I was supposed to see Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts in England this past June as part of his canceled European tour (thankfully I managed to recoup my money on this latest aborted Young tour as I was in Chicago when the Crazy Horse tour was canceled as I was walking out of my hotel room to attend). We may have seen the last of Neil Young tours proper, so I picked up a good seat for Farm Aid in Virginia Beach when it was announced that he would perform. I do check in with the NYA Archives website and Neil announced he would do a couple of warm up dates with Willie Nelson in anticipation for Farm Aid. I expected that Neil would defer to Willie as the headliner, but as the stage was being set up, after a fine opening set by Ty Meyers, my plan to bail after Neil’s set and head back to New York, and work in the morning, went WTF and out the window.
Willie Nelson hit the stage about 8 PM and I was in for the long haul. I had never gotten through an entire Willie set as he generally, for me, comes on after a long Farm Aid or Outlaw Festival, but I was pleasantly surprised and entertained by Willie, and particularly Micah Nelson, who did double duty with the Chrome Hearts. Neil came out to play “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?” with Willie, which was great.
The Neil Young toad crew scrambled to put Neil’s work space together for a 9:30 start. Neil and band opened with “Long May You Run” and ran through a mostly “greatest hits” set that included “ Old Man”, “Heart of Gold”, “Harvest Moon”, and “After the Gold Rush” with a couple of new tunes sprinkled in. Neil was in excellent voice, and seemingly in a good mood, when inexplicably 45 minutes into the performance the band was saying good night and making their way back stage for encores. It was about 10:15 and it felt odd but I figured on a half acoustic/half electric show taking us to 11 PM. An acoustic “ Living With War” and finally a scorching “Rockin’ in the Free World”with Neil shredding Ol’ Black’s guitar strings and they were one hour and done. Can a show be good yet disappointing? I sat too long in the annoying multi-level parking garage trying to figure out how I felt when I finally exited and headed south on I95 at a greater clip than the bumper to bumper trying to get there earlier. I am meeting my buddy Eric from Pittsburgh in Philadelphia Thursday and then on to Farm Aid Saturday however I am oddly not pumped up as I would normally be for upcoming Neil Young dates. The show was very good, and appreciated at this point in his career, but I am hoping he changes up the set list in Philly and maybe plays a little longer, for those of us taking this road trip with him.
Old Ways
Rock on!
GQ