Member's Concert Review: Neil Young

BackstagePassDirect member Steve O e-mailed this to us:

My apologies for the lateness in sending this out.

Last week, I had the incredible good fortune of having backstage passes to L.A.'s Dolby Theater for the first of a four-night stand of the legend, Neil Young. Backstage before the show, I wanted to give him props for all that he had done but all I could say was “Welcome back to LA, Neil!”.  What a dummy I am!! Sitting across from me, he smiled and said “Yeah, it’s good to be back in L.A.”

The show started slowly. After roaming between instruments for a few songs, which include “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and “Love In Mind,” Young began to open up to his audience. After barely speaking for the first 30 minutes of the performance, Young offered a few anecdotes. “This song is not by me. It’s by somebody I think is a lot better than me,” Young said to precede a cover of Phil Ochs’ “Changes,” a number he performed standing with his guitar off to one side of the stage. “When I was younger, I saw a lot of great songwriters. This songwriter I’m going to tell you about was one of the best songwriters I ever saw.”

After he’d finished the song, which appeared to go off without a hitch, Young looked amused. “OK!” he said. “So some songs are so good that I write songs that are a lot like them and sometimes I even forget which one I am playing and start playing another one in the middle.”

The performance was divided into two parts, split by a 30-minute intermission, and it was by the end of the first hour that Young truly seemed to have come around. Sitting amidst his many guitars, the singer began to recount the stories behind the instruments, much in the same way one might explain the significance of a household item to a grandchild who’s come to visit. After he’d run through “Harvest,” off his 1972 album of the same name, Young lifted the guitar he’d just used up toward the crowd. “This is a guitar I got from a friend of mine,” he recollected. “His name is Stills. He gave me this when I joined CSNY. He gave one to everyone, including himself.” The musician, clearly now ready to allow stories to spill from his memory, added, “There’s a lot of things about this that reminds me of stuff.” He pointed out a dent in the guitar left by a high heel. “I don’t know how that got there.”

Young pulled out another guitar. “I’m going to tell you about this one now,” he said. “This guitar was given to me by a guy by the name of Stephen Stills.” The audience, eating up every moment of this storytelling, laughed. The musician, encouraged, continued to explain that this guitar was home to a story that may or may not be true, that once a shot was fired at the folk singer playing the guitar, piercing through the instrument and leaving the musician unharmed. “I think that happened in Denver before weed was legalized,” he noted. “They’ve come a long way.”

The first half of performance concluded with “Old Man,” which resonated more openly than earlier numbers, perhaps because Young had himself opened up to the crowd. The second set opened with “Goin’ Back,” from 1978’s Comes a Time, leading into “A Man Needs a Maid,” which Young performed on his grand piano with the help of a keyboard.

“A long time ago songs brought people together in a different way,” Young said at one point before launching into a rowdy rendition of crowd-favorite “Ohio.”  He looked reflective, a moment of solemnity pervading his usually cheeky narration. “It did something different than what it’s doing now. Music is great no matter what you do. But music had a big moment.”

Young is clearly aware of the nostalgic power he wields, particularly at a performance like this one, in a room that requires a certain level of pay grade to attend ($400 a pop for tix). Although the audience was diverse in age, with some younger couples seated in the (relatively) cheaper seats, much of the crowd was clearly longtime fans, having experienced his career unfold in real time. His choice of covers, from Ochs to a version of Gordon Lightfoot’s 1970 tune “If You Could Read My Mind,” centered on a certain time period, one that to Young – and to many fans – represents a golden age in music.

Young is, of course, aware of the influence he has had on so many. As his set began to wind down, leading into the inevitable two-song encore, the musician said, “Now I’m gonna do a couple of my big hits.” He added, jokingly, “You might not recognize them because now I sing them in a different language.” The final numbers, “After the Gold Rush,” “Heart of Gold,” “Thrasher” and “Long May You Run,” each earned standing ovations and the first sing-alongs of the evening. “I like to be as predictable as possible, especially near the end,” Young acknowledged, wandering between his many instruments as he drew the two and a half hour performance to its conclusion.

Set list (I think):

From Hank to Hendrix
On the Way Home
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Love in Mind
Philadelphia
Mellow My Mind
Are You Ready for the Country
Someday
Changes
Harvest
Old Man
Goin' Back
A Man Needs a Maid
Ohio
Southern Man
Mr. Soul
If You Could Read My Mind
Harvest Moon
Flying on the Ground Is Wrong
After the Gold Rush
Heart of Gold
Thrasher
Long May You Run

 Wanna sit beside your fave backstage? You can, join BPD today.

Neil Young + Crazy Horse Dates

Hitting the road together in support of their first album in nearly nine years, Neil Young & Crazy Horse launch a North America tour in October with Los Lobos appearing on some dates, Patti Smith on others.

The new album "Americana", is in stores tomorrow.

Here’s the US itinerary:

Oct. 8 – Cleveland, Ohio, Wolstein Center / Cleveland St. Univ.
Oct. 9 – Pittsburgh, Pa., Petersen Events Center
Oct. 11 – Chicago, Ill., United Center
Oct. 13 – Austin, Texas, Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park
Oct. 14 – Tulsa, Okla., Tulsa Convention Center Arena
Oct. 17 – Los Angeles, Calif., Hollywood Bowl
Nov. 10 – Seattle, Wash., KeyArena At Seattle Center
Nov. 26 – Boston, Mass., TD Garden
Nov. 27 – New York City, N.Y., Madison Square Garden
Nov. 29 – Philadelphia, Pa., Wells Fargo Center
Nov. 30 – Fairfax, Va., Patriot Center
Dec. 4 – Bridgeport, Conn., Webster Bank Arena

Los Lobos appear through Nov. 19 (except for Oct. 13) and Patti Smith appears Nov. 23-Dec.4.

Setlist: Neil Young

BPD member Swampdogg sends in this recent setlist report:

Don't Cry No Tears
I've Been Waiting For You
Love And Only Love
Piece of Crap
Goin' Home
When I Hold You in My Arms
Quit (Don't Say You Love Me)
From Hank To Hendrix
Don't Let It Bring You Down
Pocahontas
After The Gold Rush
Standing In The Light Of Love
Gateway of Love
Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
Sedan Delivery
Like a Hurricane

Encore:

Rockin' in the Free World
Powderfinger

Neil Young Still Rockin'

Neil Young is one of rock and roll’s greatest songwriters and performers. In a career that extends back to his mid-Sixties roots as a coffeehouse folkie in his native Canada, this principled and unpredictable maverick has pursued an often winding course across the rock and roll landscape. He’s been a cult hero, a chart-topping rock star, and all things in-between, remaining true to his restless muse all the while. At various times, Young has delved into folk, country, garage-rock and grunge. His biggest album, Harvest (1972) , apotheosized the laid-back singer/songwriter genre he helped invent. By contrast, Rust Never Sleeps (1979), Young’s second-best seller, was a loud, brawling masterpiece whose title track, an homage to Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, contained the oft-quoted line “Better to burn out than it is to rust.”

Several of his more modest-selling titles - for example, Tonight’s the Night, Comes a Time and Trans - contain some of his most trenchant performances. It is typical of Young that he followed his most polished and popular album, Harvest, with one of his most raw and uncommercial, Time Fades Away. While he’s avoided sticking to one style for very long, the unifying factors throughout Young’s peripatetic musical journey have been his unmistakable voice, his raw and expressive guitar playing, and his consummate songwriting skill.

Passes are still available to members for these shows:

Sun 12/07/08 Auburn Hills, MI The Palace at Auburn Hills
Tue 12/09/08 Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena
Fri 12/12/08 Philadelphia, PA The Wachovia Spectrum
Sat 12/13/08 Worcester, MA DCU Center
Mon 12/15/08 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Arena
Tue 12/16/08 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Arena

Don't forget, all passes are first-come, first-served. So don't delay. Order yours today and get up close and personal with a true legend. Visit BackstagePassDirect.