I'm principally a Dylan fan, having attended several dozens of his shows over the last 40+ years, but I have also attended very many DS, NHB and MK concerts, over the last 20+ years. I have also attended three concerts by The Straits this year. To make my perspective clearer, I preferred the NHB and MK concerts to the DS concerts.
When I go to an MK concert, I know that I will get pretty much the same set list night after night, with possibly the odd variation. Over the years, I have got used to this and accept that this is What It Is. Whilst my personal preference would be for more variation in song selection, it's the performer's choice and should always be the performer's choice. The question of bootleggers is irrelevant in this regard because they will record whatever the performer chooses to play, whether the songs be common, uncommon, one-offs, with or without guest musicians or whatever. If MK chooses to keep pretty much to a pre-set set list, so be it. I do find the repetition of the same between-song comments and jokey words somewhat irritating but I don't really attend shows for those anyway.
Dylan also genrally works to a pattern on a tour, albeit a pattern that is less set than Mark's and with a much wider song selection during the course of the tour, pulling in songs from the past almost at random, on occasions. There are, though, two factors to bear in mind when making a comparison between these two artists. First - Dylan tours each and every year and plays more shows in a year than Mark does, so he needs to vary things a bit, almost for his own sanity. Second - Dylan has a much wider choice of self-composed songs on which to draw than Mark has. In addition, Dylan has been known to play a lot of songs he has not himself written, though less frequently in recent times. [There is, incidentally, a book devoted solely to the subject of the songs Dylan has sung but not written - and it runs to a few hundred pages!]
I might add that Dylan does not always play and sing the same song the same way on successive nights, whereas Mark largely does. Neither approach is more valid or invalid than the other; it's just different and we should respect the artist's preference.
The result of this difference of approach to concerts, as I have written elsewhere in this forum, is that MK is consistent but largely predictable, whereas BD is less so.
Though I have only attended one show on this tour so far (with three more to come), I have seen a number of reports from other shows and it is clear that, by and large, Dylan fans consider that Dylan has been more consistent in his performance, from one show to the next, on this tour than some of his previous tours - even with the greater degree of song variation. Generally, if you go to a BD concert, it can be pot luck (terrific one night but disappointing the next) whereas attendance at a MK concert will invariably reveal a well rehearsed, perhaps a touch too slick, concert.
Finally, I'm less sure that MK has the same degree of "work ethic" as BD but maybe that discussion is for another day.
