Went to see Neil Young on Sunday (29 June) despite a terrible week of weather, on Sunday the weather held up and the sun even made an appearance for extended periods of time. Got there 5- 10 minutes before the gates open, not a huge queue which worked out in our favour with stewards handing myself and my uncle PIT PASSES!!!. Pretty sweet probably at most 10-15 feet away from the stage.
The first band on stage was “Everest”, an indie/folk type band from California, they were very impressive and really helped the atmosphere of the gig. They came on stage with the sun shining and their set consisted of real laid back tunes that was just a good time. Sitting out in the sun just chilling with a great band how much better can it get.? The answer when you know Neil Young is on later on in the evening.
The Frames came on next and I wasn’t horribly impressed with them. The acoustic stuff at the start was boring with the singer guy looking like he was constipated when he tried to hit the higher notes/shout at the courses. All in all thought the singer was very good he bantered with the crowd and tried to get a sing along going. The sing along is actually my last criticism of The Frames he chose probably the most depressing song for a sing along. The song was called “Happiness” but was slow and really depressing to listen to. Even the bit he tried to get the crowd to sing along with was slow and depressing. Aside from the obvious mention of the word happiness it was hard to associate the song with anything other than just plain depressing.
Neil’s stage props and set up were strange to say the least. They included a pulsating red phone, Indian chief carving, a fan and light up numbers and letters. The artist’s easel that was beside the Indian carving was strange but turned out to be a pretty cool idea. Anyway the set list was as follows,
MALAHIDE SETLIST:
Love And Only Love
I’ve Been Waiting For You
Mr. Soul
Spirit Road
Powderfinger
Out of the Blue
Too Far Gone
Oh, Lonesome Me
Mother Earth
The Needle And The Damage Done
Unknown Legend
Old Man
Get Back To The Country
Words
No Hidden Path
—
A Day In The Life (Beatles cover)
Love and only Love lasted nearly fifteen minutes and was a great was to kick off the gig. The sheer wall of sound that came from the stage at the start was unbelieavable. The artists easel to the right of the stage had a canvas on it with a big N. Throughout the gig the setlist was displayed there, these canvas’s were painted by a guy standing at the back of the stage. The gig was fantastic and I’m not going to bore you with a bit about each song but I do have a few criticisms about the gig.
I wasn’t expecting Neil to be a showman ala Bruce Springsteen or Mick Jagger. But at times he seemes totally oblivious to the crowd, with his back turned to the crowd either with the bass player or the drummer. A lot of the songs degraded to self indulgent jamming. Which I have no problem with but when a five minute song gets stretched to the best part of forty minutes and he’s still singing/playing, that sort of thing shouldn’t happen on stage with a crowd that’s getting bored. I was disappointed with the encore as well, I thought he’s come out and play “Rockin in the Free World”, “Crime in the City” or “Cortez the Killer” but no he played a Beatles song.
Still though it was a great gig and I’m glad I went to see him, but I don’t think I’d go again.
The Needle and the Damage Done from the Gig (Sorry about the shakey camera hand)
Hey nice coverage of the concert. one point of criticism, as i will not comment on the part you wrote about self- indulgent jamming. i think that’s a matter of taste. i liked it a lot (just coming back from the concert in hamburg).
the encore… he always ends his concerts with a tribute song, such as the beatles one. i like that a lot. it shows a certain humility and respect towards other artists that helped neil on the way. he never plays rocking in a free world anymore (got sick of it someday i guess), he doesn’t play cortez after having played words, as they are quite similar and i don’t really know about crime in the city as an encore… so i like his choice. but yeah once again. thanks for your coverage of the dublin concert. interesting read.
I do agree that some people love all that jamming Young and I suppose I’d be considered a fair-ish weather fan. My favourite part of Youngs career is Weld and I’m not to big on the country side of things at all.
I also don’t like The Beatles either so that could be another reason why I wasn’t too impressed with the encore