After all the effort to get the banner in, I never held it up. Since we were standing, there wasn't much room to hold it up. Also, it would have blocked a lot of people's view and the only song with enough light on the audience was RITFW and I was too into the song. I hope I am still a worthy Rustie...

Since there was a real traffic jam to get out, we decided to look around for Neil's bus. We ended up waiting around for an hour. We found a big sliding door where one bus came out, and expected Neil's to come out too. But it never did. So we gave up and headed back to the motel. If the bus had come I had the banner ready to wave. (I had it wrapped around me to keep me warm. I hope it doesn't stink too much now. :) But I was not given the chance.

On the way back home to Winnipeg (about half way), we came upon a rest stop with a bus parked. It had what looked like two tops of cars welded to the top, used as skylights. It had ZUMA on a Florida License plate. It was gray, but did not say Buffalo Springfield on the back. I'm sure it was part of his group, but was it his? We turned around and drove right beside it. We didn't want to disturb them, so we left almost right away. Who would want to be the one to have the memory of waking up Neil and getting blasted for it?

I think the upcoming Winnipeg show will be a very special performance and I feel great to be able to attend it.

Thanks for reading to the end!

Kurt Braun

Kurt has already done an excellent review of this show, so I'll only add a few of my impressions. First off, how far is Regina from Winnipeg? It's four tapes from the Rock and Roll Cowboy and a bit. We got to the Agridome early and scouted it out. We realized our seats sucked and decided to try and stand, which turned out to be a good descision.

Pete Droge and the Sinners were good, but a bit overbearing for the unitiated. They played at a constant full volume (three electric guitars and an acoustic) and produced an impressive wall of sound with some distortion thrown in. I don't know their material and couldn't get a real feel for it in this setting, but will check them out.

I enjoyed Moist. A couple of years ago their first CD was a mainstay on Canadian 'alternative' radio stations and on MuchMusic. They played at least 4 songs that I recognized from this CD. The security was very laid back and they allowed people to come out of their seats and stand at the front of the stage -- which the band really seemed to enjoy. It eventually had consequences though, as you'll see below.

Neil and the Horse were ON!! By the end of the second song, Kurt and I both decided that it was a stronger performance than we had seen in Minneapolis in Sept. The intensity was totally enveloping. It may be that the sound level had something to do with this. It was a much smaller venue and we were more directly in line with one bank of speakers. There were also some extra speakers placed at ground level on the sides of the stage that I didn't notice in Minneapolis. Whatever the reason, the sound was a few decibels up and totally entrancing.

It was easy to 'slip away' into every song. They were definately in a zone, for at least the first hour. But the failed attempt at Music Arcade really seemed to disrupt Neil. He strummed a few bars of MA and then just threw his arms up in the air and walked over to talk to Larry. Arms up into the air again, off comes the guitar. Comes to the mike and says something to the effect of:
"Sorry, we're having some trouble... only have one guitar..."
Arms back up in air again, a good long stare to where Larry is.
"We're having a station break. Don't you hate when you're at a hockey game and they just stop?"
Plays air guitar at the mike, walks around a bit. Poncho comes back on stage and they huddle for a bit. Stares at Larry!
"Sorry we can't do that one for you, we'll do some more of the other kind."
'Old Black' goes back on and they do Slip Away and RITFW to end the main part of the show. These were great, but it seemed as if the spell had been broken.

Really fun to hear This Town to start the encore, and if I remember right he inserted "pissin' around" into this song 3 or 4 times.

The moshers were having fun all night and the band seemed to enjoy them. Poncho even came over a couple of times and bent way down trying to read a sign that was being held up. However during Sedan Delivery when several of the surfers got beached onto the stage, it had an effect. The band huddled closer together and tried to ignore it as the road crew dragged the kids offstage.

After this song, Neil went towards Poncho and Billy and seemed to yell something and the synthesizer was quickly wheeled out for the Hurricane of a finale.

All in all, another great show, a great trip. Can't wait for tonight!!! Both Winnipeg papers have run full page spreads reviewing Neil's past history with this city. By the way, is this a first? -- the Rustfest that Kenny has arranged for in Winnipeg this afternoon was announced in a prominent insert in one of the papers, along with details about HyperRust, etc.

On with the show!!!

Steve.

Hello All,

Just got back from seeing Neil and The Horse in Calgary and Regina. Neil in Calgary was great, in Pocahontas he added a line about Ian Tyson that got alot of cheers. They really peaked with LAH.

Regina was even better, the same setlist except take out Music Arcade and add Rockin' In The Free World and This Town. Security in Regina tried to keep the crowd back, but after Powderfinger they broke through, and there was a big mass pressed against the stage. Much higher energy this night.

Fuckin' Up had a long jam that left the crowd up front swaying and Neil and the Horse smiling. Ralph was flipping people but had one guy give him a peace sign which he returned. Big sing-along with Needle and Helpless. When Neil was about to start his second acoustic set the guitar wasn't working so he said something like "Don't you hate when you're watching hockey and there is a comercial break!" and soon after he said something like "We will do a couple of the other kind" and then brought the Horse out and they did Scattered.

Rockin' in the Free World was awesome (much moshing and body surfing) and everyone was really into it. The encore ended with LAH which was an awesome wall of sound. At one point, as the Horse came out of the noise and back into the chorus they had to wait a step before Neil started to sing (much grinning).

Overall both concerts where awesome but Regina was higher energy. Neil and Horse had hotter jams going and seemed to be feeding off the crowd better.

Very Cool.

And many thanks to Sheila for organizing the Rust Row thing (I had great seats 6th and 4th rows). Also thanks to Sonja at MCA for being so easy to deal with.

Everyone I went with were so blown away -- it doesn't get any better then this.

Dan.

Well I just wanted to write a review for the concert held in Regina last Night. It was the first Neil concert I have ever seen and was quite amazing. I got up to front row and was blown away by how good he sounded.

The only dissappointment of the evening was when Neil did not like the sound of his acoustic guitar and had to abandon Music Arcade. It would have been great to sing some more acoustic tunes but in no way was I dissappointed. The emotion that he showed in Rockin in the Free World and Like A Hurricane were unbelievable.

I got some pictures of the concert and if any turn out I will post them on my homepage which is www.geocities.com/yosemite/4287. If you have any questions about the pictures and how hey turned out you can contact me at bayner@meena.cc.uregina.ca.

Ryan Bayne

PS: Does anyone know if the organ that was on-stage is used for any songs? Neil did not use it last night but I thought he may have had it for a song he decided not to play. just wondering?

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