Following my escapades on Monday night involving an amazing Neil Young concert, here\u2019s some sort of write up\/review thingummy. <\/p>\n
The Edinburgh Playhouse is a pretty good venue for music if it\u2019s the kind where you\u2019re sitting down and well not moshing or dancing in an extreme fashion etc. Unlike many other venues in Scotland it is actually designed for shows\/music and is not a sports stadium, so as a result the sound is noticeably better. The only disadvantage I suppose in a seated gig is the hassle of getting good seats \u2013 you really have to be incredibly early when getting the tickets, and even then you\u2019re never going to get front row unless you eBay it \u2013 and spend many hundreds in the process! Luckily (or should I say skilfully) however, we managed to get fairly awesome seats. Though it looked from the seating plan that we were the front row of the second block of seats, we were actually the second row, but that was still pretty incredible. We had seats on the far left, so we had a reasonably amazing view of the stage, it was so close too (within 15-20m)!<\/p>\n
From readings and ramblings about the gig before I had worked out that it was his wife, Pegi, supporting, then he would come on for an acoustic set and finally Crazy Horse (naturally not the complete original one, but a very good line up nonetheless) would join him and rock the evening away so to speak. Pegi Young\u2019s music was largely pretty enjoyable \u2013 fairly country, actually on second thoughts it pretty much was solid country music, but it was good and her backing band\/musicians were great. At around 815 or thereabouts, Neil Young entered the stage to roaring applause! I didn\u2019t realise that he was such a tall person in real life \u2013 at first actually I didn\u2019t recognise him, but the classic hair gave it away! There was a nice circle of acoustic guitars set up on stage with a seat in the middle and a table with a fairly vast collection of harmonicas. Also worth noting was the huge (I mean huge) amount of stage clutter. This stage looked like the prop room for some theatre, with an easel set up, a huge turbine fan and endless amounts of other stuff\u2026 (And I thought The Arcade Fire\u2019s stage looked cluttered!). He started with From Hank To Hendrix<\/em>, from Harvest Moon<\/em> \u2013 which was played amazingly and was one of the songs that I really expected to hear after listening to various other gigs that he had done since Harvest Moon<\/em>. While he looked slightly older than his glory days (not that they\u2019re really over \u2013 he\u2019s incredible still) he sounded amazing. He still has his same high voice, in that whiny style, which when you hear it, you know for certain is Neil Young. Of all of Neil Young\u2019s albums, I think I prefer the earlier ones, from the late 60s and early 70s. Of them I might have to say that On The Beach<\/em> is a particular classic! Even more importantly, the song Ambulance Blues<\/em> is phenomenal \u2013 providing a full 9 minutes of folky\/chilled out acoustic Neil Young bliss! That said, I really didn\u2019t expect him to play this live. It just seemed like one of those songs that weren\u2019t too popular on the album and well it would be too long to play live, especially if not that many people knew it. Then again, this was Neil Young \u2013 who played a concert where he told the audience that he would play through some of his new material and then play some stuff that they had heard before. He proceeded, in this case by playing the new material, and then playing the new material again! Not exactly a conventionalist at times! So really I suppose there was a possibility that he would play Ambulance Blues<\/em> \u2013 and by god he did! I\u2019m sure some people there were a bit \u2018huh?\u2019 when it came to this song, but it was truly surreal to hear it live, especially just an acoustic rendition!<\/p>\n After Ambulance Blues<\/em>, he played a song that I wasn\u2019t particularly sure of, but after that, another complete shocker \u2013 A Man Needs A Maid<\/em>! This is another early song, from Harvest <\/em>in this case, but a very odd one, one which my dad thinks has particularly dire lyrics and isn\u2019t really a great song \u2013 naturally I disagree! The album version of this has a complete cinematic\/movie soundtrack orchestra beginning and interlude occasionally, which is why I didn\u2019t really expect to hear it being played. For these mythical parts of the song, Neil used a small synthesized keyboard perched on top of his yellow and pink baby grand piano to amazing effect. This tiny thing sounded impressively good, and the whole switching between the two instruments mid-song was wonderful! After another unbeknown song to me, Neil launched into some classics from the early days \u2013 Harvest <\/em>(from Harvest<\/em>), After The Gold Rush<\/em> (from the album of the same name) and Mellow My Mind<\/em> (from Tonight\u2019s The Night<\/em>, not THAT early an album!). These Neil Young classics were presented skilfully \u2013 and unnervingly as good as the originals, with the high pitched vocals of After The Gold Rush<\/em> cutting through the cool dark air of the auditorium. This also had very nicely altered and relevant lyrics \u2013 \u201cLook at mother nature on the run in the 21st Century<\/em>\u201d. After another unknown song, I was treated to more classics from After The Gold Rush<\/em> and Harvest <\/em>in the form of Don\u2019t Let It Bring You Down<\/em>, Heart Of Gold<\/em> and Old Man<\/em>, bringing the acoustic set to an end. Overall, this was an unbelievable first half \u2013 with 4 songs from another of my favourite albums, Harvest, being played!<\/p>\n Before the second half, where Crazy Horse would join Neil to rock the rest of the evening away, there was a 30 minute break. This was probably needed owing to the fairly high average age of the crowd, and Neil Young too! When thinking about what songs might be played beforehand, I was fairly sure that I wouldn\u2019t know too many from the second half, as I never really got that into Chrome Dreams II<\/em> and Ragged Glory<\/em>, and I don\u2019t even have Rust Never Sleeps<\/em>. But from the songs that he played, I was pleasantly surprised (yet again!). Mr. Soul<\/em> kicked off the second half. This was announced as such by a painting being put up displaying the song title \u2013 which was very useful considering I had only heard some songs a few times on live albums. Dirty Old Man<\/em>, from Chrome Dreams II<\/em> was played after, which was a fairly incredible performance with Neil playing some sweet lead guitar and absolutely spot on vocals! One song played in the second half that I was particularly looking forward to and wasn\u2019t sure if he\u2019d actually play it was Down By The River<\/em>. To my complete surprise and enjoyment \u2013 he did, with an absolutely sensational instrumental\/solo section and awesome backing vocals for the chorus. Some of the next few songs were good, but to be honest I didn\u2019t really recognise many of them \u2013 apart from Hey Hey, My My<\/em> of course. A huge surprise came when he played No Hidden Path<\/em> from Chrome Dreams II<\/em>. Along with Ordinary People<\/em>, No Hidden Path<\/em> was one of those songs that you\u2019d think would never be played live, mainly due to their length and what could be regarded as their album filler-like qualities by a cynic. Then again, this is Neil Young and he pretty much does what he wants when he playing \u2013 so an obscenely drawn out 20 minute version of No Hidden Path<\/em> resulted. This was an incredible performance, with some wild solos and anthemic choruses. The tall, slightly stooped over figure of Neil hunching over his guitar ripping out solos was an image to remember. <\/p>\n You could slightly tell that with such a long song as No Hidden Path<\/em>, the set was nearing the end. Sure enough, when the epic chorus had died down for the last time, the stage was vacated. But no-one was going to leave without an encore, and what an encore it was! Another song on my list of \u2018songs that he probably won\u2019t play but I\u2019d like him to\u2019 was Fuckin\u2019 Up<\/em> from Ragged Glory<\/em>. I\u2019m not entirely sure why I didn\u2019t expect him to play this, but I\u2019m really glad that he did! As soon as the drum intro came in, accompanied a bar later by that signature guitar riff I knew that I was in for yet another treat. Some other folk in the audience however didn\u2019t really appreciate either a) more grunge\/modern Neil Young or b) the foul language in this song, so as a result they didn\u2019t look particularly impressed. Not cool. Finally, to finish off a stellar evening of music, the 1969 classic \u2013 Cinnamon Girl<\/em>! Yet again, I was so overjoyed at his amazing choice of the classic songs that he was playing, and what better song could he have played to finish off than Cinnamon Girl<\/em>? <\/p>\n From looking at Neil Young at the start of the gig, he looked pretty old, I\u2019m not going to lie there, but at any point, if I even dared to do so, I should never have assumed that he was incapable of rocking out in the way that he did! He was and still clearly is incredible and just has to be seen live in order to appreciate his magnificence. <\/p>\n On a final note, there were some other songs that I wished that he might possibly have played, which he unfortunately didn\u2019t. These included: Following my escapades on Monday night involving an amazing Neil Young concert, here\u2019s some sort of write up\/review thingummy. The Edinburgh Playhouse is a pretty good venue for music if it\u2019s the kind where you\u2019re sitting down and well not moshing or dancing in an extreme fashion etc. Unlike many other venues in Scotland it … <\/p>\n
\nCowgirl In The Sand<\/em>
\nCortez The Killer<\/em>
\nNeedle And The Damage Done
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