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Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Concert Reports: Neil Young + Promise of the Real - New Braunfels, TX, April 26, 2016


UPDATE:

SETLIST (via Sugar Mountain)

01. After The Gold Rush
02. Heart Of Gold
03. The Needle And The Damage Done
04. Long May You Run
05. Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)
06. Out On The Weekend
07. Unknown Legend
08. Someday (Neil on piano)
09. Comes A Time
10. Are There Any More Real Cowboys? (w/ Willie Nelson)
11. Okie from Muskogee (w/ Willie Nelson)
12. Walk On
13. Words
14. Down By The River
15. I Won't Quit
16. Country Home
17. Monsanto Years
18. Love And Only Love
---
19. Revolution Blues


Neil Young + Promise of the Real will be performing tonight, April 26 in New Braunfels, TX at the Whitewater Amphitheatre.

Got a report? Drop us a comment below.

Check Sugar Mountain for setlist updates and Chronological Grid, Recording Summary, Statistics and Extras.

Also, see Neil Young + Promise of the Real 2016 Concert Tour Dates for reviews, photos, videos and more.

22 comments:

  1. You're a day behind Thrash! Still on vacation!? Glad you got some time off! Hell, even I missed you.

    It was the perfect show! Hell, Willie even dropped by for a few songs. Are There Any More Real Cowboys!? There's still at least one and Willie in his 80's has still got it! Best Neil show in quite some time (think decades). Out On The Weekend!! Right into Unknown Legend. Neil's going stronger than ever and this band smokes! Walk On, Words and Down By The River played right in a row, smack in front of the Guadalupe river with its back drop of huge trees behind the stage was surreal. There was only one Monsanto song even and it was Real! Real good that is. Monsanto Years has such a good groove and they were into it. Crowd was full and jacked up from the start. Can Neil really be 70? Seems impossible. And how do you close the perfect show?! Revolution Blues!! Holy shit. What a night

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  2. I agree. Killer show. I counted that I've seen Neil at least 12 times as of last night, all starting since 1996. Last night might have been the best set I've seen -- he was on fire, the entire band was just sloppy enough to be real, and he engaged the crowd like he was having so much fun. The Heart of Gold harmonica issue/false start, the banter about the guy wearing the Rust Never Sleeps tour shirt, the repeated comments about the possibility for rain/hail-- it was all awesome.

    I've never been to Whitewater before, but it reminded me big time of the old original Backyard in Austin before the shopping centers and before they moved to the new location. If it wasn't relatively inconvenient from both Austin and San Antonio, I could see it being a much more popular tour stop.

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  3. I wasn't there and haven't seen or heard any of the performance, but the encore alone would have been worth the price of admission for me.

    "Revolution Blues" has always been one of my favorites.

    "I hope you get the connection
    cause I can't take the rejection"

    Also, I had a feeling he'd tone the Monsanto stuff. I hope he sticks to that part of the script...

    Seems like a fairly short set--how long was the concert?

    Take my advice
    Don't listen to me

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  4. About 2:20, give or take. There was plenty of time given the midnight curfew, but I assume it being Tuesday night played into the decision to not go until 11 much less 12.

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  5. Man now I'm psyched up to see him at the NO J&HF. Can't wait. 80% chance of rain. I love the idea of standing in the rain to hear NY. Just no lighting though.

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  6. "If we think really hard maybe we can stop this rain...no rain no rain!" Amazing show last night. Set list was perfect! Encore was perfect! Venue was perfect! It was an amazing evening. I agree his banter was interesting. Words was spectacular.

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  7. I'm going to NOLA too. If it rains, it rains. A little water never hurt rock and roll!

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  8. Stunning setlist. Hope to hear Revolution Blues in Europe.

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  9. Wonderful show. Sound was excellent as well. My only "complaint" was that I didn't want them to stop playing. Though I did figure that after a bit of time off, it might take them some time to build back up to 25 songs and 3 hour shows, if old Neil is even up to it. Still a long show by most standards.

    Some nice surprises with Someday, Country Home and Revolution Blues. The latter was the highlight for me. Completely unexpected and they nailed it. Even though I wanted more songs, great way to go out.

    Was maybe one of the few hoping for it to storm (was in the forecast leading up to show) and get a Like A Hurricane performance, though that could have risked a cancellation (not from Neil, but authorities).

    Trees behind stage were lit up in purple during After The Gold Rush. Not sure if it was noticed by many.

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  10. I had the same feelings about Like A Hurricane. Oh well.

    And I noticed the purple trees. Was slightly surprised there was no Prince cover, only given the backing band. Figured they grew up with Prince on the radio and would get Neil to do something.

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  11. Was reading the review on Jambase ... they mention that it was the first performance of Revolution Blues since 1987. Super lucky to have seen that!

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  12. Amazing show and very nice venue. I've never been there before but very intimate for an outdoor venue. Incredible set list.

    I was the guy wearing the Rust Never Sleeps shirt that Neil gave the shout out to from stage, which kind of has to be my moment of the night. Only an invitation to visit him on the bus could have been better.

    As for the show itself, great start, much snappier than the shows I saw at Red Rocks in July with Neil starting while the seeding women were still on stage. Nice mellow set addition of Someday and Comes A Time. Willie's two songs were great. How long since Neil's played Are There Any More Real Cowboys? And Okie From Muskogee, incredible.

    The electric set smoked, with Neil and Lukas doing dueling guitar solos on several songs. Lukas is the only person I've ever seen Neil hand over any soloing duties to and he is an excellent lead guitarist. Words was an absolute monster. I think it was my song of the night although Down By gave it a run for the money. My nephew had put on Ragged Glory in the car down and said wouldn't it be cool if he played Country Home, and sure enough, HE DID.

    I thought Monsanto Years was way better than last years shows turning into a tour de force Neil feedback jam with Micah rubbing something on his guitar and getting all kinds of wild sounds out of it. And as everyone else has said Revolution Blues was the perfect ending.

    Oh and a neat tidbit, while they were jamming on one of the electric songs, Cory bumped into Willie's guitar on a stand and it started to fall over. Lukas rushed over and caught it. Quick thinking! Then after the song was over Lukas, Cory and Neil all took turns stroking the guitar before a crew member ran onstage, grabbed the guitar, and ran off.

    Sorry I got so long winded but I can hardly contain myself. After every Neil show I see I leave saying "I think that was the best Neil show I ever saw". Every time I end up thinking "Not as good as the '91 Weld show in San Antonio, or the second '84 Opera House show." I truly think this dislodges '84 as the number two for me, and maybe '91 as my all time favorite.

    Hey, Daryl in Toronto, when you coming back to Austin?

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  13. great show! i posted a video of the full Down By the River:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0OLj9HFuu0

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  14. "which kind of has to be my moment of the night."

    don't you mean:

    which kind of has to be my moment of my life.

    ??

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  15. "...moment of my life."

    Well, I got to shake Neil's hand once 10 or 11 years ago at the Paramount Theater, which was pretty close to as great as this.

    But I'd have to say that THE moment of my life was my wedding night.

    But for Neil moments by all means, "THE moment of my life."

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  16. Whoa! Revolution Blues?

    Won't be a real tour without at least 2 shows at Red Rocks in September Neil!!

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  17. I bet 500 people used their camera phones to record another boring version of Heart of Gold but nobody had the good sense to record Revolution Blues?

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  18. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  19. This was my first Neil Show. It started with an amazing acoustic set that morphed into electric fire. To not take a break for 2 straight ours was incredible. The band which was at least 40 years younger had to do their best to maintain his energy level. Loved the banter too. Was just left of Rob so I could see. To be 15 yards away from this legend will be forever etched in my rock n roll memory.

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  20. Hey, Stresman, were you wearing a tie dye shirt or a Tonight's The Night shirt? Glad you were to the left of me. Sorry to whoever was directly behind me.

    Great show for your first. Although, most of the Neil shows I've seen are great, this one was possibly the best. My first show was in '83 at the Municipal Auditorium in Austin. He also played Revolution Blues and had a harmonica problem on Heart Of Gold at that show. So there are some similarities there. I think maybe he screws up Heart on purpose occasionally, because I've heard probably a half dozen tapes of shows where he's had a problem on that song. Great schtick for the show though if true.

    I'm hoping and praying that someone taped this show and is kind enough to post it on dime-a-dozen.org. A truly fantastic show.

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  21. Rob, I was wearing a CASH t shirt. You are one lucky dude seeing Neil all those times. Thrilled to know I caught a phenomenal performance. I had heard mixed reviews of his last tour so I had tempered expectations. The first song in I felt that I was witnessing magic being made. This concert easily slid into my top 5 RnR shows of all time.

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  22. Stresman, if you ever see me at a show again please come up and say hi. As for "seeing Neil all those times", it's just being old. Really, I've only got 17 Neil shows under my belt which isn't bad for a Central Texas boy, but laughably small compared to a lot of other people in the Northeast or California. I've missed several other opportunities to see him.

    As for mixed reviews of the POTR shows, I know everybody has their opinion, but I saw the two Red Rocks shows last year and I thought they were great. Especially the first one. I heard a lot of the tapes as well and thought most of them were really good. I've never seen Neil just "dial in" a performance. He always leaves everything on stage. I think this band is good for him. I've never seen him grinning ear to ear like he was doing for parts of this show, so I know he is having a lot of fun playing with this band.

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