ROCHESTER, Minn. – Bob Dylan is still doing Bob Dylan things.

That is to say, he is confounding us once again.

Like he did when he went electric, when he disappeared after his motorcycle accident, when he recorded three overtly Christian albums, when he released a trilogy of albums interpreting the Great American Songbook.

On a rare performance in his home state Tuesday, March 24, at the sold-out Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Dylan confounded us this time by mixing good news with the bad.

First, the good news. He changed the seemingly set-in-concrete set list he had performed for the last three years of his Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour. He refreshed things with, among others, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” and a surprise cover of “Nervous Breakdown” by Eddie Cochran, an early rocker who was born in Albert Lea.

Gone were the band’s electric guitars, with Bob Britt and Doug Lancio now playing acoustic guitars. Nothing wrong with a quieter Dylan.

The Minnesota icon opted for an electric piano instead of a baby grand he had on other legs of his Rough and Rowdy Tour, which started in 2021. Neither the piano nor Dylan’s playing was an issue.

The problem was the microphone setup at the piano. Dylan had a floor mic to his left and a boom mic over the piano. Even though this was the third night with this setup, at times he had trouble being close enough to a mic. On at least four songs — or one-fourth of his set — it was too difficult to hear him, not because his 84-year-old voice was too soft (it wasn’t) but because his mouth was nearly a foot away from the microphone.

C’mon, Bob. To paraphrase the late Paul Wellstone, we all do better when you do better.

The bad news of the mic issues made an otherwise rewarding concert disappointing when it could have been satisfying, like last year’s Dylan performance in Mankato.

Truth be told, Dylan’s voice, always an acquired taste, was strong and nuanced on Tuesday, his phrasing intuitive and his dynamics demonstrating how engaged he was. The way he elongated words, especially at the end of a song, was positively Dylanesque.

In his first appearance in Rochester since 2012, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer came out roaring to a shuffle groove on “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” as he delivered it, “I’ll beeeeeeee your baby toniiiiight.”

Next up, the pianist in a white jacket with a hood pulled over his head unearthed “Man in the Long Black Coat,” a 1989 tune that he hadn’t added to his set list in a dozen years. When Dylan took a solo, his electric piano sounded louder than the rest of the understated four-man band.

With barely a pause, the bard rushed into “All Along the Watchtower,” one of the songs he’s performed most often in concert over the years. He found a hurried up-tempo groove wrapped in a sense of mystery, and his voice surely did howl like the wind. It was his most forceful vocal of the night.

Then Dylan dipped into the material from “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” his excellent 2020 album. However, this time he did only six numbers instead of the nine he had done in previous shows since hitting the road in November 2021.

These 2020 tunes were not among the evening’s better moments. Dylan lost his focus for a bit on “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You” but recovered to earn the crowd’s love for his love song. Despite his rumbling piano fills, the singer cast a shadow over “Key West (Philosopher Pirate)” because of too much fidgeting with his two microphones.

The selections Dylan weaved between “Rough and Rowdy Ways” numbers made for some of the night’s best moments. “Love Sick” (1997) became a nasty, moody stomp with an aggressive piano passage. Dylan’s voice was full of rage on the bluesy Bo Diddley chestnut “I Can Tell.”

The infectious flamenco treatment of Dylan’s ‘70s gem “When I Paint My Masterpiece” was similar to what was experienced in Mankato. The pretty stroll “Soon After Midnight” from 2012 had a ‘60s pop vibe evoking Bobby Vee, with whom a young Dylan played keyboards in 1959. Speaking of oldies, Cochran’s “Nervous Breakdown” from 1962 sounded like a keyboard rewrite of his “Summertime Blues,” but it was cool to hear Dylan, with a playful New York accent, rocking on piano.

The night’s high point for the 5,000 fans was “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” a slowed-down ‘60s classic that Dylan delivered like he was reciting poetry, not singing, complete with a faux classical passage on the piano.

The 85-minute performance — shorter by 20 minutes than last year’s superior Mankato gig — ended oddly, with Dylan singing his divine 1981 hymn “Every Grain of Sand” unintentionally off-microphone.

What good is pouring your heart into a song when people can’t hear you?

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