Website dedicated to Neil Young and his music
Neil Young in Toronto (June 2003)
So
first things first: the rustfest: it was amazing! Jim did such a great job
organizing it! And the place was just great too! It was reallt funny to put
faces on the names you kept seeing on the rust list and on hempsall. I really
met a bunch of great people! Two of them were even staying at the same hotel as
we were so we took our breakfast together and exchanged a few thoughts about the
concert. Those people are great! And my girlfriend fell instantly in love
with'em all! She just kept saying how cool they were, how nice they were, how
funny they were etc. There were 3 guys playing guitars, most of the people were
singing and the atmosphere was just great! Some of those who got there early
enough even saw Zuma the bus and the whole band gettin' out of it and into the
Four Seasons Hotel. One of the rusties even got to talk to Billy!
Then we go to the real thing! Before the show, there was Lucinda Williams, whose show I missed almost half of it in a beer line-up. My girlfriend got herself some popcorn that contained 15 cups of salt too many... So in the case of emergency I had to go get some beer. Needless to say the line-up was huge. Before the show we also got some of those great T-shirts and she got herself a black spaghetti top with Neil Young & Crazy Horse written on it... What else to ask...
Then the lights come up and finally Neil with
his band show up! Here's where the mixed emotions start. Well Yeah... First
thing, I was way too far. The first time I saw Neil I would've liked to be
close enough to see his face. Nope... Impossible... The sound was pretty
good from where I was sitting (section 120, 2nd row, about 100 meters from
the stage...) but the sight was just shitty! We couldn't even see either of
the screens because of the way they were oriented. Second thing, I'm not
that crazy about this Greendale material. The music is not that great and
the story and the lyrics aren't strong enough to support it. Except a few
good riffs and maybe one or two strong moments I wasn't really into it.
Maybe with a few listenings I'll change my mind, but... What's more, the
dancing clowns on Be the Rain were quite annoying, in my opinion. The devil
was cool though! No doubt about it! On the whole I thought it was pretty
naive. I'm not saying I hate it. I usually give new material more than one
chance untill I judge it. The first impression was pretty cold though. One
thing I really liked was the settings and the footage and all that stuff. A
great idea! And the cheap cars and the cheap acting, all that was really
fun. Very Neil alike. The one acoustic song was very pretty too, with the
low E chord vibrating in real strange ways that I really loved! Two definite
strong moment were the parts with the "support our war" banner and Grandpa's
death.
The worst thing of the show was the assholery with which
I was surrounded. In front of me there was a few drunken dumbasses who at
one point even picked a fight, on the right there was a few guys who each 5
minutes were looking at their clocks, didn't applaud, and kept yawling. On
the left there was an old bitch who kept complaining each time we stood up
to applaud or because it was just too intense. But all of it was nothing compared to the fat fuck who was sitting behind me. During
all the Greendale set he kept complaining, then at one point started booing
and yelling "Shut up asshole!". To my amazement nobody said a word! I mean
in Europe this kind of thing happens the guy is dragged outside and gets his
face smashed! And here, nobode said a goddamn' word. They were all doing as
if they didn't hear anything. I was the only one for fuck's sake that told
him to shut the fuck up! First he told me "fuck you" but I ignored him, then
a minute later he said "by the way, I said fuck you asshole!" That was just
too much! I turned to him and yelled at him to shut the fuck up and that
nobody wanted to hear his fuckin' story! The guy was ready to pick a fight
when his girlfriend or some girl stopped him. He remained calm for the rest
of the set but later my girlfriend told me that he kept making faces at me.
She told me that one word from him would have resulted in the salted popcorn
and the beer in his dumb face! Haaa haa! I would have liked to see that!
The second set was way better though (except
that the asshole had to sing all the verses tywice as loud as Neil with his
annoying voice!). The Hey Hey My My / Like A Hurricane duo was incredible. With the
usual feedback straight from hell! Just as I started to having real fun Neil
went out... He came back for an encore with 3 songs I ain't that crazy about
: Love and only Love, Powderfinger and Roll Another Number. The second set
and the encore even though they were about 45 minutes long went through as
if it was 5 minutes! And that's when I really regreted being too far away.
'Cause I would've liked seeing Neil and Poncho jumping around from closer!
Plus being in front with all the people into it gets you into the distortion
way more than when you're with yawning, complaining, fighting and booing
assholes!
The shitty atmosphere contributed for me not
getting into the show that much, that's for sure. What's more I had just got
off from an exhausting week at work, had to wake up at 5AM to catch the
train and walked all day in the streets of Toronto wandering through the 2nd
hand LP stores... When we got to the concert I was just so exhausted that I
felt like passing out. The whole thing remains as a blurry dream in my mind.
The fact that I was so exhausted, that I was siting too far, that the
atmosphere was so ugly... I wasn't even pissed off after the show (except
fot that asshole) I was just so sad! I felt like crying! It was the first
time I saw Neil live and it wasn't such a great experience. That's why I'll
do anything to get back there for his next venue on Sept 4. And I'll try to
get some really great seats this time... Even if I have to pay a freakin'
fortune! I'm sure the review won't be the same then. And that will be the
REAL first time I'll see Neil!
Hope you enjoyed reading!
And here's an article from the Toronto Star (June 24, 2003)
