At the last minute we decided to see Neil Young in Atlantic City last night. I have several of his albums/CDs but had never seen him live before. He was playing with Crazy Horse and I don’t know how many more of those tours are going to happen so I figured this was as good a time as any. The show was in a room that normally seats about 3000 but there were no chairs. The sound was very good. Loud but not deafening and very clean. Anyway, with a few exceptions, it was a great show. Neil sure can rip for a 67 year old. Some new songs and some classics and a couple of acoustic numbers for good measure. One odd moment (or moments to be more precise) was what had to be a ten plus minute feedback session that was, I gather, a reproduction of what the storm sounded like. It went on waaaay too long. Everyone around us had that “WTF?” look on their faces after about a minute. He seemed to have a problem ending some of his other tunes, too. Not as in “Faked you out, here’s another long jam”. More of “Faked you out. Here’s a lot of sustain and feedback for about two or three or more minutes”. The encore was, fittingly, Like a Hurricane. Probably one of my favorite Neil Young songs. He played an awesome rendition but fell into the same trap at the end. We started heading for the doors about two minutes into the “ending” and didn’t miss a thing by the time we were in the lobby.
Rant 1 - What is it with people and their damn phones? The guy in front of us spent a good part of the show taking video of one of large screens on either side of the stage. A video of a video when the real thing is right in front of you? I’m sure the sound on your recording will be awesome. How about looking at the act with your own eyes? Isn’t that why you came here? Buy the DVD, for god’s sake and stop blocking my view with your annoying I phone.
Rant 2 - If you’re ever at a concert and want to find me, just locate the rudest, most inconsiderate a-hole in the place. I will be standing or sitting within three feet of him. And this one didn’t even have a phone. I know, we could have just moved but there were four of us and we had a good view where we were.
I love Neil. He played here in Ottawa a few weeks back, I didn’t go but the review I read mentioned the same rambling endings and the like.
I’ve seen him twice already, and prefer to have my memories of him from 25 years ago and 10 years ago intact.
The phone thing: preach it. The last concert I went to people did the same thing; they stared into a four inch screen for the entire concert instead of actually watching the damned show. I didn’t understand it. Almost everyone was doing this (it was a Black Eyed Peas concert I took my son to).
Neil is one of my absolute favorite artists, the reason I ever learned to play, but he does get a little weird on stage sometimes. Ironically, it was a phone that made the last concert I saw of him strange, but that was 25 years ago and it was him answering an old rotary as part of the act on stage. It’d ring, he’d quit the song to answer it, no one would be there and so he’d start playing again. Wtf?
Glad you saw it anyway. I darn sure would have gone too.
I saw Neil at the Garden a couple weeks ago. He did the same weird feedback thing then too. But at least this time out he played a bunch of songs the audience would actually know. He doesn’t always.
I flew out to Denver in August for Neil & Crazy Horse’s two nights at the magnificent Red Rocks Amphitheater, and was so blown away with the passion & intensity of the music that I then flew down to New Orleans to catch them again last month.
I understand that the (at times abrasive, even brutal) sonic assault that Neil is currently throwing down is not to everyone’s tastes, but to me it’s as sublime and majestic as a well executed Mozart concerto performed by a world-class orchestra…
You wanted to see Neil while he was still kickin, but had more important crap to do than watch Neil finish the show? Ha ha. You know the guy on his phone is bitching about you on some other web forum. “Those fuckers who leave before the show is over…” Ha ha.
Hope you were able to get out of the parking lot 20 min. before those who stuck around. :rolleyes:
I was at the Neil Young show at Red Rocks as well, the prolonged dinosaur distortion stomping parts were my favorite, and the audience was into it, kind of lurching along with him. What did you think of Trey Anastasio? I would have loved to be at that show last night.
Well, the guy on the phone wouldn’t even have noticed that we left - too busy looking at it and he was in front of me. And yes, we left before the guy we came to see was done. Having heard a few of his prior endings, I had no reason to think the last one would be any different and I was right. To each his own. I guess I just don’t get it but I don’t think I was alone. As Neil would get to the (first) end of a song the crowd would be in a near-frenzy with applause and yelling. By the time it was really over the response was clearly muted. I’m just sayin’.
Unfortunately, Neil plays basically the same set every night, and only mixes in a different encore from night to night (ref: sugarmtn.org/. I know there is a “rebellious” nature to the guy, but it is hard to believe that playing the same set every night is akin to the “do what we want” spontaneity of Pearl Jam, The Dead, Phish, etc.
I was at his show this tour in Philly (having seen him solo last year and with his band in 2009) and found myself bored to death at times… he took “Fuckin Up” and beat it to death over and over, and then revived it to beat it some more…
Neil’s pretty bad ass. Neil’s just crazy! He’s the most fearless musician in all the musician kingdom. Look at that, he’s eating a cobra! Ew, he’s eating larva! That’s disgusting! Nothing can stop him when he’s hungry! Neil don’t give a shit!
