Available onlineIs he miming? Are his band miming too? In a ‘live stream’ first for the 80-year-old troubadour, Dylan plays fast and loose with stagecraft – and his vast back catalogue – and it’s completely thrilling
At the start of When I Paint My Masterpiece, the first song of Bob Dylan’s live stream, you can hear a mouth organ. But no one is playing harmonica – at least not visibly. Not Dylan, commanding the stage at what looks like a prohibition-era speakeasy, nor any of his four-piece band: masked, young, diverse. And so begins Shadow Kingdom – an enigma wrapped in a visually stunning conundrum masquerading as a livestreamed performance: Dylan’s first. Originally available to rewatch for just 48 hours after broadcast, you can now still buy the stream until 4am Monday 26 July (expires 8am).
It’s not a concert, but a heady simulacrum of the perfect gig. Some nicely turned-out punters sit at tables nursing tumblers of drink and smoking like it’s mandatory: the luckiest extras in film. The credits thank a certain Bon Bon Club, Marseille. There is no such club in Marseille, but there was one in Philadelphia in the 60s, notorious for a racketeering scandal, according to one US Dylan-watcher.