Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Outside Lands Festival, August 10, 2012
Outside Lands Music Festival, San Francisco, CA., Friday, Aug. 10, 2012
Photo Gallery by Josh Withers - Outside Lands - 2012
(Click photo to enlarge)
From The Music Mix | EW.com by Leah Greenblatt:
But for all of that, what Outside Lands is mostly about is the music – more than 60 bands over the course of 3 days — and on Day 1, the music was all about Neil Young.
You could hear Neil’s influence in Two Gallants, a powerful two piece who played early on Friday (and even though there’s no Neil in L.A.’s Fitz and the Tantrums, it was hard not to think the latter were booked to provide angst-free modern-soul diversity). Beck covered “After The Gold Rush” mid-way through a typically brilliant set, and Dave Grohl started talking about Neil three songs into the Foos show. “We’ve got a lot of songs to play, and the quicker we play them, the faster I get to see Neil fu*king Young,” he said. The crowd cheered, which was slightly surprising – for a lot of people at the festival, Grohl & Co. were the big ticket, and an abbreviated set wasn’t what they were looking for.
Not surprisingly, the crowd went berserk again when Crazy Horse hit the stage. They’ve been playing together off and on for 43 years, and they’ve probably played every possible permutation of every note of every song, yet somehow they’re still able wring out sounds both unexpected and new. There’s an almost umbilical connection between Neil, guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, bassist Billy Talbot, and drummer Ralph Molina, and it’s never more apparent than when they’re on stage.
Outside Lands saw them run the full gamut of Young’s catalog – Neil did an acoustic version of “Needle and the Damage Done,” and the band powered through a 13 minute take on “Love and Only Love.” But it almost didn’t matter what songs they played; as extraordinary as they may be, what makes Crazy Horse exceptional is the subtext, and the subtext is pure heart.
Neil Young may not be a better guitarist now than he was 30 years ago, but he’s a deeper guitarist, and playing with Crazy Horse seemed to give him the room he needs to go all the way to his core. One of the newer songs – possibly called “Giant” – ended with at least four minutes of the same note played over and over again, and it never let up. Neil and Poncho — playing in the pocket of Ralph and Billy — somehow made playing one note for four minutes feel exquisite.
(Thanks Unknown!)
Outside Lands Music Festival, San Francisco, CA., Friday, Aug. 10, 2012
Photo by Anda Chu/Staff
(Click photo to enlarge)
From contracostatimes.com by Jim Harrington:
I'd spend the last two hours of the night with Neil Young and (by far) his best band, Crazy Horse. It'd been so long since the last time I'd seen the Bay Area rock legend perform with the Horse that I'd almost forgotten just how powerful an experience it can be.
The group played a number of fan favorites, including "Powderfinger" and "Cinnamon Girl," but mostly it jammed. And then jammed some more. A Crazy Horse jam isn't for everyone. It can include some tiresome passages, which would even make a String Cheese Incident set seem interesting, but it always builds to something meaningful. At times, it can even be transcendent -- and those moments were in no short supply during Friday's set.
It was strong ending to Day One. Yet, the best news of all was that the party was just getting started.
From Neil Young and Crazy Horse Mix the Old and New at S.F.'s Outside Lands Festival - San Francisco - Music - All Shook Down by Ian S. Port:
Most bands giving a headlining performance at a major festival would keep their set list to the greatest hits side of things. Or perhaps play a bunch of songs off the record they just released. Not Neil Young and Crazy Horse. They spent nearly half of their two hours last night trying out new tunes from their upcoming album -- songs no one except Young obsessives have heard yet. "Ontario" and "Walk Like a Giant" both sounded like classic, dirty Crazy Horse dirges, but our favorite was the new acoustic song about hearing Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" for the first time. There wasn't a single selection from the album of Americana covers Young and Crazy Horse put out this year.
...
Young and his mates aired a towering version of "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" that nearly keeled us over with its power. The song -- which has Young laying down a guttural riff and insisting, "Rock and Roll will never die" -- confirmed the larger theme of the set. When he sang, it's "Better to burn out/ than to f-f-f-f-fade away," dragging it out and leaning over to taunt the crowd, it felt like all of Golden Gate Park was on the receiving end of some very rare and hard-earned wisdom. Here, with his snarling visage and snarling guitars, Young's age was a trump card, an exalted status only he and his bandmates possessed.
They may not have done what most fans would've wanted. But they'd certainly earned the right not to.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Neil Young & Crazy Horse will be performing tonight at the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse (Lands End Stage) 8:10pm – 9:55pm
Got a report? Drop a comment below.
Check Sugar Mountain for setlist updates and Chronological Grid, Recording Summary, Statistics and Extras.
Also, see Neil Young & Crazy Horse 2012 Concert Tour Reviews and the right, middle sidebar for continuous real time RSS feed updates.
Don't Be Denied!
Labels: 2012, concert, crazy horse, neil young, outside lands festival, review, san francisco
by thrasher@PermaLink: 8/10/2012 10:05:00 PM
42 comments
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