Tomorrow (Saturday 22nd April), sees Neil Young return to the stage for his first proper concert for approximately 4 years. (Apart from his 2-song tree hugging thing a few weeks ago.) The event is the Light Up The Blues autism benefit with Stephen Stills and The Promise of the Real in Los Angeles. The following week sees Neil return again to the stage for Willie Nelson's birthday bash, again in Los Angeles. I really hope these concerts go well and Neil rediscovers his mojo for playing live (and he returns to Europe!). Please comment with your thoughts on these upcoming concerts if you are lucky enough to be going and lets hope for a bright Neil future. On a side note: how many times have you seen Neil live? I'll have to think about that question for myself, though.
Thanks for this. I have great memories of seeing Neil live with various backing bands and look forward to him getting back out a little more.
I saw Neil with POTR at Hyde Park 2019 and he was great. Blew Dylan away. Feel unsure about a return. Haven’t enjoyed recent albums and wish he’d made another album with POTR.
I was at the same concert. I've never been too convinced about POTR, to be honest - I'm much more of a loose Neil-Crazy Horse kind of a guy. My best memory of the Hyde Park concert was watching Bob with his ear-to-ear daft smile and the people around me wondering what on earth they were listening to. He was probably drunk and having a good time - but so was I, which was probably why I found it so great.
I’m going to tomorrow nights Light Up The Blues concert. I’m looking forward to the show as an event, but my expectations are tempered when a show involves several acts. I am excited to see Neil and Stephen together. I know they’ve been jamming some since Neil has made LA part of his home base so maybe they have some tricks up their sleeves. Also excited to see Joe Walsh and Willie Nelson. My secret hopes involve special guest surprise appearances from either Richie Furay or Joni Mitchell. One can dream!
Last concert for me was Greendale at Madison Square Garden in 2003. I actually enjoyed the entire show. Although I couldn’t follow the narrative of the Greendale concept, the songs were pretty good. And his second set (disguised as an encore) featured a generous sampling of his biggest hits.
Saw him first time in 1987 in Milan with Crazy Horse when Life was released. This show was video recorded and televised in Italy. Free show really overcrowded with Police outside stopping raged audience from trying to get in...i was in front row...the show is still on you tube i believe. Second time in 1989 just after Freedom solo acoustic. Great. Last time a few years ago with Promise Of The Real with Willie Nelson on stage (a not announced surprise) for On The Road Again and a duet with Neil on Are There Anymore Real Cowboys. I was on cloud nine. Love Willie & Old Ways. Hope to see him again...
Unfortunately for family reasons I had to sell my ticket for Hyde Park but I did make it to the subsequent show in Kilkenny. I have seen Neil in various guises down the years from the Trans tour onwards. Given his own family circumstances, I don’t see him returning to Europe soon (if at all). Just my opinion. Naturally I will be there if he does.
Good to see him out there. I only saw him once with Crazy Horse in 2012 when he was touring for Psychedelic Pill (with Patti Smith as the opener), and it was one of the 10 best shows I've ever seen.
My first Neil Young concert was in February of 1991 at West Point's Eisenhower Hall. That was the tour promoting Ragged Glory (spectacularly documented on the Weld live album and home video), and it featured an impressive line-up that also included Social Distortion to open, followed by Sonic Youth. That was my favorite of the four Neil Young concerts I've attended over the years, which also include the Greendale concert at Radio City Music Hall, Neil Young & Friends at Chastain Park Amphitheater (with The Pretenders opening), and the Buffalo Springfield reunion at the Bonnaroo Festival a decade or so ago. Would certainly consider attending one last Neil Young concert should the opportunity arise, although it seems (like many legacy acts) ticket prices may make it cost prohibitive. Then again, you only live once.
1978 Rust Never Sleeps 1983 Trans Solo 1983 Trans / Shocking Pinks 1984 International Harvesters 1986 Rusted Out Garage 1987 Life Tour 1988 NY and the Bluenotes 1989 Solo Tour 1991 Ragged Glory tour 1993 Booker T and the MGs 1996 Broken Arrow tour 1997 HORDE 1999 Solo acoustic It gets blurry after that, I know I’ve seen NY Family and Friends, Le Noise, Fork in the Road and Psychedelic Pill shows. Saw the last Light Up the Blues with Neil and Stephen and saw NYCH in Fresno in 2018. Sidenote: I also saw at a bar in Malibu back in 1988, the sans-Neil Crazy Horse lineup featuring Billy, Ralph, Sonny Mone and Rain Parade guitarist Matt Piucci. Was a great night with lots of NYCH, unreleased songs and a few from the great first Crazy Horse album. It was a blast.
Glad Neil is back on stage! Not going, but wish I was. Hope he continues for many, many years. I've seen Neil twice: 2012 - United Center (Chicago) 2018 - Auditorium Theatre (Chicago) The UC show was great, but the 2018 show was one of my favorite concerts of all time. It was so great. Life-affirming even.
So you saw the only(?) time Neil ever played any of his two really rockin’ Vocoder tunes after 1986 — AND he sang it WITHOUT VOCODER… Behold, “Computer Age” sans his ‘computer’ voice!!! Did that register at the time?? (I don’t know that I would have necessarily picked up on that myself back then, as I was just in high school myself.)
Didn't know that was the only one. I was in High School too and the volume was so LOUD in first row in front of the speakers the next day i was unable to hear the teacher in my left ear due to tinnitus...anyway a great show
Let' see if I can remember. . . Neil Young & the Restless, Spokane, WA, Feb 23, 1989 Great first show with quite a few new songs from Eldorado/Freedom. If I remember correctly, may have been the first time "Rockin' in the Free World" was played. Neil seemed to be in a weird mood. At one point, he came out and started fliging bread slices into the audience, saying, "We get our bread at the end of the night, so you should get some too." Neil Young and Crazy Horse, The Gorge, WA, Sept 14, 1996 The concert took place at what is called the Gorge, an amphitheater on the banks of the Columbia River in the middle of Washington State. Kathy and I had never been there before and people kept telling us how beautiful it was and what a great place it was to see a concert. The view of the river behind the stage is spectacular but I don’t know if I would say it was an ideal place for concert going. Our seats were in what is auspiciously called the Golden Circle, which turned out to be a bunch of metal folding chairs crammed onto a flat patch of blacktop. Since there was no slope, once people stood up or stood on their chairs, I had no hope of even seeing the stage. Also, since we were outdoors, we were exposed to the whims of Mother Nature. In other words, it rained for the entire two hours of Neil Young’s set. Even though Don gave us a tarp to cover ourselves, Kathy and I still got soaked to the skin and were pretty miserable most of the time. The Gorge reminded me more of a livestock corral than a concert venue. And just think, we paid good money to get treated like a heard of cattle too. From the occasional glimpses that I caught of him, Neil Young appeared to be raindancing scarecrow (who knew it would work!), with his straw-like hair and baggy clothes, as he bopped across the stage with each one of his explosive guitar solos. The one other time I saw Neil play live seven years ago, he didn’t have his long-time cohorts Crazy Horse to back him up. The musicians were good but some special spark seemed to be missing. After finally hearing him this time with Crazy Horse, I now realize just how much was missing at the earlier show. It’s obvious why Neil has returned to playing with Crazy Horse time and time again throughout his three decades of music making. These guys are an awe inspiring combination that click nearly every time they perform together. From the first crunching notes of “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black), to the last choruses of “Rockin” in the Free World,” Neil and the band stormed through a satisfying mix of hits and obscurities. Considering we were being drenched by sheets of rain, it was only appropriate that the highlight of the concert was an earth shaking version of “Like a Hurricane,” which roared in at the beginning, got quiet and gentle in the center, then roared back out again, just as its title implies. It was eerie listening to the song as the flickering strobe lights lit up the raindrops like flashes of lightning. It almost made enduring the weather worth it. Neil Young, Seattle, WA March 6, 1999 Maybe I’m getting cranky in my old age but concerts seem to be more of a trial every time I go to one these days. It’s not because of the quality of on-stage performances. No, it’s the quality of the audiences that gets to me. At the March 6 Neil Young show at Seattle’s Paramount Theater, along with the usual yelled song requests, shouts of “CRAZY HORSE!!” (the name of Young’s band) and “PLUG IT IN, NEIL!!!” echoed around the theater all evening. Rather inappropriate for a concert billed as “A Solo Acoustic Evening with Neil Young.” Perhaps these loud audience members can’t read what’s printed on their tickets. On the plus side, Neil’s response to one of these loudmouths provided a concert highlight when he told one “PLUG IT IN” demander, “Go plug yourself” or something to that effect. Worse yet were two characters sitting near me. Two rows down from me, a fellow wore a hat throughout the whole show, effectively blocking my view of the stage. Just as I was about to ask him to remove the offending headgear, I noticed two tiny microphones stuck in the hatband on each side. He was illicitly recording the show, of course. I then resigned myself that this was my punishment for my years of collecting such tapes, scrunched my coat underneath me and managed to peer over and around the guy in order to catch a glimpse of Neil. But the man next to me was really unbelievable. He spent two-thirds of the show on his cell phone giving his buddy a blow-by-blow account of the event. (“Neil’s telling a story about his dog now…” “Yeah, he’s doing some new songs…”) I guess this guy could afford the $80 ticket price to sit and talk on the phone all night. I’ll take Neil Young without the running commentary, thank you very much. He does a fine job of communicating from the stage all by himself. Yes, Mr. Young was in good form. Using an arsenal of a half dozen acoustic guitars, plus his “Guitjo” (a six-string banjo), and various keyboard instruments, he presented two 50-minute sets of favorites with a few rarities and brand new songs thrown in. I especially liked “Albuquerque” and “World On a String,” two dark, brooding songs from Tonight’s the Night, one of my favorite albums. “War of Man” featured some great ominous guitar picking, while Neil went to the piano for the beautiful new ballad “Out of Control” and the mournful “Philadelphia.” Occasionally, I found the proceedings a little too familiar sounding. Many of the songs from the Harvest Moon album are now Young concert standards and I’m getting a bit weary of them. Some of the new tunes also sounded too similar to the Harvest Moon material, only adding to the feeling of sameness. A little more variety and a few more surprises would have been nice. Still, as Neil played “After the Goldrush” on his old pump organ, I couldn’t deny I was glad to be in the same room with him. If I get to see Neil Young the next time he comes around (by my estimation, tickets should be going for around $200 by then) and Mr. Cell Phone sits by me again, I’m going to wrest the implement out of his hand and stomp on it. And if I encounter the Stealth Taper with his chapeau, at the very least I’m going to ask for a copy of his tape. Neil Young, Seattle, Oct 23, 2007 My favorite Neil show. Nice mix of rarities and hits, old and new. The Chrome Dreams II jams were great live. Neil Young, Everett, WA, Oct 21, 2008 Weird show all around. This date in Everett, north of Seattle, just seemed to appear out of nowhere. Might have been the opening show of the tour. A friend of mine bought me a ticket, but my wife worked across the street from the arena at the time and her workplace was giving away tickets. She ended up selling hers outside the show. The venue was half full at most. Sort of a greatest hits show with some new material (some still unreleased??) thrown in. "A Day in the Life" and "Sultan" were surprises. Neil Young, Seattle, WA, July 20, 2010 I liked this show far better than the actual Le Noise album. The sound shook the whole theatre without being overly loud. Great to hear "Hitchhiker" and "You Never Call." Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Seattle, WA, Nov 10, 2012 This show took place the night after I saw Leonard Cohen at the same venue. Two Canadians over two nights. Very different experiences. My friend always bought me a ticket to Neil shows so she would have someone to go with. She was always saying how she wished Neil would tour with Crazy Horse and when it finally happened, she seemed disappointed. It was a good show, about what I expected. But sometimes the long Crazy Horse jams did go on a bit too long. For some reason, Neil seemed to have a Greendale flashback in the middle of the show as a girl carried a guitar case across the stage as he sang the lifeless ballad "Singer Without a Song."
That's a great range of Neil band incarnations! I've seen many wonderful shows from '91 onward, but would love to have seen Neil throughout the 80s as well. Do you have any particular favorites from that era?
I've seen Neil with Crazy Horse around five times and the 2012 Seattle show was up there with the best - Neil and the horse were locked in and laying down some pretty hypnotic jams on that tour. For Crazy Horse, I also rate the '91 Ragged Glory and the '97 Horde shows very highly.
Phew! That's quite an answer. Thanks a lot for the time you put into it. Sorry to hear about the bad luck with your neighbours. Pity that standing concerts seem to be going out of fashion these days - at least then you can move away from annoying people.
neil's never gonna tour again. he's lost the spark. fyi to the guy above, neil played "rockin' in the free world" for the 1st time in seattle, not spokane. i've seen neil around 50 times if we're counting bridge school and farm aid shows. first one was with booker t and the mgs at tinley park, 1993. soundgarden and blind melon opened up. last neil show i saw was in seattle with POTR in 2019. my most memorable neil shows are with the horse. i saw 6 shows in '96 and 4 in '97, including the tinley park show HORDE show where the power went out and the band played on.
saw him during his Trans phase in town, i recall one set was just him and his little musical electrical box... hey it was a great night... [Trans as not in the 2023 meaning.. ]
Was anyone else at the Warfield 1/10/2001? lucky enough to catch that amazing gig. Neil Young & Crazy Horse Setlist at The Warfield, San Francisco
I’ve seen Neil Young twice in concert. Once at a small stadium type show and once in a concert hall where he played all acoustic (and some organ). Wish I could have seen Crazy Horse in the 90s or earlier but that acoustic show was an all-timer for sure.
