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Saturday, June 18, 2016

Mad Cool Festival - Madrid, Spain: Neil Young + Promise of the Real - June 18, 2016



A beautiful day for Mad Cool Festival in Madrid, Spain! enjoy































Neil Young + Promise of the Real will be performing tonight, June 18 at Mad Cool Festival in Madrid, Spain.

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.
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17 comments:

  1. Mr Henry6/18/2016 11:40:00 AM

    Rust Radio is playing the June 7 Belfast show right now. I've got Vampire Blues cranked up and it's a gorgeous late morning here. The June 8 Dublin show is scheduled for 2:45 pm edt and the Leeds concert is on at 8 pm.

    Enjoy today's festival and show if you are going...Neil Young de Por Vida!

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  2. thrasher6/18/2016 12:11:00 PM

    Thanks Mr H!

    Always a good call to stream Rust Radio.
    The shows and tapes have been superb thus far. and we're not even half thru the tour?! lucky us.

    btw, folks sometimes ask about TW Radio coming back. right now, not in the foreseeable future. we'd love to resume broadcast but haven't found the right arrangement just yet. always open to suggestions tho.


    peace, enjoy that bright sunny day ... it's only getting brighter...

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  3. Anonymous6/18/2016 12:27:00 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Mr Henry6/18/2016 02:22:00 PM

    Thanks T, hope you and Thrashette enjoy the weekend--such great weather as we say farewell to Spring and welcome the approaching Summer. Making plans for an October trip to the Bay Area and Bridge 30!


    "Let your heart go out and abide in things. Let things return and abide in your heart."
    --Dogen

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  5. Babbo B.6/18/2016 06:24:00 PM

    Hurricane (finally!) highlights a shorter festival-style setlist:

    After the Gold Rush
    Heart of Gold
    The Needle and the Damage Done
    Mother Earth
    Out on the Weekend
    From Hank to Hendrix
    Human Highway
    Unknown Legend
    Someday
    Alabama
    Words
    Winterlong
    Down by the River
    Mansion on the Hill
    Like a Hurricane
    Western Hero
    Rocking in the Free World
    Love and Only Love

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  6. Babbo B.6/18/2016 08:04:00 PM

    Tiny tease of Hurricane (w/Micah on Stringman): https://www.instagram.com/p/BGz2_S0M5DO/

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  7. Unknown6/18/2016 08:12:00 PM

    Babbo, have you been at these shows, and if so, what's been your favorite one thus far?


    Nice to see the Hurricane finally come back, I'm looking forward to hearing how it sounds with this lineup.

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  8. Babbo B.6/18/2016 09:08:00 PM

    I have not, just Spokane last fall - that was fun, but these latest selists are off the charts. Definitely looking forward to some real Hurricane audio/video, not to mention Here We Are in the Years (which we got soundchecked in Spokane) and Inca.

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  9. Anonymous6/19/2016 03:55:00 AM

    Clip of Hurricane:

    http://youtu.be/RqKRVRwgMEE

    Last Saturday I commented that the band would have to be especiallly careful not to overcrowd Neil's guitar on this song (as traditionally Hurricane has only the one guitar). Well, watch and listen just how sparsely Lukas is playing here.

    For much of the song, you can see he's not playing at all. And then occasionally he's playing some sparse partial chords that add texture and impact to the sound, without ever crowding Neil's solos into a tighter pace.

    It works. it sounds excellent.

    He's playing the part that the song requires of him, even if that means heavily toning his playing down into something more simplistic and very minimalistic. In a nutshell, that's why this band sound so much better this year.

    I'm also a big fan of these "short and sharp" set-lists, as I think I mentioned during the spring tour.

    I like the idea of Western Hero near the end of the set.

    And you know my feelings about LAOL: great song, but it's not at it's best in recent years. It sounds a bit bloated and turgid, like it needs to lose some weight. It makes me long for the air and focused intensity of the classic version.

    Scotsman.

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  10. Jorge Villaescusa6/19/2016 04:13:00 AM

    Superb , brilliant , special performance in Madrid. Blown away by Like a hurricane , Down by the River, Alabama, Rocking in the free world (much extended )and some others. Great to see Neil and the boys jumping on stage while audience was singin this typical Spanish "oe oe oe oe" asking for more. Shorter setlist but 2:30 hours of pure magic. Very special to me.

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  11. Anonymous6/19/2016 04:14:00 AM

    I meant "place", not "pace" (typo).

    Scotsman.

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  12. TopangaDaze6/19/2016 10:42:00 AM

    Great clip of Like a Hurricane.

    To loosely paraphrase the Clinton campaign from back in the day:

    It's the song, stupid...

    Like a Hurricane stands head and shoulders above Neil's other guitar epics. It soars with melody and expression like none other (and that's saying something). At its best, everything melds together brilliantly as one. The lyrics, melody, vocal and guitar fluidity are all equal parts of the same thing. At times, Neil's vocals sound like they're coming out of his guitar and vice versa.

    Suffice it to say, if any one electric guitar jam belongs at every Neil show, Like a Hurricane is the one!

    Take my advice
    don't listen to me

    but enjoy

    "that perfect feeling, when time just slips away"

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  13. thrasher6/19/2016 11:22:00 AM

    @ TopangaD. - thanks again for all the great commentary on the tour.

    We need to make you a Special Correspondent for Euro Tour.

    Funny how nearly everyone here was saying after Cortez appeared on the setlist that we needed a Hurricane. And lo & behold.

    It does look like the tour will go down in the Sugar Mountain/Ghosts On The Road history books. And we're not even half way through the tour?! 55 different songs thus far. Averaging over one new setlist song per concert. Usually by this time in a tour the setlist has stabilized with few variations night to night.

    Not so with the REAL. It seems like the guys are learning new songs every day to try out at soundcheck.

    I guess the last thing we'll say about the Euro tour now is that we're curious about how much of this energy is related to the Big Fall Festival? We have a hunch (based on nothing) that many eyes are on The Boys with The Big Gig in mind. And maybe they are pushing themselves toward that perfect, optimal setlist this Fall?

    Of course, Neil will say nonsense. They'll decide the setlist just before they go onstage. Which is true. But will they ever have a vast reservoir to draw on.

    Ok, so here's a bet. How close or how far will the final Euro setlist be to that of the Big Fall Gig? We're betting pretty close. Now having said that, we know we'll be totally wrong. :)

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  14. TopangaDaze6/19/2016 01:23:00 PM

    Thrash, I think it was clear from day one that the POTR sparked Neil energetically and creatively. Immediately, the set-lists were varied and the show lengths pushing and exceeding the 3hr mark sounded a clarion call. If I recall correctly, the first show of the Rebel tour saw Neil pull out "Flying On the Ground Is Wrong" and from there he hasn't looked back...

    For the upcoming Desert Trip show(s), it's as close to a "farewell" show Neil will ever play. Without question it's the biggest stage he'll ever be on again, largely due to the crowd size, but primarily because of the exclusive company headlining the weekend.

    Neil's well aware of the significance and I'm quite confident he already knows roughly 75% of the basic set he'll be playing. I think it will largely echo the European leg of the tour, but as always, he'll throw a few curveballs at us (some we'll want, and a few others we won't).

    I have a feeling the show will see him once again playing a few additional Monsanto songs, and I suspect he'll also play one or two new songs we haven't heard. He's too defiant to give a true greatest hits show, but it will be about as close as he's capable of giving us.

    If I had to pick a selection of songs he'll most likely play, I'd choose:

    After the Goldrush
    Heart of Gold
    Old Man
    Needle and the Damage Done
    Comes a Time
    Cinnamon Girl
    Down By the River
    Like a Hurricane
    Powderfinger
    Hey Hey, My My

    After that, throw in a few more songs from After the Goldrush, Harvest, Harvest Moon, Freedom, Ragged Glory and Monsanto Years/Earth. Sprinkle in a Zuma nugget or two, a few from the ditch trilogy, something from the Springfield, plus quite possibly "Helpless" and I think that should round out the the 3:15 hour show to please almost all of us.

    Of course he could play Trans in its entirety, and that's why we still find him innaresting!

    Take my advice
    don't listen to me

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  15. Babbo B.6/19/2016 02:46:00 PM

    Whole Hurricane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVwJgtuY9C0

    And just FWIW, 51 unique songs in Europe so far (the 55 includes four songs from the Southern shows that haven't been played since).

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  16. Dan Swan6/19/2016 07:50:00 PM

    I just finished watching the video of Like a Hurricane and what really struck me was the feeling. The band, the audience, the moment. It was authentic, and you just can't fake authentic. It can only be achieved with talent, passion, and chemistry, and this performance had all three. It's becoming clear to me that Promise of the Real have talent and passion, but now it feels like the chemistry is kicking in big time. Not only are they listening, but now they're completely inside it. It feels like it's coming from the heart and not the head, and that is where Neil is always at when he's playing.

    Chemistry is when music transcends technique and becomes emotion, and that's what I hear in this band. Neil Young has found kindred spirits in these young men, and it has energized him in a profound way. Two and a half to three hour shows happen when there is magic present, and that magic comes from chemistry within a band that lives inside the music it plays, and that is what I felt as I watched this performance.

    For me, the number of different songs they play, or the set list is irrelevant. Music is all about that perfect feeling where time just slips away.

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  17. TopangaDaze6/19/2016 11:45:00 PM

    Beautifully said Dan.

    Normally I prefer Neil's more concise versions of Hurricane, etc.., but this one had the feeling throughout. I especially liked the moment towards the end around the 10:00 minute mark where it looked like the song was ending. Then Neil starts singing again "I am just a dreamer, but you are just a dream" as the guitar slowly begins to resonate again.

    As I mentioned in an earlier post, everything matched perfectly; the guitar sounded like the vocal and the vocal sounded like the guitar. The perfect blending of sound and feeling, and as you alluded to, the crowd was feeding off of the music and the music was feeding off of the crowd...

    "and I'm--getting blown away, to somewhere safer where the feeling stays"

    ReplyDelete

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