There are no karaoke singalongs at a Bob Dylan concert.
There is no holding hands and cooing "the answer my friend is blowin' in the wind" with your neighbor.
In fact, most of the time, even the most knowledgeable fans need a verse or two to identify what song Dylan is singing since his vocals became far more Tom Waits than Nashville Skyline. More than a few concert goers would be hard pressed to name those tunes even if they were spotted which album they came from.
His tour song selections are now more driven by what his vocal chords can handle than necessarily the classics his 50-year career library contains.
At last night's Ohio Theatre show, he didn't play a guitar - acoustic or electric - and looked slightly stilted making his little show biz hip jukes at the center stage microphone.
This doesn't mean it was an unsatisfying experience, far from it, because he's still Bob Dylan.
The Ohio Theatre always makes for a spectacular setting. The heavily advertised punctuality of an 8 p.m. start with no opening act was real and appreciated by the overwhelming number of AARP members in the audience (myself included).
Last night's Columbus audience also knew what to expect from today's Bob Dylan.
There were no mass exoduses of disappointed fans left scratching their heads at the gravel in his voice or the recent deeps cuts that he played.
There weren't even any shout out requests to be ignored and no one complained that his only stage banter was that the band was going to take a short break.
The only stampede to the exits came at the intermission, when many stormed to the restrooms as quickly as they could and still get through the bar line before the second set began.
And, until the encore, nearly all obeyed the "no mobile devise usage during the show" request that was made at the entrance.
Dylan and his band with guitarist Charlie Sexton as its centerpiece leaned most heavily on his work from the last two decades.
They sprinkled earlier nuggets such as She Belongs To Me, Tangled Up In Blue and Simple Twist Of Fate into the two sets, before opening the encore with a completely reworked take on Blowin' In The Wind with an arrangement that prevented any guest vocals from the audience.
Stay With Me, from his new Frank Sinatra covers album Shadows In The Night, closed the night quietly.
Maybe Dylan is a musical shadow of his earlier self, but even now that's still more than enough.
Setlist from setlist.fm
1. Things Have Changed
2. She Belongs To Me
3. Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
4. Workingman's Blues #2
5. Duquesne Whistle
6. Waiting For You
7. Pay In Blood
8. Tangled Up In Blue
9. Love Sick
Intermission
10. High Water (For Charley Patton)
11. Simple Twist Of Fate
12. Early Roman Kings
13. Forgetful Heart
14. Spirit On the Water
15. Scarlet Town
16. Soon After Midnight
17. Long And Wasted Years
18. Autumn Leaves
Encore
19. Blowin' In the Wind
20. Stay With Me
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