“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)”
Last week, Neil Young released The Monsanto Years, an agribusiness-themed concept album and a unique collaboration with Willie Nelson’s sons, Lukas and Micah, alongside Lukas’s bandmates in Promise of the Real. Now Yahoo Music is proud to premiere the accompanying The Monsanto Years film, which documents the recording of the album’s nine tracks at converted movie theater Teatro in Oxnard, Calif.
Young’s Rebel Content Tour with Promise of the Real kicked off Sunday, July 5. Each tour stop will not only include a solo acoustic set by Young plus a full electric set backed by POTR, but also “The Village of Action,” featuring information booths for local, national, and global activist groups — thus tying in to The Monsanto Years’ theme of sustainable farming, as well as other environmental and human rights issues important to Young and POTR.
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
Neil Young posted a simple message on his Facebook page:
“Love between two people is a human thing.”
His post follows a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement. The Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote on Friday, June 26 that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.
“No longer may this liberty be denied,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in the historic decision. “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.”
This is a far cry from when Young made this statement:
Neil Young blamed homosexuals for AIDS: In an interview with Melody Maker in 1985, Neil Young backed Reagan’s gun control policies and said of AIDS, “You go to a supermarket and you see a faggot behind the fuckin’ cash register, you don’t want him to handle your potatoes.” Needless to say, Young almost certainly regrets that horrific statement and quickly moved away from right-wing politics. He wrote the furious anti-George H.W. Bush screed “Rockin’ in the Free World” in 1989 and was one of George W. Bush’s most vocal critics in the 2000s.
When Donald Trump’s presidential campaign kicked off in front of a crowd of partially paid supporters to Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” (and while riding down on an escalator, no less), it did not go over well.
Young said in a statement that Trump was not authorized to use ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ in his presidential candidacy announcement.” The statement added that, “NeilYoung, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America.”
Trump’s camp claimed they paid both ASCAP and BMI for rights to the song, but would cease from using it out of respect to Young. The singer, meanwhile, out of respect to his own political beliefs, has turned around and given Trump’s opponent Sanders permission to use “Rockin’ in the Free World”.
Sanders, the Democratic candidate from Vermont, walked out to the track at a rally in Denver attended by an over-flow audience of 4,500 people. Folks were reportedly standing in the atrium and lacrosse fields outside the auditorium to hear Sanders speak; as far as we know, none of them were paid to be there.
Watch footage of Sanders’ “Rockin’ in the Free World”-aided entrance below (scroll to the 5:00 mark).
““One day, without no warning, Things start jumping up from the ground.”” by -- Neil Young
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 
