The inscrutable Bob Dylan has confounded us once again. For the past five weeks he has been touring Europe with his team of stalwarts: Tony Garnier (bass), George Recile (drums), Stu Kimball (rhythm guitar), Donnie Herron (banjo, electric mandolin, pedal steel, lap steel) and Charlie Sexton (guitar). One new element on this tour has been the addition of a setbreak each night, whereas as of late he has otherwise worked without such intermissions. That’s not what has us flummoxed though. What we’re curious about is what happened in Rome…

The setlists (if not the individual performances) have been rather consistent throughout this tour.

For instance, here’s a look at October 16 in Denmark…

Falconer Salen Copenhagen, Denmark

Set I: Things Have Changed, She Belongs To Me, Beyond Here Lies Nothin’, What Good Am I?, Pay In Blood, Waiting For You, Duquesne Whistle, Tangled Up In Blue, Love Sick

Set II: High Water (For Charley Patton), Simple Twist Of Fate, Early Roman Kings, Forgetful Heart, Spirit On The Water, Scarlet Town, Soon After Midnight, Long And Wasted Years

Enc: All Along The Watchtower, Blowin’ In The Wind

…and here’s his setlist from one month later, on November 16 in Luxembourg.

Rockhal Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

Set I: Things Have Changed, She Belongs To Me, Beyond Here Lies Nothin’, What Good Am I?, Duquesne Whistle, Waiting For You, Pay In Blood, Tangled Up In Blue, Love Sick

Set II: High Water (For Charley Patton), Simple Twist Of Fate, Early Roman Kings, Forgetful Heart, Spirit On The Water, Scarlet Town, Soon After Midnight, Long And Wasted Years

Enc: All Along The Watchtower, Blowin’ In The Wind

Things otherwise have been mostly the same in between, however, for two nights in Rome, The Bard shook things up.

Here’s what went down on November 6…

Atlantico Rome, Italy

Set I: Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat, Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, Watching The River Flow, Blind Willie McTell, Honest With Me, Make You Feel My Love, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum, Queen Jane Approximately, Highway 61 Revisited

Set II: Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, Ain’t Talkin’, Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine), Boots Of Spanish Leather, The Levee’s Gonna Break, Every Grain Of Sand, Like A Rolling Stone

Enc: All Along The Watchtower

…and here’s the setlist from November 7

Atlantico Rome, Italy

Set I: Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, It Ain’t Me, Babe, Man In The Long Black Coat, Positively 4th Street, Summer Days, Make You Feel My Love, Rollin’ And Tumblin’, When The Deal Goes Down, Highway 61 Revisited

Set II: Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, Girl Of The North Country, Under The Red Sky, Ain’t Talkin’, Thunder On The Mountain, I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met), Ballad Of A Thin Man

Enc: Blowin’ In The Wind

Then things took a turn for the familiar once again (even if the setlists themselves certainly don’t tell the whole story as the songs themselves are reshaped from night to night).

Now to be clear when Dylan played other multiple show runs on the tour he drew on his standard setlist each evening (for instance three nights in Paris at Le Grand Rex on November 12,13,14). So what accounts for those two nights in Rome? A fan’s wish granted by the Trevi Fountain? Was it something in the gelato? Our ace cube reporters are on the case but in the interim feel free to post your own thoughts below.