For an artist who has spent years building one of indie music’s most distinctive voices, Justin Vernon spent Friday night celebrating someone else’s. At his Eaux Claires festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the Bon Iver frontman traded his own catalog for Bob Dylan’s, performing an entire set devoted to the Nobel Prize-winning songwriter in a performance cheekily billed as “Bon Dylan.”
Rather than treating Dylan’s music like untouchable classics, Vernon approached the songs the same way he’s built his own career: with emotion and just enough unpredictability to make them feel new again. The set stretched across more than a dozen songs, pairing beloved standards including “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and “All Along the Watchtower” with deeper album cuts like “Shooting Star” and “When He Returns.”
But the Dylan tribute wasn’t the night’s only surprise. Later in the evening, Vernon returned for an unannounced Bon Iver performance – his first full set of original material since 2023.
The unexpected appearance featured favorites including “Flume,” “Re: Stacks,” and “Speyside,” along with the early rarity “Hayward, WI” and the unreleased John Prine tribute “Room to Spare.” He also opened the set with Kevin Morby’s “Die Young,” stepping in after Morby withdrew from this year’s festival.
The doubleheader offered two different sides of Vernon in one night: first as a fan paying tribute to one of songwriting’s greatest influences, then as Bon Iver, returning to the stage with his own music after nearly three years away.
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