Last Night in Saratoga Springs

2025-08-02, SPAC, Saratoga Springs, NY

After two and half months of FOMO as I watched the Outlaw tour meander about the West and South, finally, last night, it came near me. I attended the show in Saratoga Springs, and will continue onward to Gilford NH tonight. Then I’ll catch it again when it returns to New England in September (strange tour routing to play New Hampshire and Massachusetts a month apart…).

Here are my slightly bleary-eyed observations the morning after a beautiful, chilly night in Saratoga Springs.

• The evening’s big surprise came right up top: For the first time since 1989, “Positively 4th Street” opened the show. “Gotta Serve Somebody” was out. It made for a killer opening. Bob really leaned into the growl, while still belting to the rafters. Is growlbelting the new upsinging? A little girl in front of me had her fingers in her ears. Can’t please everyone.
  No tape yet, but I have do have most of this song:

• I wrote the word “jaunty” three times in my notes. Now maybe this is a sign I need to grow my vocabulary, but in all the Rough and Rowdy Ways shows I’ve attended, that is rarely a word that jumps to mind. But things were moving last night! The pace was up across the board. After years of a tempo range from “mid” to “slow-as-molasses,” it marks quite a change. Even a song like “To Ramona” had almost a carnival-esque swing.

• The band is notably tighter than last year’s Outlaw run. Bob, on the other hand, was sloppier, at least last night. For much of the show he was unusually mush-mouthed (even by his standards). Lines mumbled, muttered, cast off, swallowed, not sang at all. After a strong start for the first few songs, he settled into a rut it took him until “Watchtower” to pull out of.

• But pull out he did. The Van Morrison “Watchtower” arrangement is even more fun live than it is on the tapes, but what really turned things around was a stunning “Til I Fell in Love with You.” Bob croons the lines over an arrhythmic, atonal backing, the band just making noises behind him without really playing “music.” It sounded like something Tom Waits might do (but quieter). From then on things were pretty solid.

• Bob Britt, who seems like such an unassuming guy, is suddenly in the spotlight. Not only does he sing backing vocals on “I Can Tell” (first Bob backing vocals since the 2000s?), but it was like guitar-solo-palooza up there. After years where “minimalism” was the watchword, suddenly Bob D is giving Bob B the nod all night. A half dozen solos—and real solos too, not like one flashy lick immediately submerged. The pendulum is swinging back it seems. Here comes Denny Freeman 2.0.
  Brief clip of Bob B’s backing vocals: