“MORRISON, CO – JULY 8: Neil Young and Promise of the Real perform at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado on July 8, 2015. (Photo by Seth McConnell/The Denver Post)”
Matt Miller at Hey Reverb starts his review of the Red Rocks Show in Morrison, Colorado this way:
“He used to say 1970s,” my dad leans over and tells me as Neil Young opens his set at Red Rocks on Wednesday. The song is “After The Goldrush.” Young is playing it on his own, lit by a single spotlight with dramatic shadows hanging from his hat as he’s singing, “Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 21st century.”
He writes that the fans lost interest from the long concert and the new, preachy songs toward the end from the new album, “The Monsanto Years.” Still, Miller said, there were some very special moments.
It took nearly half the set, but Young and his band finally got some space to stretch on Young’s “Words (Between the Lines of Age), Miller writes.
“Here with extended jams and those crunchy guitars, Young and this band seem to be grown from the same seed (pardon the farming pun). Though Young is twice their age, they all look and sound like a ’70s garage-rock jam band, wasting their nights in loud rooms, half-deaf from feedback and blaring one-note solos.
“Which is why the few Crazy Horse tracks that Young played on Wednesday made for some truly special moments. “Cowgirl in the Sand,” near the latter half of the set, was a squealing vintage rocker, with Young dueling solos with the Nelson brothers and dragging out psych-fueled grooves. You could hardly tell the difference between this version at Red Rocks and the ‘Live from the Fillmore East’ version that plays at Sancho’s Broken Arrow three times a day.”
He said the band stayed pretty loud and Young continued to rage? about environmentalism, but most of his fans up front seemed to lose their steam.
“A man with a tie-dyed shirt covered in a white Red Rocks-brand poncho, who had been smoking a joint on his own only an hour earlier, looked bored. The fans who had been singing 25-year-old track “Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)” during Young’s first few solo songs seemed to be longing for the car.
“But that’s Neil Young for you. Even if his fans are tired and fizzling out, he’ll keep fighting as he always has. That’s what he did on Wednesday. And as he neared the third hour and 30th song of his set, you couldn’t help but think that with this guy on her side, Mother Nature might just have a chance.
“So many iconic musicians his age are still dragging themselves on tour (or being dragged on tour) for nothing other than a money grab. Not Young. Young has something to say — he’s been saying it for decades — and he’s not going to quit now. He doesn’t care if you want to hear the classics. Not while Monsanto is still around.”
“MORRISON, CO – JULY 8: Neil Young and Promise of the Real perform at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado on July 8, 2015. (Photo by Seth McConnell/The Denver Post)”
Here’s the Milwaukee Journal’s review of Neil Young’s performance Sunday night, July 5 at the Marcus Amphitheater on the Summerfest grounds along Lake Michigan in Milwaukee. The tour is backed by Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real.
Written by music critic Piet Levy, with photos by Rick Wood, Piet said while the crowd may have been braced for a lecture, they did not receive one.
He writes:
“The first sight on stage may have confirmed some fears, as two people dressed as farmers tossed seeds onto the stage and watered sunflowers. But it was actually a ruse to distract the audience as Young sneaked behind a battered piano for “After the Gold Rush,” from the 1970 album of the same name. That, too, is a song with a message — ‘Look at mother nature on the run’ he sings — but the surreal words are captivating.
“So was the presence of the hunched-over rocker, dressed in black — including a wide-brimmed hat that concealed his face — as a lone spotlight beamed down from above him. It was a simple image, but powerful; the most striking visual I saw during all of Summerfest, or at any concert this year. It suggested Young wasn’t going to be a lecturer; he was going to be a showman.
“That he was, performing “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man” within the first few minutes on acoustic guitar. Watching him perform the latter with quiet anguish — his face visible for the first time Sunday as he lifted his head, veins snaking across the back of his wrinkled left hand as he strummed the guitar — took on greater resonance.
“After performing a mesmerizing “Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)” on organ, men in hazmat suits appeared, spraying the stage with “pesticide.” But again, the show wasn’t making a statement so much as preparing the stage for Real’s entrance (along with Lukas’ brother Micah).”
The only thing Neil said to the audience the first 75 minutes was, “How are ya?” And when Young did play two of “Monsanto”‘s preachiest tracks, “People Want to Hear About Love” and “A New Day for Love,” people just wanted to hear Young sing, no matter what it was he was singing about.
Print deadlines prevented a full review of Young’s set. The show ran about two hours and 45 minutes.
2015-07-05 Marcus Amphitheatre, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA Summerfest w/ Promise Of The Real
01. After The Gold Rush (solo) 02. Heart Of Gold (solo) 03. Long May You Run (solo) 04. Old Man (solo) 05. Mother Earth (solo) 06. Hold Back The Tears 07. Out On The Weekend 08. Unknown Legend 09. Peace Of Mind 10. Field Of Opportunity 11. Wolf Moon 12. Harvest Moon 13. Words 14. Flying On The Ground Is Wrong 15. Walk On 16. People Want To Hear About Love 17. A New Day For Love 18. Down By The River 19. Big Box 20. A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop 21. White Line 22. Workin’ Man 23. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere 24. Monsanto Years 25. If I Don’t Know 26. Love And Only Love — 27. Don’t Be Denied 28. Double E
Tour: 2015 Rebel Content Tour Band: Promise Of The Real
Review of first Chicago show. Neil plays again tonight, Tuesday April 22. More reviews from Human Highway roving reporter to come.
Chicago Tribune review of the Monday, April 21 Neil Young solo acoustic show starts:
“His eyes shaded by a black fedora, Neil Young strapped on a guitar that once belonged to Hank Williams Sr. and leaned in, as if ready to whisper in someone’s ear.
‘Come a little bit closer, hear what I have to say,’ he sang near the end of his sold-out concert Monday at the Chicago Theatre.”
Neil Young 2014-04-21 Chicago Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Solo
01. From Hank To Hendrix
02. On The Way Home
03. Only Love Can Break Your Heart
04. Love In Mind
05. Mellow My Mind
06. Reason to Believe
07. Someday
08. Changes
09. Harvest
10. Old Man —
the second set opened with some sort of spoken “Hippy Beatnik” poem by Neil
11. Pocahontas
12. Cortez The Killer
13. A Man Needs A Maid
14. Ohio
15. Southern Man
16. Mr. Soul
17. Harvest Moon
18. If You Could Read My Mind
19. After The Gold Rush
20. Heart Of Gold
—
21. Thrasher
Tour: 2014 Solo Tour
Band: Solo
Neil Young – vocals, acoustic guitar, 12 string acoustic guitar, piano, pump organ, harmonica
WOW. Thrasher’s Wheat had the honor of publishing the best Neil Young concert review ever by Bucks Burnett, who attended the April, 18, 2014 solo acoustic show at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas.
To read journalism like this is to be in the presence of greatness. WOW again.
Sit back and enjoy the read of your life.
It’s titled: “Why I’m Not Here Anymore.”
“Last night was not a concert. It was a congregation being blessed by snake oil from a traveling salesman. But this guy carries the real stuff because we are healed from our earthly concerns. This was a very rare example of paying $200 for a four million dollar show. He took us away and we are not coming back. I do not want to hear music today or talk to people today. Or be seen. I want to be alone with this vibration in my soul.”
Neil Young played a two-set solo acoustic show in Dallas April 17, 2014 and towards the middle of the second set Young was telling the story behind his Martin D-28 guitar when an audience member cut him off by repeatedly yelling “Play it!”
“I don’t think I’m going to play it,” Neil said. “I’m trying to remember the last time I did what somebody told me to do.” Neil continued to get into it with the fans, exclaiming “what is this, a job?” and “How about you talk, and I’ll listen?” He then offered a biting take on “Harvest Moon” after which he noted, “Funny — that song is not supposed to be angry, You get what you demand.”
“Oh, absolutely. I read a review of my record and someone said, \"She sounds like Lucinda Williams fronting Crazy Horse.\" I thought, wow, I never really thought that Neil Young was a big influence, but I guess in some way he\'s a subconscious one. It\'s a huge compliment. Not only is he a great musician and artist, but I have a lot of respect for the way he leads his life and takes a stand on things that are personally important to him. ” by Kathleen Edwards on comparisons of her to Neil, Calgary Herald, Aug \\\'03.
Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.
memphish on 
Albert Stromann on 
liza on 
Baz on 
