Just 123 days after tumultuous applause engulfed the waning strains of "Blowin' In The Wind" to bring Bob Dylan's last concert to an end at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Nov. 28, a similar cacophony awaited him at Tokyo's Zepp DiverCity on Monday at the start of his 17-show "cherry blossom" tour of Japan.
To rapturous acclaim — and with his long-standing touring band of Tony Garnier, George Recile, Stu Kimball, Charlie Sexton and Donnie Herron already cookin' — the self-styled "song and dance man" appeared on stage for the first time in four years in Japan and launched into his foreboding, Oscar-winning "Things Have Changed" from 2000.
From there, with barely a pause, this 72-year-old who has likely clocked up more air miles than the 2,500-capacity audience put together, wound back the years to 1965's poignant "She Belongs To Me" — though, like that song's adored subject who "don't look back," this was no legacy version, but a moving classic clothed in a tender new embrace.