Jump down to...
Mike Expecting To Fly Cordova's early report
RE*AC*TOR's odds & ends
Patrick Kinney's review
(more reviews coming)

Also See:
The show details.
A Miami Herald review.
A Palm Beach Post review.
A Stuart News review.
A Sun Sentinel review.

Greendale     [~2 hour set]
1. Falling From Above
2. Double E
3. Devil's Sidewalk
4. Leave The Driving
5. Carmichael
6. Bandit   [solo acoustic guitar]
7. Grandpa's Interview
8. Bringin' Down Dinner   [pump organ]
9. Sun Green
10. Be The Rain
    First Encore
11. Like A Hurricane
12. Hey Hey My My
    Second Encore
13. Powderfinger

Incredible! Fantastic! The best concert experience for me in decades.

I cannot describe adequately with words how absolutely entertaining Neil and Crazy Horse and all the "crazy actors" and the set and the sound were this evening.

I have enjoyed listening to several of the Euro acoustic shows. The Horse versions literally blow those versions completely away. The songs were made for the Horse and as good as they were acoustically, the electric versions were so much more satisfying. I would describe the style much like the Zuma sound; nothing like that little snippet on NeilYoung.com.

The actors, stage and set were very good. Crazy Horse provided good support. Neil Young is simply on top of his game.

The three songs performed after the Greendale set were done professionally and the band seemed to be into it, but I must say, listening to those old tunes after Greendale was sort of a letdown.

I'm so up right now. This concert was so great. I'd give more of a descriptions of the concert and the fine RustFest, but now I gotta get some rest...

Mike

Damn! Electric staged Greendale actually worked great! Hard to believe there were any doubts...

Show was a full 2 1/2 hours, despite the low "song count". Extended jams within Carmichael and Grandpa's Interview and other long Greendale songs took the show past the two hour point, and the encores took it right up to the venue curfew.

All songs were electric except Bandit, which was solo accoustic guitar, and Bringin' Down Dinner on pump organ (with bass & drum accompaniment).

All of the Greendale songs (other than Bandit, which was done solo) sounded totally natural with the Horse. Come to think of it, Greendale will probably be Neil's only album where he's publicly performed virtually every song both electric and solo accoustic (in Europe). The bluesy nature of many of the songs really stands out in the electric version.

Give Larry Cragg an Oscar for his role as Grandpa!

The extended Carmichael is done similar in style to Change Your Mind. Has extended guitar jams with occasional stops for a verse. Grandpa's Interview is done similarly. On the later, Neil obviously got a bit carried away during his jams, causing him to arrive a little late at a couple of the action cues:

• When Edith (Pegi Young) was taking Grandpa his coffee, she started to walk up to him and realized Neil wasn't going to sing that line yet. So she kinda wandered around a bit, look at the art on the "wall" (on the big screen backdrop for the scene), and when Neil was ready, she walked back over to Larry/Grandpa and did the "Grandpa, here's your coffee..." mime.

• Later in the same song Sun marches across the stage and up to the jail set-up where Jed has been sitting. She's ready to do the "Jed, you really screwed up..." line, when she realizes Neil's still jamming. She, too fiddles about until Neil steps back up to the mic.

Regarding the stage, here's how it was set up:

• The Horse is just stage-right of center with Neil's fancy new super mic/harp/megaphone stand about stage center.

• Stage left is the front of the house on the Double-E Rancho, where Grandpa & Jed start out "sitin' on the porch" (Falling From Above). It's used regularly for other scenes, of course. The "house" sits a couple of feet higher than the stage, to make the porch really a porch.

• Stage Right is a Jail set-up, basically just a few benches and a few bars to suggest a jail cell. It too is a couple of feet above the stage level.

• The key to the show is a dynamic stage BEHIND the Horse at stage center, just higher than Ralph's head. It's about half of the width of the stage (the Jail & Double-E house framing it on each side). It's got a hydraulic lift under it, to allow various scenes to rise up and drop down as needed. Behind that stage is a big video screen to give the backdrops for the scenes on that stage. And when nothing in particular is happening up there, the screen is used for story augmentation (pictures, mood art, video clips, etc).

• The actors rove all over the stage. Sun green walks right through the Horse from the Double E to the Jail. A "paper boy" (actually girl) walks through the band, throws a copy out into the audience, then tosses one onto the Double E porch. The Devil dances through from time to time. Just like Broadway... :-)

• The big screen also sometimes highlights action going on on the stage. When Larry/Grandpa has his heart attack and falls on the porch, you can't really see him behind the porch railing, but a camera puts Larry up there on the big screen doing Grandpa's "That guy just keeps singin'..." lines.

Regarding the "short set list", this WAS a 2 1/2 hour show, which is longer than the "Year Of The Horse" shows I saw in '96, and much longer than the HORDE sets in '97. I didn't feel cheated at all. But I'm sure that some of the folks there just to hear the hits will claim to be.

I think that those who understood the "story" nature of this show had a lot of fun. Those who thought it was just a bunch of crazy song and dance keeping them from hearing "the hits", and couldn't (or didn't want to) focus on the story being told or the messages contained there-in, certainly would have trouble understanding why it was played the way it was.

But anybody who has paid any attention at all to Neil's overall career knows that he needs to keep moving, creating, challenging his fans to keep up. Those ready to accept the challenge have been thrilled with what he's doing during this year's shows. It's a real trip to be there for this.

. . . RE*AC*TOR

We went to the gig in West Palm last night not knowing what to expect. We knew nothing of the forthcoming DVD "Greendale", but it didn't matter.

Lucinda Williams kicked off the night and did a superb set considering most of the audience were there for Neil Young; she kept saying how excited she was to be at the gig herself. She said, "It's Neil Young and Crazy Horse!" She must have said that five times within her 50 minute set. I liked her stuff enough to buy her latest CD today.

Neil came on, a bit late (after a 45 revamp of the stage). It looked like one of the production managers was on the phone constantly asking where the band was? Neil admitted shortly after to being nervous, but it didn't show.

The band just took off the minute they struck up the chords. Neil warned the audience that there was going to be a lot of new stuff and then some familiar stuff. It didn't matter that the songs were new. It didn't matter that there was a technical snafu with a mic. The whole set was as passionate and evocative as one could hope for.

He came back for two encores and gave the audience the suitable Like A Hurricane (in the present hurricane season here in South Florida). He kept saying he likes it here.

If the show is coming to your town - treat yourself - not many artists gigging as long as Neil has, sound as new, passionate & overwhelming.

Thank You Neil & Crazy Horse....

(more reviews coming...)