Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson turned the Hollywood Bowl into a haven for Americana and country on Friday night, as the two legends brought the Outlaw Music Festival back to the storied venue for the second year in a row.
Dylan went on just as dusk settled, and the stage lit up like a noir rodeo, revealing Dylan’s signature piano. He and his band — dressed in black like outlaw undertakers — opened with a swaggering “Things Have Changed.”
The stage setup was simple: An image of a peaceful mountain lake backdrop that resembled a fancy water bottle label, blending well with the surrounding Hollywood Hills, and a crowd full of cowboy hats and rhinestones.
Opening for Dylan and Nelson Friday night were bluegrass stars Sierra Hull and Billy Strings, while upcoming Outlaw Fest 2025 tour stops will rotate in acts like Sheryl Crow, Wilco, Lucinda Williams, and Nathaniel Rateliff. Outlaw lineups in previous years have included Neil Young, Brandi Carlile, and Chris Stapleton.
At 83, Dylan is still assertive, quirks and all. His piano was mixed unusually loudly, highlighting both rhythmic drive and occasional missed notes. It was a forgiving audience, many of whom were probably teens when Dylan released his first albums.
Dylan’s set was the most unpredictable going in. On this tour’s opening nights, he shook up his recent Rough and Rowdy Ways tour material and instead pulled out deep cuts, first-time covers, and completely reimagined versions of beloved songs. To superfans, this evening might’ve felt like a rerun — nearly identical to his set the night before in Chula Vista — but to most, it was refreshingly strange, especially for the younger attendees seeing him for the first time after catching last year’s A Complete Unknown but not realizing how much Dylan has transformed his live sound from the past few decades of touring.
Tracks like “Simple Twist of Fate,” “Desolation Row,” and “To Ramona” were reshaped with shuffling grooves and Dylan’s honky-tonk piano. “All Along the Watchtower” felt like a dare if Dylan could make one of his songs sound like Sade — a sentence this writer never expected to write. “Blind Willie McTell” wore a Dire Straits combover. Even “Under the Red Sky,” the title track from what was long considered one of Dylan’s lesser albums, shed its early ‘90s sheen and was allowed to breathe, sounding especially spacious and pretty.
Other Dylan gems — “Forgetful Heart,” “Love Sick,” “Early Roman Kings” — remained close to their original recordings while he performed new-to-this-tour covers like George “Wild Child” Butler’s “Axe and the Wind,” Charlie Rich’s “I’ll Make It All Up to You,” and “Share Your Love With Me” by Alfred Braggs and Deadric Malone.
In typical Dylan fashion, he said little between songs, aside from a funny moment asking an audience member what they were eating. For the first several songs, the Bowl’s monitors stayed off, as if Dylan didn’t want to be seen. When they did come on a few songs in, to the audience’s cheers, they only showed a far wide shot, still keeping the forever recluse mostly hidden.
Every time Dylan picked up a harmonica, the crowd roared. The biggest applause came for the closer, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” reimagined with jangly piano and harmonica.
If Dylan was the dusky preacher Friday, Nelson was the campfire light. At 92, he’s still quintessentially American, our real-life bald eagle. After seeing him live in the tenth year of what has become outlaw music’s most beloved festival, it’s hard to argue with that.
Billed as “Willie Nelson & Family,” the stage lit up in red and orange glow, an enormous American flag hanging behind them. Nelson, seated with Trigger — his trusty, long worn-in acoustic guitar — was surrounded by his literal family. He opened with “Whiskey River” and the Bowl erupted. Nelson didn’t pull any tricks, just classic after classic, performed with joy and clarity.
His set included hits he wrote or popularized with friends: “Workin’ Man Blues” (Merle Haggard), “Good Hearted Woman” (Waylon Jennings), and “Help Me Make It Through the Night” (Kris Kristofferson). Unlike Dylan, Nelson occasionally chatted with the crowd, giving intros to songs and memories of old friends.
Standouts included a rollicking “Bloody Mary Morning” (with the audience cheering for its LA name-drop), a crowd singalong to “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” and tender and funny renditions of “(Die When I’m High) Halfway to Heaven” and “Everything is Bullshit,” both written by Nelson’s youngest son Micah, who performs under the moniker Particle Kid. The latter was especially entertaining, with the younger Nelson, who does a near perfect impression of his dad’s voice, injecting cat meows while the older Nelson scatted “bullshit” throughout the choruses—smiling like your grandpa who knows that he’s in trouble for saying something naughty.
Starting just before 10 p.m., Nelson never seemed tired. He smiled, nodded, and sang like he still meant every word. The evening ended with most of the Outlaw Fest crew coming back on stage together (except Dylan, who was maybe asleep), performing with Nelson to close the night by covering the timeless “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and “I’ll Fly Away.”
Nelson then gave his farewells and exited stage right as the rest of the gang played him off with Hank Williams’s “I Saw the Light.”
#Willie #Nelson #Bob #Dylan #Bring #Outlaw #Festival #Tour #Hollywood #Bowl
