Last Night in Forest Hills (by Lee Ranaldo and Adam Selzer)

2026-07-21, Forest Hills Stadium, New York, NY

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Last night, Bob Dylan played Forest Hills Stadium in Queens. Forest Hills was the site of his first electric concert after Newport ’65. Furious fans famously rushed the stage at that show, causing a small riot.

No one rushed the stage last night, but, to make up for me not delivering on my promised Gilford recap (I got sick and couldn’t go—damn), we’ve got two of our veteran correspondents to report in on this major milestone on the Long Hot Summer Tour, Lee Ranaldo and Adam Selzer.

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Lee Ranaldo

Lee Ranaldo played in Sonic Youth and, in Dylan world, the Million Dollar Bashers backing band on the I’m Not There soundtrack. He was musical director last year of the Bob Dylan Center’s “Going Electric” concert in Tulsa, which I wrote about here (and there’s an extended version of my backstage conversations with Ranaldo and his Sonic Youth bandmate Steve Shelley here).

Enough preamble! First up, here’s Lee Ranaldo on last night in Forest Hills:

Some Brief Late-Night Thoughts On Bob Dylan’s Long Hot Summer Tour Stop At Forest Hills Stadium Tonight, July 21, 2026

For some strange reason I’d never been to this wonderful venue before, I don’t know how or why but what a gem it is. If one has to see Bob in an outdoor setting, never my favorite situation, then the hell with all the sheds, this is definitely the place. I had a good seat on the floor but I’d bet there is not really a bad seat in the house, and the venue feels quite intimate for a place that can hold 13,000 people. The excitement in the air after Lucinda’s set was palpable. There were flood warnings and a tornado watch in our area all day and evening today, and most folks, including me, had packed their rain gear and were simply hoping the show wasn’t going to get cancelled due to weather or lightning. But aside from a very quick sprinkling just as Lucinda quit the stage, it was a perfect night. Balmy winds blowing, the humidity chased away, the sky slowly going from overcast to dark during the first half of Bob’s set.

The band walked out with no introduction or fanfare, just mosey’d out onto the stage and took their places. I’ve been excited and intrigued by the ‘story of the guitarists’ on this tour, and was anxious to see who we’d get. It turned out to be Jad Tariq on stage right with Tony to his left, Bob center stage at the electric piano (white hoodie tonight), Anton Fig to Bob’s left and Joel Paterson stage left. Both men were playing big bodied jazz-boxes, hollow or semi-hollow, semi-acoustic instruments. Both guitarists come to the stage with deep experience in American roots music, pre-rocknroll and rhythm and blues. I have highly enjoyed the team of Doug Lancio and Bob Britt, and the interplay they established playing with Bob all through the R&RW period, but, with setlists staying relatively static, it was a kind of revelation to hear a new sense of attack from the guitars. It seemed to reshape the music and breathe new life into the songs.

The first thing I noticed was the reduced volume all around. When I hung out with Tony Garnier before and after one of Bob’s first post-Covid Beacon gigs, he told me how they’d been trying to reduce the volume onstage, to give Bob’s voice more room to be nuanced and not have to fight over the rock volume of, say, the great era of Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell. And I watched and listened over these last years as the volume has slowly, incrementally, been coming down. Now the process is basically complete, at least until we get Bob’s solo piano tour (a fella can dream, no?). Compared to Lucinda and her band, and Jimmie Vaughan before her, Bob’s headlining set was the quietest of the evening. In all good ways.

Both Joel and Jad were playing out of relatively small, classic amps, but that doesn’t mean they were not heard. Both guitars were up in the mix, and the piano, which has been so revelatory over the past few years – I LOVE Bob’s piano playing, was deep in the mix, often almost inaudible, certainly not the featured centerpiece of the last few tours. The guitarists were to the fore, carrying the show. Not flashy and sometimes not so boldly, but completely. Guitar solos are back! How much fun is that? To my ears Joel took a larger share of the solos, including some tasty slide guitar work, and seemed completely at home inside the music, with quiet authority and a reserved force, never timid or unsure. Jad seemed to be doing more of the chord comping, but also let loose regularly with some tasty runs and embellishments. I absolutely loved hearing both of them and what they were bringing to Bob’s songs. The setlist may not be changing, but there was a whole new energy to the music, that had been missing for a while, although we didn’t know it till we heard it again.

Of course Tony Garnier is the backbone of the band and it’s always a pleasure to hear and see him at Bob’s side. He occasionally gave visible cues to the new guys, but didn’t have to do so very often. Anton Fig on drums was – and I mean this in the very best way – fairly unnoticeable all night. By that I mean that his playing was just right – a softer force – always right on the beat and where he needed to be. The band is a joy to hear – Bob sure knows how to pick ‘em. I don’t think I’ll get a chance to hear Julian Lage on this run, which I’d very much love to, to compare his contribution to what we heard tonight.

The mystery of what brought the Lancio/Britt era to a close is ongoing! How I’d love to know the mechanics of their leaving and even moreso HOW these three new faces emerged onto the scene and onto these stages. Who came up with these guys? None of them obvious choices. Will we ever know? I’ve no idea, but I remain incredibly curious. The music was quiet, the amps were small, the drums were a bit softer (even when playing hard), but none of that diminished the impact of the set.

Another aspect that was, to me at least, something new were the quick segues between numbers. The band left almost no space between songs. It was almost like a Ramones concert! The minute a song was done the next one started immediately, no gaps, tuning up or anything, just rolling one into the next. Not in a rushed way but rather in a way that kept the energy and momentum going.

The stage was quite dark, with just a few simple, old fashioned visible-filament yellow-cast lightbulbs on stands providing just enough light to create a comfortable haze around the band. As the sky turned dark, and no bright spotlights came up, the band and the music, indeed the stage and the whole intimate arena, seemed to merge with the night and the sweet breezes blowing through. It was easy to concentrate on the music, and it felt even more intimate, a dim-lit stage glowing in the dark overcast summer evening.

Bob was singing in fine voice, as has been repeatedly reported along this tour. I’d dare to say that at 85 he’s singing as good as he ever has done. What a stylist and yes – down with the naysayers who may disagree – what a fabulous singer he is and has always been! I did wish quite a few times that his voice was just a bit higher in the mix. I don’t think it would have diminished the music, and who amongst us would not admit that we are there to hear him sing?? I was trying to picture Mick Jagger, or Springsteen, or Madonna or whomever you might pull up as a reference, performing with their voice as deep in the mix as Bob’s is. No f*&#ing way! I don’t know if this decision is coming down from on high or what, but to whoever is mixing these shows – please, Mr. or Ms. FOH, just a BIT more Bob in the PA, please!

What a great night in Forest Hills. Each Dylan show is a special event, not to be missed and not to be matched or even really compared, one to the next. To be in his company is a privilege and I never forget it. The fact that after all this time, this is where he wants to be (and Europe shows for the fall recently announced indicate no let-up), a traveling troubadour as of old, bringing his sound and vision to the people, is just astounding. I had my middle son with me tonight – his 3^rd Dylan show – and was pleased to see so many friends and acquaintances turned out among the crowd. Every one of them so happy to share a beautiful, breezy New York evening with the master. What a great night in Forest Hills.

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Adam Selzer

Adam Selzer is a Chicago-based historian, author, and tour guide who’s a regular in these pages. He runs the Substack adamchicago and you can find him at adamchicago.com. Here’s Adam:

As much as I insist that these shows are not for nostalgia, there are some venues I can’t resist for a Dylan show, just because of the historic value. Seeing him at Royal Albert Hall a couple of years ago, for instance. And Forest Hills ’65 is my favorite Dylan tape (as I wrote about yesterday). Not only the first full electric show, but the first electric show for which we have an audience tape to hear exactly how the crowd was responding. And by the time he got to Forest Hills, three weeks and some change after Newport, everyone had gotten the message: if Bob plays electric, you’re supposed to boo. The tape is just wild, not to mention hearing them crack up as they hear the dark humor of “Desolation Row” and “Ballad of a Thin Man” for the first time.

I’ve played that tape so many times that just seeing the venue was something I wanted to do, whether Bob was playing there or not.

And there’s something about seeing him there on a year when you keep getting reports of angry fans walking out, too. When I went back and found all the reports from after 1965, it was the same stuff the social media algorithms are pointing me towards today: “He won’t be getting my money anymore, I’ll be content just to listen to his records.” Facebook has decided that all I want to see is people complaining about these shows: he doesn’t play the hits, he doesn’t look 23, he doesn’t talk, he wears a hoodie, he won’t let you just vibe on your phone all night. I also get the occasional press review where they explain that Bob has always just done what he wants and changed styles as the mood fit him, and if people came at it with an open mind they’d see it was great; you can find the exact same lines in 1965 reviews.

I’ve never seen a complaint from 1965 that he wasn’t playing the old hits, though. The controversy was all that he was playing electric, even though he totally was not playing the hits. The acoustic set had just one song, “To Ramona,” that had been out more than a few months, and that was barely a year old. Nothing from his first three albums. And the electric set was mostly songs no one had heard yet, except for “It Ain’t Me Babe” and “Like a Rolling Stone.”

But most of the reactions on the tape are from fans charging the stage and playing “keystone cops” with the police as they run around the ground section, which for some reason didn’t have seats in 1965. There was nowhere to run tonight.

The day began with all due drama; a couple of days ago I started getting texts that the show would probably be cancelled due to storms. My flight made it out, but I was hearing from people who had later flights that they’d be cancelled. I flew out fully expecting to just try to get a get-together going. And, indeed, when I left my hotel room, the sky opened up.

But by the time the F train got me out to Forest Hills, a charming little cottagecore neighborhood of Queens, it had mostly stopped, and my poncho went unused. The venue was absolutely charming; some effort has been put in to make it seem like it hasn’t changed a bit since 1965, with its mid-century marquee and graphics. It looks just like it did in those 1965 pictures.

Jimmie Vaughan played some music that would go great in a hamburger commercial, and Lucinda Williams played her great set. Patti Smith was seen in the wings. It was cool to see her, but it sort of brought the curse that comes with these historic venues: you start to wonder if something will happen. Will Bob mention the history of the place? Will Patti come out and do “Dark Eyes?” Even knowing full well that the answer to both is a “no,” it can distract you.

Bob and the band (Jad is back on rhythm guitar) strolled out at 7:57, with no introduction, no opening music, no dimming of the lights. The sky wasn’t dark yet, and wouldn’t be for some time. You couldn’t get further from 1965, where Murray the K came out and said “It’s not rock, it’s not folk, it’s a new thing called Dylan….and Dylan is definitely…what’s happenin’ baby!” to louder boos than Dylan himself got the rest of the night.

Jad was more comfortable onstage tonight than in Cincinnati. He was fine there, but tonight he was striking poses that, with his mustache, made him look like a snooping butler who is up to no good.

Bob was all smiles tonight, singing “Man in the Long Black Coat” like he was very excitedly telling kids a ghost story. It’s almost odd: here he’s got this set with both “Man in the Long Black Coat” and “Black Rider,” and all these strange songs about traveling men doing terrifying things (plus some 1950s dance tunes), and he’s just grinning the whole time!

“It Ain’t Me Babe” was the lone hold-over from the 1965 set, and, in fact, the only song in the set that he’d written by August of 1965.

“Black Rider” sounded like friendly advice that you give to a guy you know you’re going to kill one of these days, and got a great reaction from the crowd (including a couple of shrieks that made me wonder if that mystery person who kept shrieking and freaking out at this song at the Royal Albert Hall was back—curse of the historic venue?)

“When I Paint My Masterpiece” opened with a lyric flub; the first line was “Oh the hours I spent…are filled with rubble.” But Bob carried on without missing a beat and turned in a great version; the two jazz guitars are really doing wonders for this song, and it didn’t need any more wonders than it already has, really.

The biggest reaction of the night, strangely enough, was when he started “Crossing the Rubicon.” Lots of audience response to the individual lines.

At this point, the show had really improved. It started out fine, but I felt like something was missing since the Cincinnati show. It might have just been darkness. The sun had finally set. And everyone knows that music sounds different in the dark.

“Soon After Midnight” is a song that I wasn’t wild about at first, and often feel that I’ve seen more than enough, but lately I’ve come around back on it, and was thrilled to see it; Joel played a terrific solo.

But Joel’s real time to shine came next, when he broke out the slide guitar for “Under the Red Sky,” which gave the song a sort of a tropical feel (which is amusing itself, since Bob told Don Was that the song was about his home town—not a place known for being tropical). It might have been the strongest version of the song I’ve ever seen, with some great vocals and an awesome harmonica solo.

“I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You” was another that I sometimes think I’ve heard enough, but sounded fresh tonight. All of a sudden tonight, the line “Take me out travelin’ you’re a travelin’ man” struck me as odd; is he singing to a man, here? A couple of lines later he’s going far away with “her.” I love how seeing shows brings up these little observations.

“Goodbye Jimmy Reed” has come back to life with the new guitars, and the closing “I Shall Be Released” was one for the ages. Aren’t they all one for the ages lately when he does that song? He’s been singing the shit out of it, in that “repeat the line” technique in Bette Midler’s version.

I didn’t see anyone walk out, and there were no boos that I heard. In a year marked by angry fans just like the first time he played here (or, anyway, that’s what social media seems to want to show me), the Long Hot Summer 2026 show went down like gold. I didn’t even realize that he’d skipped “Trying to Get to Heaven.”

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Thanks Lee and Adam! And thanks to the taper Ezzy and remasterer Bennyboy for getting us a tape so fast.

2026-07-21, Forest Hills Stadium, New York, NY