Bob Dylan opened his “Rough and Rowdy Ways” worldwide tour on November 2, 2021, nearly two years since he last performed before a live audience. The Bard’s 2020 tours of Japan and the U.S. had been canceled due to the pandemic. At the Riverside Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisc., on Tuesday night, he returned with an 18-song set that leaned heavily on Dylan’s most recent studio album. (See the setlist below.) As has been the case for several years, Dylan did not play guitar, performing throughout the evening on piano.

He is joined on the fall tour by multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron, bassist Tony Garnier, drummer Charley Drayton and guitarists Bob Britt and Doug Lancio. The band performed eight of the 10 tracks from Dylan’s well-received 2020 album for which the tour is named. After performing two well known songs, “Watching the River Flow” and “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine),” the band launched into the first of the newer tracks, “I Contain Multitudes.”

Dylan dedicated the opening night show to Les Paul, who hailed from the area.

The 21 concerts this autumn are solely in the midwest and northeast U.S. The tour was announced on Sept. 27.

On the tour’s second night, Nov. 3 in Chicago, he made some minor adjustments to the setlist, including replacing “Simple Twist of Fate” and “Soon After Midnight” for “When I Paint My Masterpiece” and “To Be Alone With You.”