Don’t you love it when things that are disappointing at first ultimately work out for the best? I was bummed out when the Neil Young and Crazy Horse concert I was supposed to go to over Labor Day weekend was canceled. But if it hadn’t been, I might not have gotten tickets to see Neil Young perform solo at Carnegie Hall last night. Crazy Horse is a great band but Neil on stage alone — except for his eight or so guitars, banjo, multiple harmonicas, two pianos, electric keyboard and organ — in that particular venue was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to.
Neil Young at Carnegie Hall.
It’s not often these days that I go to a concert and find I’m one of the younger attendees. I wish I could bottle that feeling to take with me when I go see Miley Cyrus in April. Not that advanced age stopped the audience from acting immaturely. I was amused to smell pot outside Carnegie Hall, but I was amazed to smell it inside. That’s never happened during one of the classical music performances I’ve been to there. And what about that guy in the front row who kept yelling song requests at Neil? Why do people do that? This guy kept doing it even after Neil, reminiscing about his 1970 Carnegie Hall performances, told us how those audiences kept yelling songs at him while he thought, “I know exactly what I’m going to play and nothing you say is going to change that.” Oh, and some other dude yelled, “Freebird.” Neil dealt with the minor annoyances with slightly mocking good humor. When some audience members kept calling out to him while he was telling a story, he said, “You paid real good money to be here so you should get to listen to each other.”
I loved the way Neil took his time and, twice, interrupted a song to say, “I don’t like that key!” and change things up. But his own sound wasn’t the reason he started and then stopped “Ohio.” That time he was teasing the audience for clapping out of time. This video I took begins as he chats with us about that, before starting the song from the beginning.
“Ohio” is one of my all-time favorite songs. (Now you know three of my all-time favorite songs. I’ve already mentioned “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” and “Hanging Around.”) But when Neil said, “I’m going to play my hit” (which got a big laugh, as if there were just one Neil Young hit!), he was referring to “After the Gold Rush.” I liked that he has updated the line, “Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s” to “Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 21st century.”
He described various guitars to us, including two given to him by former Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate Stephen Stills. Talking about one of them, he noted that Stills gave a guitar to each CSN&Y member. Interestingly, Neil’s bio in the Carnegie Hall program didn’t mention CSN&Y, except in the title of his 2008 documentary, CSNY/Déjà Vu.
Something is missing…
One of the Stephen Stills guitars had a patched-up bullet hole in it. The person who was shot at while playing it wasn’t Neil, luckily. Another of his guitars had been owned by Hank Williams. He bought that one himself. Towards the end of the show, he looked around at the guitars and exclaimed, “I didn’t even use this one. Or this one either!”
So many guitars, so little time.
At the end, he gave us all a round of applause …
Still has his harmonica on.
… and some of us dashed outside to take pictures by his famous tour bus.
Me and the Silver Eagle. It had a police escort.
Neil is playing at Carnegie Hall again tonight, Thursday and Friday. If you have an extra ticket and need a charming concert companion, I’m dying to see him a second time!
UPDATED TO ADD: Look at this great picture posted on Instagram by a guy named Brian Berkowitz: Neil walking into Carnegie Hall with his tour bus in the background.
UPDATED AGAIN TO ADD: I think this New York Times article makes Neil sound grumpier than he was. I thought he was calm and funny when putting people in their places, as they deserved. If he’d been really grouchy, he would have been describing the yelling guy in the front an “asshole,” the way MrB and I were. Now I have to go lie down and recover from “Ohio” being described as “an indignant old song.”
Ah, one of my favorites of all time – loved him since the nineteen-seventies (60’s actually). Thanks for sharing the clip.
I thought his voice sounded the same as always. Amazing!
Idiots at concerts drive me insane. Stop yelling. Stop clapping off-time. Stop texting and checking your phone.
Love Neil Young – sounds like a great concert!
I seriously don’t understand yelling out the names of songs. Yeah, there are songs I hope to hear, but it’s not like I’m going to see someone who has only done one good song ever! WTF.
That guy is awesome! I saw him in a smallish arena here in Vancouver in the mid-80s, Harvest tour. My favourite thrift shop often plays him, which probably doesn’t encourage frenzied shopping but keeps me coming back.
LOL — yeah, I can’t see a lot of Neil Young music encouraging a shopping spree!
I hate it when people clap along at concerts — they NEVER get the tempo right. Which means I’m usually the lone grump not clapping.
You and Neil are soulmates! Love it.
What a terrific “review”. I wish I had been there to see that concert!
During the concert, I was feeling like, “Yay! I’ve achieved one of my life’s goals — seeing Neil Young.” Then, on the way out, I realized my new life goal was to see Neil Young again. Sigh. I’m never satisfied!
Yowza–you look fan-tas-tique in your black ensemble against the silver bus. I adore Neil Young (as every good Canadian should) and am loving these concert images.
I was soooo excited to see the bus. We’d actually already been walking away from it, and I dragged MrB back to take a photo.
I’d love to see Neil Young. They were talking about this gig on the radio, over here. Personally, I find it really annoying when people talk all the way through a concert. Just listen to the music – or stay at home!
The women in back of me were so into him yet at the same time kept chatting to each other. Very annoying.