Comment of the Moment: Neil Young & Crazy Horse Concert in Stuttgart, Germany - July 22, 2013

Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Stuttgart, Germany - July 22, 2013
Foto: Max Kovalenko - Schwarzwälder Bote Mobil
(Click photo to enlarge)
The Comment of the Moment is from Neil Young & Crazy Horse's concert in Stuttgart, Germany - July 22, 2013 by Wiindigoo:

“How could people get so unkind?”

At this particular landing zone of the alchemical psychedelic mothership, I was riding the Holy Rail stage left. Like Mr. Leighton writes, emotions ruled and rolled.

The prayer in Love and Only Love, “Spirit come back to me, Give me strength and set me free, Let me hear the magic in my heart” was like the full moon pulling all of that water around inside my head until it was leaking out of my eyes. Ideally, perhaps, the venue at Mercedesstraße 69 would have a retractable roof so that we could all cool off and the moon could play along, but Luna was a definite session player in the proceedings. It the only date on the European leg coinciding with a full moon (see the moon icons on http://www.neilyoung.com/tour.html), and the Horse was on stage maybe an hour and a half after the exact full moon moment (19:16 at UTC +1). Those heavy tides resulted in yet more anonymous rantings above, matched in comedy by the staged Alchemy road eye fights, and the emotional weight of countless sublime moments.

Considering it was 22 July in the middle of a German heatwave, it did appear that we were involved in a sweaty summer rock concert. That may have been a factor for a woman also clutching an unholy break in the rail who got overwhelmed with boozy consequences midway through Hurricane, or maybe it was her gut reaction to the deliciously heinous bass frequencies from Poncho’s tie-dyed suspended Danger Bird organ rig. The hairs on my arms and my internal organs were surging in the unparalleled deep bass waves. The onstage stacks produced a massive range of sounds and the clarity and intensity of the vocals revealed so much undiscovered poetry. At the Berlin show that opened the European tour, these new lyrics eluded me: “The tracks ahead were long and straight, We were riding on a desert wind, We were pulling in the spiritual, Riding on the desert wind…” But last night, Neil as the gunslinger led the Crazy Horse ka-tet through to the spiritually shining lights. The poetic imagery of his storytelling shone through, and he connected directly with so many of us. Mr. Reindl’s Full Moon Hurricane definitely happened.

As in so many shows this tour, they connected with each other in joyful ways, like Billy sharing an intimate laugh with Neil after Surfer Joe or Neil reaching out and holding onto Ralph after his long walk around the stacks from the drum kit for the final bow. At the piano bench, Neil may have had to ask, “Can someone turn off that fan? It’s louder than I am,” but I don’t think anyone other than Anonymous Number Two can say that they didn’t enjoy themselves. I’ve never felt closer to these guys, their music, or myself as a soul lurching and dancing around on this hot spinning planet than I did last night.

Thanks for sharing Wiindigoo! Great memories.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Alchemy-Tour 2013 am 22.Juli in der Schleyerhalle in Stuttgart

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