Concert Date: Friday, 13th June 2003.
Review Date: Monday, 4th August 2003.
Review Date: Monday, 4th August 2003.
It must have seemed crazy to my friends, family and work colleagues that I was travelling all the way to a music festival in the deepest depths of Tennessee just to see some of my favourite acts, including The (Grateful) Dead, Widespread Panic, Keller Williams and Neil Young.
This was my first show seeing Neil Crazy Horse. I recently caught Neil earlier in the year on his solo acoustic tour at the Carling Apollo in London, where he introduced the Greendale story to the masses.
From what I've read about some of the shows of this tour through the Rustlist and Hyperrust, I expected some theatrics, dancing women, Larry Cragg acting, and Neil shouting at the top of his voice through his megaphone.
The day had gone well. I had watched seen some amazing acts, including Ben Kweller and Lucinda Williams. Late in the day, I grabbed a decent spot right of centre in the crowd ready for Neil and the Horse. In a husky gaze, the Kid Koala finished his set appropriately with Moon River, scratching masterfully underneath the domineering presence of a full moon. Thanking the audience, The Kid leaves the side DJ Box - now down to the business.
Noticing the megaphone and Greendale props, I prepared myself for electrified versions of songs that I heard only a month before. The crowd were getting restless; Neil and the horse were late. It was as if the old dog and his cronies were teasing us...
After ten minutes that felt like an eternity, the stage dims to an almost murky setting, and Neil and the Horse come on. Larry straps Old Black onto Neil, something’s different, something doesn't feel quite right.
Neil starts playing the opening cords of the show – ‘Love To Burn’! I was in ecstatics! It seemed as if the ‘Greendale’ set list had been thrown out the window, could it be three hours of Neil Young Golden Oldies?!?
Jamming was the name of the game tonight, with Neil and the boys stretching ‘Love To Burn’ to it's maximum. With ‘Love To Burn’ coming to a close, the boys gather round and decide where to go next with their set. They didn't need to discuss long - Neil and The Horse promptly ripped into ‘Sedan Delivery’! A hit or miss between fans, I absolutely love this song, and so seemed the crowd!
When the insaneness of ‘Sedan Delivery’ died down, a few seconds of clarity filled the air, and then the sharp twang of Old Black ruptured through the heat of the Tennessean air – ‘Powderfinger’! The hippy crowd erupted! This was too much for me! This was like a dream set list. Singing at the top of my voice with my heart on my sleeve, if I died right now, I would die happy.
After ‘Powderfinger’, ‘Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)’ erupts, broadcasting the story of Johnny Rotten to the masses. Next, the first slow-burner of the night is played, ‘Cortez The Killer’. This rock opus came at the right time for many of us in the crowd (and probably Neil and The Horse too) as the first hour of the show was a high octane drag-strip of a gig that never gave us time to catch our breath.
When Cortez finished, it was back into fifth gear again with an amazing (how many times have I used that word?) version of ‘Fuckin' Up’. I'm sure that I wasn't going to have much of a singing voice for Widespread Panic tomorrow night.
After ‘Fuckin' Up’, we see the "dove from above" organ being slowly hoisted down towards the stage, ready for ‘Like A Hurricane’. Neil mumbles something about how old was the dove was, and how bad it looks because it had been knocked about too many times, and something else about Stonehenge. After this little tête-à-tête, it was time to enter the eye of the storm. The start of ‘Like A Hurricane’ is usually long, but this time it was REALLY long. When it finally gets underway, it was a delight to see, probably Neil's greatest song.
So then, Neil's set comes to an end. With waves of hippies shouting for more, Neil and Co. reappear for their encore. This time they bought out friends; a woman with a microphone (Sun Green) and four or five backup singers. Neil ripped into ‘Be The Rain’, one of the new Greendale songs. It was strange hearing the electrified version of this song not so long after hearing it for the first time in London the month before. I definitely liked the Horse version; much more bite.
With Sun dancing around miming into her microphone, it was quite strange seeing a mini-stage show after such a rock tour de force. Hopefully this song will make it into the set list of Crazy Horse shows for a long time to come.
With the closing notes of ‘Be The Rain’, it was up in the air how long Neil and the Horse would play for. In my head I could see Neil maybe playing one more song to cap the gig off. How wrong would I be. Roaring into ‘Cinnamon Girl’, everybody was jumping up and down. Soon as ’Cinnamon Girl’ finishes the boys smash into ‘Rockin' In The Free World’! With a tear in my eye, and a massive grin on my face, I knew I was going to remember this show for the rest of my life.
Capping the show off with the slow burner, ‘Roll Another Number’ and then coming back with an electric Cowgirl In The Sand for the second encore, walking away from the area after the show, I knew I had witnessed something special. It was great that Neil had decided for the festival type show, greatest hits set would go down best with the crowd, and it definitely did. Neil Young finished the first day of Bonnaroo for me at a definite high, and it would last throughout the weekend until the final notes of the Dead's set.
