May 2009. O2 Arena, Dublin.

It is fitting that my first blog post is about my favourite performer of all time. I became fascinated by Bob Dylan at fifteen or sixteen years old. I had just been dumped for the first time and was convinced that nobody had ever felt such pain. My plight seemed unique. The only sensible option seemed to be to lock myself in my bedroom until she took me back or I died, whichever came first. Two days in to my self imposed isolation from the world, my father knocked gently on my bedroom door and sat at the end of the bed. He had a CD in his hand. While handing it to me, all he said was "Listen to this. Everything will be ok." The CD was 'Blood On the Tracks'. From the opening bars of 'Tangled Up In Blue', I was hooked. Here was a person who understood me.
Since that day, Dylan has continued to amaze me. My friends often become irritated with me as I have a tendency to spout Dylan trivia now and again. Unfortunately, I have only seen him play live twice. Once when I was eighteen, and once a couple of weeks ago. The quality of Dylan's live shows is notoriously unpredictable. The first time I went to see him I was very disappointed. He stayed behind the keyboard all night, refused to do an encore, and his singing was, more often than not, unintelligible. I left the gig downcast with a criminally overpriced t-shirt from the merchandise stand.
My admiration for the man endured though, especially with the release of a few excellent recent albums and the stunning film 'I'm Not There'. So, when I heard that he was to play two dates in Dublin, I immediately ordered tickets. Standing outside the venue with a close friend and my uncle, I became somewhat nervous. Nervous that my hero would disappoint again. He did not. Dylan, at age 67, played for well over two hours. The playlist was excellent. Rather than play a lot of songs from the somewhat sketchy new album 'Together Through Life', he played a mixture of classics (Like A Rolling Stone, Stuck Inside of Mobile, Desolation Row) and some great newer songs (If You Ever Go To Houston, Po' Boy). We managed to get quite close to the stage. As any Dylan fan will tell you, it's not often you will see him smile during a concert. On a couple of ocassions, Dylan grinned at his backing band. Good to see he still enjoys it after all these years. I left the arena that night smiling, with a program in place of the expensive t-shirt.