The opening of a new venue is, by definition, a unique occasion. For Bob Dylan, however, it was simply another stop on the Never Ending Tour, one more evening in a journey that had already stretched across several decades by the time he took the stage at La Seine Musicale.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was the absence of surprises. Dylan delivered the exact same setlist he had performed the previous evening at the Zénith, an unusual decision for an artist who spent years radically reshaping both his repertoire and his arrangements from one concert to the next. Then again, this particular period of his career revolved largely around the Great American Songbook and the material associated with his Sinatra albums. Such music arguably demands a greater degree of consistency, more akin to a carefully crafted stage production than the controlled unpredictability that once defined his concerts.
Yet even operating within those self-imposed constraints, Dylan remained Dylan. The songs continued to evolve subtly from moment to moment, shaped by phrasing, timing and interpretation rather than wholesale reinvention. Few artists with a catalogue of this magnitude would feel compelled to keep searching for new angles. Fewer still would continue doing so more than half a century into their career.
Another excellent performance, then, from an artist who long ago ceased having anything to prove but continues, almost out of instinct, to challenge expectations anyway.
