Bon Iver to play Bob Dylan covers show as “Bon Dylan”
Justin Vernon and co. will play a single set at Eaux Claires Festival that’s being touted as “1994 Bob Dylan Cosplay.”
Photos courtesy of press
Proud Wisconsinite Justin Vernon announced in December that the state’s Eaux Claires Festival—a two-day event he founded with The National’s Aaron Dessner—will return this summer for the first time in eight years. The festival teased a mysterious “Bon Dylan” as a headliner alongside artists like Aimee Mann, Kevin Morby, Lil Yachty, and Daniel Caesar, leaving fans wondering if a collaboration might be in play.
Not quite. Rather than a Bon Iver/Bob Dylan team-up, it appears Vernon will be channeling Dylan himself: Bon as Bob. In a video posted to Instagram, he explains that, after attending a Dylan concert with his dad and 16 friends, it had been “too long to remember since the town felt that together.” The show inspired Vernon to bring back the festival, though he hasn’t “felt much like being what I’ve been, or been seen to have been. Or what I wanted to have been. Or what I’ve become.” So, he’s adapted a new persona: “I thought it’d be cool to try to be Bob Dylan for a night. I’m trying to turn Bon into Bob.”
Given Vernon’s penchant for naturalistic, reflective lyrics—not to mention his upper-Midwestern aura—it should surprise no one that he loves Bob Dylan. Vernon even adopts Dylan’s nasal croon in a clip of “Not Dark Yet,” a Time Out of Mind cut about a world-weariness similar to the one echoed in his own statement about the cover band’s formation. Bon Dylan is set to perform on July 24, the festival’s first day. Set times have yet to be announced, so exactly when Vernon will embody The Bard remains to be seen.
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