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So, a lifelong ambition of seeing Neil Young live occurred last night circa 9pm MST. Better late than never, I guess. Not surprisingly, I was consciously very excited at the prospect, however, I was a little curious what my actual reaction would be. As it turns out as the crowd started slowly stirring to a full roar as Neil walked onstage, my actual reaction was akin to a blank stare. FemJack said to me afterwards that the look on my face was something she'd imagine a Catholic looks like after seeing the pope for the first time. Shock and awe, I guess and frankly a little emotional too. Also we were dressed nearly identically, jeans and a purple plaid shirt, which was kind of odd (my choice was purely functional, it was fucking cold out). Either way, I was fucking floored the second he kicked into 'Love and Only Love' from Ragged Glory. While I haven't ranked my favourite 90s albums, that one is very high up, so I was ecstatic to hear him kick off the show with that song. My first thought was 'holy shit this is fuckin' LOUD, like REALLY loud.' Then was kind of shocked at how great he sounded vocally, which I realize sounds somewhat ridiculous as he's never been a "great" vocalist. It's just that the variance in his voice seems to have minimally changed over the years. I guess if you didn't really have powerful pipes to begin with, the qualitative drop doesn't seem so significant. The other thing that was impressive was how much he moved around the stage, stomping around like he still did 30 years ago. Then, over the first opening notes of 'Hey, Hey, My My', it kind of hit me: holy shit, I'm finally seeing Neil Young and again, sweet jesus is this fucking LOUD and just purely wonderful to see this song live. I don't know if he still really feels these songs, or it's just that he's a pro and it's his job to convince us, but when he's belting this song I totally believe it. 'Are You Ready for the Country' was rollicking fun, but I nearly lost it during 'Everybody Knows This is Nowhere', which is still one of my favourite Neil songs. The 'La La La's' get me every time. One surprise song in the set was 'Spirit Road' from Chrome Dreams II which was a fun addition, as it was one of the better tracks on an otherwise jumbled late-period album. It really took off live and segued into one of the highlights: 'Cortez the Killer' which was about as good as you could hope for. Insanity for me and then kicking right into 'Cinnamon Girl' which took the roof off the house. Then came the acoustic set, starting off with 'Mother Earth' again from Ragged Glory. The Harvest songs make the biggest impact on the crowd, which isn't too shocking. Also the crowd whoops high and hard with the opening lines to 'Four Strong Winds'. One of my personal highlights was the reversed play of two Tonight's the Night songs, starting with 'Speakin' Out' which was just perfect and then the title track, which again blew my mind leading to another holy shit, I'm finally seeing Neil Young and he's playing TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT, which segues back into the electric with nothing less than an compacted ball of skronk in 'Cowgirl in the Sand'. The other point worth noting is the four songs played off of Fork in the Road, really got going live. 'Fuel Line' was a helluva lot of fun, nearly funky if that's possible. 'Light a Candle' was really Ben Keith's song, as the pedal steel in that song just takes it to classic levels of Neildom. And the final two songs of the night 'Get Behind the Wheel' and 'Just Singing a Song', were huge Crazy Horse songs, the former really swinging with a rockabilly type groove. And ending the show by encoring 'Rockin' in the Free World', which still gets me off after 20 years. It was blistering as I hoped it would be and if I had one complaint, and it does really even qualify, would be to dip a bit more into the back catalogue, but when you have 2 hours or so and want to give the crowd the high points, AND when a lot of your classic songs run long, you got to pick and choose. I was desperate to hear something off of On the Beach or even Sleeps with Angels. However, as it was my first time, I'm more than ecstatic to hear the classics. My ears are still ringing as write this.



1. Love And Only Love
2. Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
3. Fuel Line
4. Are You Ready For The Country?
5. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
6. Pocahontas
7. Spirit Road
8. Cortez The Killer
9. Cinnamon Girl
10. Mother Earth
11. The Needle And The Damage Done
12. Light A Candle
13. Heart Of Gold
14. Four Strong Winds
15. Old Man
16. Speakin' Out
17. Tonight's The Night
18. Cowgirl In The Sand
19. Get Behind The Wheel
20. Just Singing A Song
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21. Rockin' In The Free World

Sounds awesome DJ. I'm certainly a fan of Neil but have only seen him live for 45 minutes when he made a surprise visit to the Vote For Change show I was at in '04. I've got to remedy that as soon as I'm able and see a full-on show. I don't even know what would be on my wish list of songs were I to see him; like Bruce you've just got to hope he gives you a reasonable taste of the back catalog.

Good luck with your ears.

sounds nice, thanks for the post. maybe I just go see him in june too...

Wow. You are probably the Obner I've felt most afinity with based on this "deep knowing" that Neil is.... what it is all about. I am astonished you had never seen him. I missed that.

I have seen Neil... 25 times? The benefit of living on the SF peninsula I guess. Thanks for this great review.

Oh, and another thing. Neil's voice is unique, but it is about as strong as a voice can be.... even when at its most fragile. And I mean strong even in traditional ways... volume, pitch, both registers clean and on the mark... and hasn't lost anything over the years.

Yeah it was just bad timing I guess, always just missing the opportunity to see him. This is the cost of spending most of your life in northern Ontario. Of course had I been in Thunder Bay in the mid-60s, I'd have had a better chance. Alas.

Good point about his voice, harry. I should clarify that I didn't mean to suggest it was weak, just that he was never considered to be a "great" singer in the classical sense. His voice is ultimately his best asset, the fragile aspect making some of those songs truly emotional classics. I was playing some of the recent live albums yesterday (Fillmore, Massey Hall, Sugar Mountain) and there's not a whole lot of change there over nearly 40 years, compared to some of his contemporaries in CSN for instance. Stills sounds truly dreadful now.

great review. Ive seen Neil 6 times through the years (Barrie 96, Montreal 96, San Jose 97, Vancouver 99, Toronto 03, Vancouver 08) and am always happy with seeing him. Like you said hes very energetic and his voice has aged well. My only complaint would be that his setlist is usually quite predictable - id love it if he dug out stuff from Sleeps with angels, Mirror Ball, On the beach, Trans, Freedom, Prairie Wind, etc - but he usually relies on his 70's classics. Regardless, hes a living legend that can still rip it up.

I was at that Barrie show, too, with Crazy Horse!

I am trying to be in the same room as him as much as possible, and have a lot lately, but I still run through the same emotions DJ describes here. Except I always revel especially in how amazing Old Black sounds, that it's my favourite guitar.

I think Neil always plays what he wants to play. He's stubborn and unflinching with his setlists. He could dip into any of 600 songs – as he said at the Massey Hall shows – but didn't change too much of the selections on the multiple night stands, and throughout whole tours. I think he crafts an apt setlist and band for a snapshot of where he's at in an otherwise still crazily prolific and varied, bizarre career. To me, he played a lot of hits, but with a lot of freshness.

Great reading your review. Have you seen Bruce, DJ?

He seemed to have been dropping in occasional oddities based on the setlists on this tour. On the east coast he was playing sometimes 4 songs off of Tonight's the Night, which is pretty awesome and then some from Hawks & Doves as well.

I haven't seen Bruce, but he's next on the Must See list. I imagine he'll be a longshot seeing as he only hits the Big Three cities in Canada when he tours up here and I'm a long way from those areas.

fantastic review DJ. glad you had a great time man.

TEH MACHINE = TEH FANBOY



Glad you finally got to see him DJ. I remember feeling butterflies in my stomach when I first saw him on the Ryman stage in '05.

What band was he playing with?

Yeah, I definitely geeked out a bit. Nice to know I'm still capable of that, actually. I believe he's playing with the same band from the Ryman show/Heart of Gold doc.

i'll never forget walking through the doors to my lonesome 7th row seat at Massey Hall prior to Peggy's set and having the fear cuz I was really stoned and nervous about it all, then her set calmed me down, but when Neil came out, sat down surrounded by 10 acoustics, grabbed one, cradled it, and turned in his stool to directly face me 20 feet away, to play, I lost it... I think I was misty for this beginning to the set:

From Hank To Hendrix / Ambulance Blues / Sad Movies / A Man Needs A Maid / No One Seems To Know / Harvest / Journey Through The Past / ...