Omaha, Nebraska Concert Reviews of Neil Young - 4/29/09
From JournalStar.com - Lincoln, Nebraska - Blog - Ground Zero Online by L. Kent Wolgamott:
Neil Young did not disappoint Wednesday night at Qwest Center Omaha, putting on a fine 2 1/2 hour show that ran the gamut of his career. I wrote a review on my iPhone with about 30 minutes left in the concert that, I hope, conveyed something of what I thought about the show. But here are some thoughts that expand on and, with any luck, add to that piece.
Young is one helluva guitarist. That's evident on his records, but easy enough to overlook until you hear him live. A song like 'Tonight's The Night' became a rambling, 10-minute guitar workout with Young making his black Gibson growl, moan and cry and he literally tore the strings off of it during the encore of the Beatles 'A Day in the Life,' which ended with jet-engine feedback.
Neil Young will be performing tonight at Qwest Center, Omaha, Nebraska.
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by thrasher@PermaLink: 4/30/2009 12:15:00 AM
22 comments
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22 Comments:
Allright, where's the skinny on this one?
fantastic - completely blew me away. the new material sounded great and the oldies rocked. as usual he was striving for perfection even stopping and starting two songs over again - the needle and the damage done and heart of gold i believe! 20 minute version of down by the river that blew the roof off the building! then, to wrap up the night he played a day in the life - as a beatles fan also - made for the perfect night!
A day in the life is back.....with his Canada & US dates he is varying each night much more than he was back last summer. Who knows what we get come Glastonbury on the 26th June?! I hope Michael Eavis has booked him for 3 hours!
Setlist, anyone
Sound was great!! He rocked on "Old Black"! His "Electric Band" was also Great! Set list was OK--would have loved to hear Everybody Knows this is Nowhere--seemed to have played at all previous shows. But he did have some great oldies along with his newer ones which were great to hear. Obviously the tickets sales were on the pathetic side--Event staff said there were only 5,000 in attendance--blocked off the whole top section & moved the stage forward--thus making my $300/pair tickets almost behind the stage! :( May hurt the chances of him coming back to play in Omaha--or maybe he should try a smaller Venue--All & all--glad to see him again. July 4, 1983 seems way to long a spread for a lengend to entertain us here in Omaha.
Here was last nights set list, there may be one or two songs that need to be moved one spot up or down in the set list, but other than that they are all there. Great performance!
Mr. Soul
When You Dance I Can Really Love
Fuel Line
Are You Ready for The Country?
When Worlds Collide
Pocahontas
Spirit Road
Change Your Mind
Mother Earth
Cinnamon Girl
Needle & The Damage Done
Old Man
Light a Candle
Unknown Legend
Heart of Gold
Speakin' Out
Tonight's The Night
Down By The River
Get Behind The Wheel
Just Singing A Song
A Day in The Life
The show was good and Neil sounded great. I'd just like to comment on the top link that talked about him playing guitar during tonight's the night. He actually played the piano the whole time during that song, but he did jam for about 10 minutes.
Excuse my being off-topic, but those who have pre-ordered NYA Vol1 thru neilyoung.com should be receiving their free preview Disc 0 this week.
I'll be around to aid with any navigation and user questions next week. A day and time will be set up and announced by Mr Thrasher.
enjoy the preview disc...June 2nd is almost here.
-Archives Guy
Great show, one I Won't soon forget and definitely worth the wait (since last November) ---My question is "what's the deal with the painters?"
For those who use the RustList, there is a nice, well written user review over there today by Kurt Schubert about his first experience with NYA Disc 0...Blu-ray version.
-Archives Guy
Why are you wasting your time playing with your phone when you had 30 minutes left of Neil and you could be paying attention to? Seriously, people today are ruled by their little toy gadgets. . .
I would like to agree with:
Recap: Neil Young at Magness Arena | Features | Music | Denver/Boulder | Decider by Jason Heller:
His comments about Neil at the Denver show the night before Omaha is exactly how I felt. Sloppy!!!Stagehands not getting instruments to him on time or plugging them in for that fact. Messing up on lyrics, and just seeming very angry or like he was not having a good time.
After his 1 encore song--(which I could have chose a million other "Neil Young" originals)--I was right at the rail when he walked off stage--nobody else around 4 ft away with my hand out to shake & he flew by without one glimpse of his fans. What is up with that??? He seemed outright pissed!!
Anyway--I saw him with CSNY in the late 80's for their reunion tour in KC--and it was absolutely the best concert ever--I will try to keep that thought it my mind--and blank out the Omaha 2009 show.
PS--I still love him though!!
"its better to burn out then to fade away"
Neil --I think your living your words right now
AG,
We're up for a session whenever you are!
At TW, if it's good enough to do it once, it's good enough to do again!
Mr. Thrasher
Neil was sloppy on "Needle & Damage Done" and "Heart of Gold" having to restart on each but riveting electric versions of "Mr. Soul" "When You Dance..." "Tonight's The Night" and especially "Down By The River" made up for it. Great Show! Neville Brothers also kicked (much rather hear them than originally scheduled Death Cab For Cutie).
I was completely thrilled with the whole concert. Neil was rocking and I think he was having fun. He is an awesome musician. He rocked the whole time and the only other band member who played every song was the drummer. "Down by the river" was my personal favorite. I wanted to hear more but was completely satisfied with the show and the effort put forth by the band.
Great show. Neville Brothers were a great warmup. Opening with Mr. Soul and later hearing Down By the River live finally was excellent. Sound quality/mix was really good. I Thought Neil seemed to be enjoying himself despite the few roadie problems where he re-started a few songs. Electric Pocahantas was cool. Would've liked to have heard Thrasher, and Cortez or Hurricane, but one of the new songs (Was it Spirit Road?) had long jams in the same kind of feel, so it filled the need somewhat. Excellent retrospective of songs (and I never knew so many tunes could be written about a car). 2 1/2 hour show & A Day In The Life was really heavy.
Song List I noted during the show--I don't know the name of some (marked with ???) :
Mr. Soul
When You Dance I Can Really Love
Fuel Line
Are You Ready For The Country
Pocahantas
Spirit Road
Change Your Mind
Cinnamon Girl
Mother Earth
The Needle And The Damage Done
Old man
Unknown Legend???
Heart Of Gold
(new song -don't know title)???
Light A Candle
Hit The Road???
Speakin' Out
Tonight's The Night
Down By The River
Get Behind The Wheel
Just Singing A Song
A Day In The Life
P.S. The Neil Young souvenir papers at the merchandise stands was a nice touch...classic.
I hope Neil doesn't resurrect A Day In The Life for the rest of the tour.
I've never been a huge Beatles fan, and I'd much rather have the memory of Neil doing a NEIL song as the last song of the show.
Heck, I'd even rather have All Along The Watchtower, which I think is an amazing song, and Neil raises it to new heights! He does the same for Day In The Life I guess, but seeing as I dont think much of the song in the first place, he doesn't raise it much higher.
We'll see..
I too was on the rail immediately to Neil's left and completely disagree with the previous poster about Neil being pissy.
It was quite the contrary because he smiled throughout the show and was genuinely enjoying himself. He even apologized for the cancellation saying "some rocket scientist decided to book the show on election night". The false starts for Needle and HOG where quite fun and there was not a hint of disgust coming from him.
This was my 6th time seeing Neil and was by far the most "loose" show I have attended which only made it more enjoyable. There was also much more jamming compared to the St. Paul show last fall. Another thing that immediately stuck out was just how much better Chad was drumming compared to St. Paul. I guess that is the difference between an opening night and a show close to the end of the tour. :-)
The pit was also virtually free of bad pushing that usually plagues GA shows. Meeting a beautiful girl who knows all the lyrics to "Speakin' Out" makes it all the better.
anonymous - first Neil concert since 83, but it was well worth the wait! Neil seemed in a good mood, but as always obsessed with perfection. Can't pick out a favorite , as they are all classics to me, even the new ones. Keep on rockin' Neil!
Just wanted to update my list--After conferring with some others at the show I think this is the correct setlist:
Mr. Soul
When You Dance I Can Really Love
Fuel Line
Are You Ready For The Country
Pocahantas
Spirit Road
Change Your Mind
Cinnamon Girl
Mother Earth
The Needle And The Damage Done
Old man
Unknown Legend
Heart Of Gold
Light A Candle
Hit The Road
Speakin' Out
Tonight's The Night
Down By The River
Get Behind The Wheel
Just Singing A Song
Encore: A Day In The Life
(There is nothing like the Neil Young heavy screaming wailing electric sound; acoustic's great also.)
(In respond to the posting of Archives Guy)
From everything I've read so far about the Archives and the preview disc it suddenly occured to me that a (imho) fairly essential aspect for NY fans could be missing from the Archives project: the unreleased albums, the unfinished projects, the ideas that were thrown away. We have al heard about or read in interviews about 'Island in the sun', 'Chrome Dreams I', 'This notes for you too' or the unreleased Crazy Horse country album. And there are more examples.
I think they all are part of Neils history as an artist, and it should be an extra experience on the Blu Ray discs if the material that once was meant to be released together under a certain name (as mentioned above) could be adressed by the user as such. That would be like a painter that also shows his rough sketches next to the finished paintings. It surely to me would give more depth to the Archives.
(I'm no technological wizzard but I somehow get the idea that this could be done on the BD discs via the 'news' items…)
Hope to see this…
Peter Dees
Holland
Reference new song in Omaha
The performance bellowed with that old day melody in this bands harmony, we heard some great standards come together rising above the tours musical presentations, was the Omaha venue predestined for the dominating atmosphere to claim the authority of folklore with the bands rendition of "bumblebee"? Anyone see it fly... I jumped out heavy while one beauty swirled in rhythm with hip bumping twist to that "hat tat ti chat chat chat" beat while --------- inscribed a reputious groove from the slide guitar stretching at least seven girths below my gray matter to near soul. Great new sound! In Omaha an electrifying concert plugged into the crowd" were ya plugged in"? Serious linguistic music lovers equate; this was a fantastic concert by two of the greatest who've continued to play together scene 1971, along with the beautiful vocal harmony by the rest of the band. Neil's 1970 attire, ostensibly a symbolizing t-shirt, blue plaid long sleeve flannel & blue jeans/he put on a show,his wardrobe was the same as on the harvest album...How fitting mid-west! Come back again..And the band did very much connect to the audience;up front at least.Instrumental music composed in a classical realm and a prized compliment.If your will is to see Neil play perfect, buy a cD and imagine your'dar, Want to groove with the band then Dance,Dance, Dance; Its all in the way you smile.Meet some good personality's front stage Omaha as free flowing vibes enchanted the aurora. Cannot forget this one. Best spot in the house. Also if your out there "finger locks", thanks for the groovy dance.What day in your life can you get a better show for seventy-seven dollars? An electric moment transmit when Neil shaved the metal off the strings. One must recognize that pair was plowing threw repertories, Slide guitarist,---- shacking his head in admiration as to what came over Neil as he continued to stretch out versions while nearly doing the splits when thrashing out the the endless cords. No geriatrics' class needed for these two.tune in again for part two,
Swampman
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