Venue:
Budweiser Stage, Toronto
Date: 20/05/2024
Holy f***ing sh*t!
78 yr old Neil Young returns to the city of his birth, with him 80 yr old Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot who is the same age. They have been playing with him off and on since 1968. Micah Nelson (son of Willy), brings the average down, him being the current incumbent on rhythm guitar which has been the only rotating element in the last 56 years.
The show was at a large semi open amphitheatre right on Lake Ontario. Fortunately we had secured pit tickets and was pretty amazing to witness what unfolded from a distance of about 10 feet.
After a stifling hot day at the end of the Victoria Day long weekend, the show was delayed as an unexpected severe thunderstorm passed by. Fortunately just missing us in the end. Theme of the “Love Earth” tour is climate change and the weather served as an appropriate metaphor for the show.
After a quite bizarre preacher and choir ensemble opened the show, Neil and the Horse shambled on and settled gently into their rhythm with Cortez the Killer. I won’t go through the setlist track by track and will post it in the comments. Suffice to say that if I was to select my dream set, it would be very close to what they played.
The elephant in the room is of course the advanced ages of Neil and the band. He sang pretty well, there were some bum notes and possibly the worst harmonica solo ever played. Mattered not a jot, and Neil and the Horse have never been known for on stage perfection. Neil has a paunch, but moved well on stage especially when getting deep into one of his many solos playing beautifully off Talbot and Nelson. Talbot did look pretty frail it has to be said but seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself on stage.
Around about the time of “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” I was beginning to think this is the best concert I have ever seen. Hard to be sure about that over maybe 1,000 concerts but it was right up there. Too many other highlights to mention, but my mind was repeatedly blown by the likes of Like A Hurricane, Powderfinger and, almost at the end, the autobiographical Don’t Be Denied “It’s good to be back in Canada!” I don’t know how long Love and Only Love lasted, an hour or two maybe, but it was still too short.
“Rock n Roll Will Never Die”, I think it probably will, but it struck me that what was once a young person’s game is now for the oldies. Literally raging against the dying light. They will be gone soon, but their music will live on, at least for a while.
An awesome, unforgettable night, just look at that setlist!
The audience:
Younger than I expected 30 somethings to 60 somethings (me)
It made me think..
I want to see them again
Cortez the Killer
Cinnamon Girl
Fuckin’ Up
Scattered (Let’s Think About Livin’)
Like a Hurricane
Vampire Blues
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
The Losing End (When You’re On)
Down by the River
Powderfinger
Love and Only Love
[Neil Young Solo Acoustic]
Comes a Time
Heart of Gold
Human Highway
Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
Don’t Be Denied
Roll Another Number (For the Road)
Wow. That’s some set. Wish I was there. Sure he would have
mixed it up the next night and been equally magnificent.
Just singled up for NYA in the hope of getting pre-sale tickets for any
Euro dates he and the Horse might do in the near future.
Got to see these guys at least one more time before the house lights
go up and we shuffle slowly towards the exits*.
* very probably the fire exit in my case
The NYA subscription helped me get these amazing tickets. They weren’t cheap but the pit was tiny and the people sitting directly behind us had paid a lot more. Fortunately I will get another chance to see them in July in Ottawa (at a festival)
@dai
Not too many more chances for us to see NY and CH (or for them to see us) so well done you for grabbing those chances and making those memories before they became regrets
He took about 3 years off from touring during Covid, I thought he might be done completely. He still has worries about it I believe so only plays open air shows. So if they were to make it to Europe it would likely be on the summer festival circuit I think as there aren’t many of these type of venues there
That’s what I was thinking.
Even if he doesn’t come this way, the basic US$23 basic annual NYA membership is a bargain: Even more so when you consider the alacrity with which he releases albums these days
Watched this last week with conflicting opinions: utterly magnificent or somehow sad ( old men who should be home in bed). Decided utterly magnificent would do …
That’s six hours of my life I’ll never get back
They sound pretty much exactly as they did 33 years ago on Weld (or Arc-Weld, if you were one of the few to brave it) and I thought they were old men then.
Neil and his pesky pals just keep sneaking in and moving those darned goalposts, Chiz!
Brilliant review. Sounds magical.
Yes, magical. Thank you
Wish I was there that’s for sure.
Only saw them live once and they were great but didn’t have a setlist anywhere near as good as this one.
Seen once, circa 1990. It was good but he didn’t play Cortez, which was a shame. The 20 minute Like a Hurricane, with Poncho’s keyboard descending from heaven, nearly made up for it.
These shows look ace.
How can you tell, tho, if he botched a note, his whole style based on hitting “wrong” notes. Like playing guitar in boxing gloves, as someone memorably put it.
Seen him five times (six if you count all the solo songs he did with CSNY at Wembley 74).
Pick of the bunch would have to be the Tues/Weds night during his March 1976 run at Hammersmith Odeon when I was something like three rows from the stage.
Amazing to contrast how easy and cheap it was to get tickets back then compared to now
When I saw them on this tour with the keyboard descending from heaven on chains, it got stuck on its descent and hung about for what seemed like hours.
A true Spinal Tap moment.
I remember seeing Richard Thompson once and he busked a bit of a CSNY tune during some banter and said something like ‘here’s Neil Young (over a bit of solo) – “I can’t really play but I’ll give it a go”…’ – all affectionate of course, but everyone knew what he meant. 🙂
Spirit of rock, right there. Magnificent.
A heckler: “They all sound the same!”
Neil Young: “It’s all one song!”
(1996)
Yeah, I’ve been following the exhaustive reviews and reports of the NY & CH tour over on the Steve Hoffman Forum., and it’s great to read dai’s take on it, too.
The setlists look simply amazing. They couldn’t have been better if Neil had … erm … called me up and asked me to compile one myself.
I listening to a lot of Neil Young up until about 1994. Then for no apparent reason I took a 27-year hiatus, before buying “Way Down in the Rust Bucket”, which just about blew my mind. Since then, I’ve been a loyal NY listener again.
I’ve only seen the great man once. Kaisfatdad and I saw Neil in the grounds of Sjöhistoriska Museet in Stockholm in late June 1993. He wasn’t playing with the Horse, though; he had that band with Steve Cropper in it.
Although getting tickets would be a nightmare, I’d love to see Neil again – although apparently he’s not keen on taking long-haul flights for environmental reasons. So … who knows if or when the great man will be on European soil again….
“They couldn’t have been better if Neil had … erm … called me up and asked me to compile one myself”
He didn’t…did he??
I saw Neil Young & Crazy Horse at the Fleadh in 2001. Slightly damp weather but the crowd gave an enormous cheer for the 6th line of the second verse of ‘After the Goldrush’ . It was around the time of Harvest Moon, so not the best set list for the Horse, but still a good gig.
I was there, the only time I have seen him. It absolutely pissed it down for most of the day but was drier (if very muddy underfoot) by the time Neil came on.
I was sheltering in a tent earlier, watching Danny Thompson and John Martyn – that was probably even better than Neil, if I am honest.
Were they drinking and fighting or playing and singing?
Yes.
christ, that sounds brilliant
2016 with Promise Of The Real. Fantastic show.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/neil-young-promise-of-the-real/2016/dalhalla-rattvik-sweden-33fffc15.html
Here’s the Dublin show I saw from that tour
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/neil-young-promise-of-the-real/2016/3arena-dublin-ireland-13fe2d79.html
He played an astonishing 102 songs on that tour
This was the venue: https://www.dalhalla.se/om-dalhalla/
The acts booked this year are not in the same league.
Just a note about the (horrible) venue name. Neil would not allow any Budweiser products to be sold inside the venue “Ain’t singing for Bud”, also all food had to be organically sourced.
Some say the venue is appropriately named being right at the lake, so it is “fucking close to water”
“More barn!”
I thought the recent Fu##in’ Up release was a bit of a mixed bag. Neil and the Horse’s playing was great, if a bit ponderous at times in comparison with Ragged Glory and Rust Bucket, but his voice often sounds shot to pieces and the whole thing left me with the feeling that this was a pointless release that would have been better left in the vaults.
@Boneshaker
Having only heard it once on NYA, I concur.
It is, however, vastly better than his and POTR’s 2019 tour live souvenir,
Flowers and Noise which sounds like it was recorded in a Portaloo a
20 minute walk from the stage
Don’t encourage him @Jaygee. A Letter Home was made in a phone booth, so it’s only a matter of time till Harvest is reimagined in a toilet.
It exceeded my expectations. Generally great. Neil’s voice does sound a bit rough in places, I thought it was better at the show.
After this show they played one in the Detroit area, now last 3 gigs of this leg postponed because of “illness”. Hmmm.
Probably feeling a little hoarse
I am really hoping it’s nothing serious
Agreed. All of those guys are around 80. It ‘s amazing they want to go on tour at all
And now Bruce has postpone/cancel three ESB shows due to Laryngitis.
Given that it takes longer and longer to recover the older you get, it’s likely that both Neil and Bruce will be forced to cry off even more shows.
With major venues booked out far in advance, it’s going to be interesting to see how many of those shows can be re-arranged.
The moral of the story is see the musical big beasts of our youth, middle and early old age when and while you can.