Bob Dylan Plays A Concert For Audience Of One: Awkward Or Awesome?

Bob Dylan has preformed to millions of people across the globe during his 50-year reign as one of the most talented troubadours of all time. But earlier this week, the self-confessed song and dance man played a concert to an appreciative audience of one person.

Bob Dylan’s flame may not burn as bright nor flicker as fiercely as it did during the height of the swinging 60s, but are times really so hard that Dylan has to make ends meet by preforming to any curious and mildly interested fan who happens to have a few dollars and the odd hour to spare?

Well, not quite. Rolling Stone reports that the Bob Dylan concert attended by 41-year-old super fan Fredrik Wikingsson was part of an ongoing Swedish film series Experiment Ensam (Experiment Alone), where people experience things completely alone that are usually reserved for large crowds, such as comedy clubs or karaoke bars.

The filmmakers hit upon the idea of paying Dylan’s camp an undisclosed sum of money to get the veteran singer up on stage to strut his stuff and do his thing for an audience of one.

Wikingsson is a friend of Experiment Ensam director Ander Helgeson, and when he heard about what he was planning with Dylan, he practically begged his friend to be the audience.

“I had an endless series of meetings where I managed to convince people my extreme fandom made me the best candidate for the enviable task.

“I’m very passive and I always picture myself as the guy that wouldn’t be able to save himself on a sinking ship. I’d just lay down and die. I have no real ability to grab the moment, but when I heard about this I thought, ‘For once, I have to stop everything in my life and go for something.'”

The popular TV personality, who looks a lot like Jim Carrey and lives in Stockholm, was so nervous on show day he became a quivering wreck who couldn’t eat or think straight.

“I was a f**king wreck. Part of me was thinking, ‘Maybe this won’t happen and it’ll be for the best. I don’t want to impose on Mr. Dylan. I don’t want him to stand there and be grouchy, just hating it.'”

Upon entering the theatre, Wikingsson had the choice of any seat in the empty house. But surprisingly he didn’t opt for a ringside view, but chose to sit in the middle of the second row instead.

“I thought the first row might freak him out. I was like a guy picking the next-to-most expensive bottle of wine in a restaurant, which is a very Swedish thing to do. I figured the second row would be ideal. Malcolm Gladwell would probably have all sorts of theories about this.”

After 10 minutes of anxiously waiting for something to happen and no doubt wondering if Dylan would sneer and snarl at him in a righteous indignation whilst murdering his own back catalogue in a methodical and indifferent manner, the lights finally dimmed and the audience of one was left alone in the dark, expectant and electrical emptiness.

And then…

“A guy walks onstage and started talking to the lighting guy. Turns out it was Dylan and he nodded at me. There wasn’t any ceremony at all. He just started talking to his bassist and drummer about how they were going to start the first song.”

Considering that for the past year Dylan’s set list rarely strays from songs he has recorded in the last two decades, Wikingsson was pleasantly surprised when Dylan’s concert began with Buddy Holly’s “Heartbeat.”

“I liked Buddy Holly before I liked Dylan. It felt like Christmas morning. I broke out into applause when these song finished but nobody took any notice of me. I figured that maybe it just sounded phony or weird.”

Weird of not, during Dylan’s second song, a cover of Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill,” the audience of one felt compelled to say something.

“It was just too weird. I screamed out, ‘You guys sound great!’ That caused Dylan to burst out laughing. Now, I have two kids and their births were great, but him laughing onstage at some lousy fucking comment of mine was unbelievable.”

Not sure if Dylanwas laughing with you or at you Wikingsson, old boy, but do continue.

“‘At the end of It’s Too Late (She’s Gone),’ Dylan performed a harmonica solo. I always detest people that automatically holler and applaud every time he breaks out the harmonica, but I found myself almost weeping when he played the solo. He could have just ended the song without the solo, he wanted it to be great.”

Finishing the set with a blues number that Wikingsson didn’t know, the living legend muttered, “Swing by anytime.”

Wikingsson told Rolling Stone after the show he still couldn’t quite believe what had just happened.

“At one point I still thought I was about to get Punk’d. I thought some a**hole would walk onstage and just laugh at me. I just couldn’t fathom that Dylan would actually do this. During the gig, I was smiling so much it was like I was on ecstasy. My jaw hurt for hours afterwards because I couldn’t stop smiling.”

Not one to let a one-to-one encounter with one of the last rock n’ roll gunslingers go to his head, later that evening Wikingsson kept it real by hitting the karaoke bars to pay tribute to the master.

“Dylan played a public show that night, but I decided to not go. It would be weird and nothing could top this. To be honest, I went to a karaoke bar with the production guys and sang my throat out. I selected all Dylan songs, but they just had these crappy Byrds versions.”

After having a living legend and personal hero preform especially for him, you might think there’d be little left on Wikingsson’s bucket list when it comes to Bob Dylan. Not so, there is just one more thing that the man who looks like Jim Carrey believes Dylan could do for him.

“I want Dylan to release an official Columbia EP of the concert called ‘Songs for Fredrick.'”