Bob Dylan/Lucinda Williams/Jimmie Vaughan and the Tilt A Whirl Band @ Forest Hills Stadium, Queens, NY 7/21/26

Bill: Bob Dylan/Lucinda Williams/Jimmie Vaughn and the Tilt A Whirl Band

Venue: Forest Hills Stadium, 1 Tennis Pl., Forest Hills, Queens, NY

Date: Tuesday 7/21/26

Ticket: $220 (Sec 201 Row J had freind that had upgrade to Sec 5 Row A with plus 1)

8:00pm Bob Dylan

Active: 1959 (Duluth, MN)

Latest Release: Rough and Rowdy Ways (Columbia, 2020), (with the Band) The 1974 Live Recordings (Columbia/Legacy, 2024)

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7:10pm Lucinda Williams

Active: 1978 (Lake Charles, LA)

Latest Release: World's Gone Wrong (Highway 20, 2026)

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Jimmie Vaughan & The Tilt A Whirl Band

Active: 1964 (Dallas, TX)

Affiliated: The Fabulous Thunderbirds

Latest Release: The Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Jimmie Vaughan Years Complete Studio Recordings 1978-1989 (The Last Music Company, 2025)

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This year's Dylan summer show was at the Forest Hills Stadium, sparing me the Jones Beach commute grumbling from the Willie show. Since I went to Paul Simon a couple weeks ago at the same place, even the L to East New York to the LIRR to Jamaica to the first 4 cars to get out at Forest Hills due to construction went without a hitch.

Rain with thunderstorms were expected, with a tornado watch in effect til 9, so when I got off the train, I went to the closest CVS and walked the aisles looking for a poncho. I couldn't find any but finally came across an attendent who let me know it was available at the checkout register. It started light rain right when I walked outside and there is nothing like trying to put on a cheap poncho in the middle of 3 third lane island of Queens Boulevard with the arm holes looking like a head hole. Seemed like a trash bag with self made holes would have been better. I think the last time I bought a poncho, I was with my Dad going to Jones Beach on the tour WITH Paul Simon and there was a fancy package with a mournful guy on the front looking upward at dark clouds. There was no such marketing effort with this $3 edition.

I spent $220 on this ticket to sit off on the good section 201 adjacent to the first floor section. AXS had a single pair a few weeks ago for $225 each and I was going to buy an aisle single up front, but they wouldn't let me break the pair. My friend I ended up meeting with bought an $80 Stubhub ticket in heaven in the morning thinking her post-surgery leg would get her an upgrade. Turns out that ticket never got delivered from the seller, so she had to war it out with Stubhub in the rain to get a replacement ticket while secuity just let her in. Somehow she got her ticket AND got a disability exchange PAIR to the first row in the middle floor section, so I met up with her and got a floor upgrade. I would say the seat was about the same quality wise as the one I paid for, but I was in the middle of the floor center and I got to see the show with someone.

When I arrived initially, Jimmie Vaughan was on. I've seen him on Dylan tours in the past and fairly recently for free at Lincoln Center as part of a massive Antone's 50th Anniversary lineup. Rain went from spattering to heavy while he was playing and he got done fast. The sun came out a little bit and this was the time I had to go to the other side of the stadium near the Yeah Yeah Yeahs parked car to meet my friend Holly and get a pre-Lucinda whiskey.

Lucinda did her thing. Her post-stroke voice seems a little stronger to me than a couple years ago. She's already got a new album, World's Gone Wrong so the Abbey Road covers record is a thing of the past. The title track of the new one stood out. She did cover Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World." The rain cleared up for good around this time. A quick unrelated aside, I just heard an 80's Neil album I picked up that I somehow never heard, Life from 1987 which was a couple years before the Rockin'/Freedom comeback. There was a standout track "Prisoners of Rock and Roll" that I think could apply to everyone on this bill.

Bob, however much a prisoner of this construct, somehow finds ways to break free from what he was doing before. There has been a bit of shakeup in Bob's guitarists and tonight we had Jad Tariq who is young but did some work with Charlie Musslewhite. I guess Julian Lage had some scheduling conflicts after he joined last month replacing Bob Britt's sudden "Sayonara Bob!" departure and Tariq is the understudy. Joel Paterson is also new to me, but now the Chicago scene veteran is now senior guitarist replacing Doug Lancio. The rhythm section now is all stability with old pro Anton Fig drumming and bandleader Tony Garnier whipping them all into shape.

Since there was an explicit phone ban, I didn't bother with getting any clips. Not even a snap of the man himself in the long white hooded coat for posterity, tempting as it was. For this tour I decided not to follow the setlists too much before seeing "my" show. I briefly scanned one or two a couple weeks ago and figured he was gonna do some Rough and Rowdy Ways, some 50's/60's deep covers and maybe a few other things rotated in and that was really all I needed to know.

The weather was perfect for this set. No drizzle, a little post-rain humidity but nothing uncomfortable with a gusting breeze that blew my now useless plastic poncho into my friends face which I didn't notice until she tucked it under my sleeve. I was focused on the show and oblivious, but decided to take it off and jam it in my back pocket once and for all. My shirt was soaked though anyway even with the poncho. Wet, but not dripping saturation.

Tonight we got a kickoff of "To Be Alone With You." We got an early in the set "It Ain't Me Babe" that was done electric with The Band in the same stadium back in 1965. Bo Diddley, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Jerry Lee were the mid-set covers. My favorite songs of the night were toward the end. "I've Made My Mind Up To Give Myself To You" was probably my least favorite Rough n Rowdy track, but for some reason I liked it best tonight. The set and, unexpectedly, show closer was the absolute highlight: "I Shall Be Released." Poignant, as in life itself or merely from tonight's show duties? There was a tornado watch supposedly til 9 after all.

Well, there was no post show bad weather either, so we went down to the Irish Cottage a couple blocks away. This is a perfect post-show place that doesn't jam out too bad after a stadium show so you can get food in the back booths then hit the bar in the front. They had a digital jukebox playing a ton of Dylan. You don't usually hear Bob and a bar and often I don't want to, but it was cool to walk in during "Isis" and have the slide-whistle of "Highway 61 Revisisted" permiate the bar. We actually met the girl feeding the juke with post concert music. She was with a group of young friends and I felt like the near-voyeur character in "Highlands" wanting to push back the clock. The young and good looking still come out for 85-year old Bob so imagine how he must feel. My friend thought the song selector looked like Carrie from the movie and I suddenly realized she did indeed look like a very young Sissy Spacek. Conversation was struck up after she made her song picks. I think the only "non-Bob" song she played on the jukebox was Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale. Suddenly they left, the jukebox went silent, the regulars were regulating and the door was locked for clear out. The perk back from this place is an Uber home was $11, which was cheaper than the subway/LIRR combo going to the show (that was $13 for the LIRR/$3 for the L). My Paul Simon return was an endless wait winding up at the Sutphin stop J to L home, so car home this time it was.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

Bob Dylan/Lucinda Williams @ Northwell @ Jones Beach Theater, Wantaugh, NY 8/1/25

Jimmie Vaughan @ Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center, New York, NY 6/29/25

Bob Dylan-Bob Dylan (1962)

Bob Dylan-The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

Bob Dylan-The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964)

Bob Dylan-Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)

Bob Dylan-Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Bob Dylan-Blonde On Blonde (1966)

Bob Dylan-Greatest Hits (1967)

Bob Dylan-Nashville Skyline (1969)

Bob Dylan-New Morning (1970)