Review: Baltimore, Randy’s perspective

Couldn’t sell my ticket so I went. Even outside the venue I would’ve sold it but it was like a ghost town outside, just one lone scalper and I don’t sell to them!

No difference in the set list. I did enjoy this show a bit more than last year but that was because I decided not to sit in my seat 2nd row center in the upper balcony.

Instead I went to the aisle at the top of the upper balcony where I could stand and dance and not block anyone’s view. The sitting vs. standing aspect is ALWAYS a problem at these shows for me. So the freedom to move around made me much happier (unlike last year when I had the 2nd row from the back which was the worst of all worlds since I couldn’t stand up and yet we were high up in the nosebleeds).

Some observations–while the “old” songs were well played, they were played too softly and with little passion. He barely was touching the keys on the piano.

I know some will admire this—I personally did not.

The solo approach was interesting, but I think a lot of the songs are better served played with a band. And I wonder why he chose to play DBTR electric instead of acoustic since solo I think the songs sounds better acoustic.

I found it amusing that when Neil started to play Love And War the crowd starting applauding since the opening riff sounds a lot like Hey Hey, My My. So the crowd was clapping in anticipation that Neil would play a song he had just played opening the show. I found that pretty funny!

As Sign of Love ended and Leia started I went to the bathroom to exercise my bowel (old HH’ers will know what I mean here) in preparation for the After the Gold Rush to follow. Unfortunately they were piping the music into the bathroom so I could not entirely escape that tedious song !

Was out the door halfway through the encore to effect a quick escape. On the way out I saw Ben by the t-shirt stand. I had seen him earlier with his attendant–but no sign of Pegi?

So sad that almost a year after the show I saw in D.C., not a single song was different or out of order from that show. Pretty lazy in my opinion! (and no I am not  surprised).

The crowd was mostly very quiet and polite though at one point one member of the audience loudly expressed his opinion that Neil was better than Dylan (which was not embraced by most of the rest of the audience).

Hope the Buffalo Springfield tour does not turn into a circus of small venues, with scarce and high priced tickets! Would I prefer to see them in a small place–of course–but not if it means $200 tickets.

Randy

Posted in Concert Reviews | 1 Comment »