One time, I saw Garth Brooks twice on the same tour, back in the early 1990s when he was really big. I saw him in Maryland while on vacation and then in Worcester, MA about a week later. The second time was a waste of money. Every song played exactly the same way in the same order. Even the banter between songs was the exact same which really disillusioned me. I thought at least that would be spontaneous and specific to the audience at hand.
On the subject of Dylan, a lot is made of his nasal gravelly voice and how it is not "professional" singing. I think that adds some authenticity to his performances. Other artists like Neil Young, Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen perform the same way. Not polished at all with their vocals but somehow that makes them more genuine and worth paying the money to go see.
I agree.... If the world could only have one musical artist... in my book it would have to be Bob Dylan. No one writes a song like Bob Dylan, and no one “delivers” a song vocally like Bob Dylan. There are impersonators, but he is the real deal.
I’ve never seen him, while one of my friends has 5 times.
Dylan always has great musicians around him. I like the fact that he’s always changing up his songs, changing keys, altering tempos, mixing up the lyrics unlike most artists who play the same 2minute 38 second song in the same key in the same way they’ve been doing it for the last 40 years. I can’t get no satisfaction....
Back in 71 I was hosting musician friends from Toronto who had come to NYC for a Leonard Cohen concert at the tennis stadium. Not a large crowd so we were fairly close to the stage. At the mid concert break Cohen introduces his surprise unannounced guest, Bob Dylan and his back-up group of the time, IIRC “The Army”. Great set and then Dylan sang backup for Cohen. Sometimes you just get lucky.