He Came Dancing Across The Water: Europe Summer Tour Wrap Up

Coburg, Germany, 08/23/08 - Photo by Coburger Tageblatt

The Neil Young's Europe summer tour wrapped up last night in Denmark.

Lots of highlights from the tour. Not the least of which was the debut of three new songs:
- "When Worlds Collide" in Coburg, Germany, 08/23/08

- "Sea Change" from Way Out West Festival, Göteborg, Sweden, 6/9/08

- "Just Singing A Song Won't Change The World" on August 7, in Helsinki, Finland
(lyrics and YouTube videos at links above)

A quick run through of the song grid on Rust Radio shows that Neil played 35 different songs over the 24 date tour. Among the highlights was the cover of The Beatles "A Day In The Life" which was played as the final encore song.

Here are songs that were played only once on tour (or twice):
When You Dance, I Can Really Love
Time Fades Away
For The Turnstiles
Winterlong (twice)
Down By The River (twice)
Wrecking Ball

So a real range of songs with rarities, one-offs, covers, and new songs.

Thanks Roel for the statistics!



The Concert Review of the Moment of Neil Young at Hop Farm Country Park, Paddock Wood, Tonbridge, Kent, England: 7/6/08 is by J Phimister:

To put it succinctly: Neil. Young. Fucking. Rocks. I am beginning to think there is no-one quite like him out there. I'm pretty sure they must have been able to hear this set in Calais! He kicked off with a beyond-grungy version of "Love and only love" and never looked back. Old Black, his trusty Gibson Les Paul screamed, roared, squealed, moaned and howled over nearly ten minutes as the old fucker stamped around the stage, his face screwed up in an expression of sheer, what? Anger, hurt, delight? It's hard to tell with old craggly-face, and it doesn't matter. What matters is that no one, not Elton, Macca, Dylan or Prince, plays with such fire and rage in their bellies as Young. And this was just the first song!

Rock In Rio Madrid, Spain, 6/27/08 - Photo by Antonio


Coburg, Germany, 08/23/08 - Photo by Henning Rosenbusch


Neil Young: "A Day in the Life" at Rock in Rio Ciudad del Arganda Rey Madrid, Spain, 6/27/08.





"Time Fades Away" at Konig Pilsner Arena, Oberhausen, Germany on 7/9/08. This is the first performance in 35 years!


Roskilde Festival, 7/5/08
Photo by Martin Rosenaur

A Concert Review of the Moment of Neil Young in Lyon, France, 6/25/05 by Benji:

Then on No Hidden Path came that amazing fall when he tripped right stage over a floor monitor and Old Black's lead got stuck on the top of the old harmonium, with Neil on his back. It really looked as though that hurt and Neil held the guitar aloft, horizontal, banging away still, well and truly entangled. He finally managed to rise up, everything still connected, and him to the music. He then seized the guilty monitor and threw it a few inches back and addressed a unfriendly hand gestures to the techs right stage. He then majestically treated us to another 10 minutes of his epic track, clocking in at 28 min (i think). It seemed as though he might have hurt right-hand finger(s) as he looked at them a few times. But Neil can't be stopped, not by age, techtrouble or pain.

The encore was truly mind blowing. That was A Day in the Life takes a walk on the wild dark psychedelic side and it floored everyone in the hall. Neil clearly looked hurt - Larry had to help him saddle up Old Black. When he finally broke its' strings, it was a titan breaking free from the chains of fate! moving stuff, almost painful to watch!

On the whole, great gig, even if, this time, I felt as though Neil was hanging on to the Bronco rather than levitating above it in amazing grace as he had done on Valentine's in Paris. Fighting the muse rather than cavorting in the Elysean Fields with her. So that is epic solos where melody out of chaos where they had been elegant crystal sculpture magically emerging from some galactic elemental soup.

Verona, Italy, 6/23/08 - Photo by Alessandro Corio


Xabre in Lisbon, Portugal, 7/12/08 - Photos by HarryO

The Concert Review of the Moment on Neil Young at Hop Farm Country Park, Paddock Wood, Tonbridge, Kent, England Concert: 7/6/08 by jamesayliffe:

Neil went for the heart’s main aorta from the first song, and I gave myself up to him completely for the next two hours. Any of us could have written a set list with or without any of the songs he played, but I thought the pacing and the choice was nigh immaculate. Once he had played He Hey My My, one of my top ten revolving Neil Young favourites of all time – Rust Never Sleeps was possibly my most played album of 1980 – he could play whatever he liked, and I’ve have been just as happy. As it happened, every song, familiar and unfamiliar, compounded into a blaze of supreme magnificence. I was glad there were such big gaps in my knowledge of his material, because I love hearing music for the first time, and I certainly did that. If there’s anything I love it’s a good trancey guitar wig-out, and he left me drooling with rapture, punching the air and wailing as he did things to his instrument that can’t have been legal, and went beyond rock music in to pure sonics. Prehistoric feedback dragged from the pit of creation ended the night, Neil’s guitar a naked soul exposed, as it lay against the drum-riser, burnt out but still sputtering in the memory of music; utterly ravished…

Oberhausen - 7/11/08
Photo gallery by Roel on Rust Radio


Hop Farm Country Park, England, 7/6/08 - Photo by Contact Music

Also, see all reviews, photos and videos of Neil Young 2008 Europe Summer Concert Tour. And Highlights of Summer 2008 Europe Tour - Leg #1.

Thanks everyone for the reviews, photos, videos, and links. Thrasher's Wheat appreciates everybody's support!

---