of a particularly untalented Dylan spoof act, while his grotesque vocal mugging of Simple Twist of Fate almost qualified as a situationist prank. After a mercifully short set, he reappeared to grunt and yodel through Like A Rolling Stone and Forever Young and the crowd streamed away in stunned disbelief. It may just be time for Dylan to abandon his Never Ending Tour and put every one out of their misery.



