Neil Young - 1983 Tour

Did anyone catch Neil Young on his 1983 tour? A buddy and I went to see him 2/4/83 at the Sundome in Tampa. This tour came on the heels of Neil's 1982 HBO concert in Berlin. That concert was one of the first things that I taped with my first VCR (which I paid $800 for). What a killer concert.

So we go to Tampa that night to see Neil. He comes out on stage with a chair and an acoustic guitar. We stayed for a while then got up and left (to go party some more, I'm sure). It's not that he wasn't good; it just wasn't what we came for. We came to get rocked out by Bruce Palmer, Nils Lofgren, Joe Lala, and company.

Some years later, I mentioned that concert to an acquaintance who told he, "Hey, dumb a**. You should have stuck around. Neil took an intermission then came back with the band. They played until midnight."

I guess I just want confirmation that I really AM a dumb a** for having left when I did.

 

setlist 1983/02/04 tampa

1. The Old Laughing Lady
2. Motor City
3. Revolution Blues
4. Don't Let It Bring You Down
5. Soul Of A Woman
6. Are There Any More Real Cowboys?
7. Old Man
8. My Boy
9. Helpless
10. Dance Dance Dance
11. Heart Of Gold
12. Don't Be Denied
13. Pocahontas
14. Sail Away
15. Powderfinger
16. Ohio
17. Human Highway
18. After The Gold Rush
19. Transformer Man
20. My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
21. Mr. Soul
---
22. Comes A Time
23. I Am A Child
24. Computer Age

Neil Young - vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica, piano, banjo

Larry Cragg - drums, banjo, pedal steel guitar

Joel Bernstein - vocoder, synclavier, synthesizer and acoustic guitar

 

No band it was acoustic with help from some friends, Joel and Larry

 

Computer Age is with electric guitar

 

That's a good setlist.

 

Wow, synclavier! That's the last thing I'd associate with Neil Young; maybe a moog or a workhorse like the SK-1 or FZ-1, but not the beast only Zappa could tame. I wonder if any recordings of this period exist. Would be interesting to hear how it was used.

 

I heard that he offered you a piece of gum but you were gone.

 

FWIW, after a show is over, most venues I’ve gone to turn on the hall lights, and then chase everyone outside.

I guess I could have tried to hide under a seat, or the restroom, but my older brother probably would have abandoned me, on the spot...

 

You should listen to Trans.

 

I saw Neil Young and The Shocking Pinks at Tanglewood, MA on 9/2/83. To this day it was one of the best concerts I ever went to! The venue, the music and the "sundries" were amazing!

Neil Young & The Shocking Pinks Setlist at Tanglewood Music Center, Lenox

 

Just a couple of weeks later in Buffalo, NY on Feb. 17th, 1983
My first Neil Young show (of many to come) & an asolutely great show it was!!
Neil Young Setlist at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo

 

Agreed; it's difficult to imagine a setlist I'd enjoy more - unless he added even more early 80s stuff (I love that Neil era).

I planned to catch his Seattle show that year but never heard any radio ads and failed to search out info in those pre-internet days.

I've seen many Neil shows since but suspect that would've been a top tier show for me!

 

Yes, I saw it at Madison Square Garden. At the time I was more into the Scorpions and things like that, but my brother had an extra ticket so I went. It was good. Long time ago but as far as I can recall it was just Neil.

 

I also caught the MSG show, I was only 14. Had seen Clapton in New Jersey a couple nights earlier and was so disappointed. It was a a snooze fest. On to Neil-It was him alone as I recall. Freaking amazing. Mr Soul rocked. Really a special night. First time seeing him and I got punished for going. “You went to Madison Square Garden by Subway without permission”. My Mom hid my guitar under her bed for a week.

 

My first time seeing Neil was at the Cow Palace that year. My friends and I were disappointed because we assumed it would be like the Rust Never Sleeps movie, with a band for most of it. Looking back, I'm glad I got to see that show of course.

I read in Rolling Stone that Neil would have a band for his Summer tour, so I got a ticket for Cal Expo but was dismayed when it seemed to be basically the same, with no band. It was the first ever concert at that venue so a large part of the crowd wasn't that into Neil and lots of people left early. I was pretty psyched when, after the "Sugar Mountain" encore, they pushed out a drum set and amps, but I wasn't expecting the band that we got for the extended second encore. (The album came out a few days later)

 

Yeah I'd say you were what you've described yourself as. A great setlist and it was NEIL YOUNG!!!!!

 

We had front row seats at Philly's Spectrum but it was cancelled due to snow and was never rescheduled.

 

Also at the Cow Palace: I remember getting chills when he finished his acoustic set with an update of the last line of After the Gold Rush--"Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1980's"-- then put down his guitar, strapped on a headset mic and launched into this crazy futuristic TRANS material.

T'was a TRANScendent moment, and performance.

 

saw the 1983 tour 9-1-83 in East Rutherford NJ, my first Neil show! Shocking Pinks and Trans material got booed, including by my friends but I loved it.