Desert Trip Festival: Neil Young + Promise of the Real, October 8, 2016 - Weekend #1
Paul McCartney and Neil Young
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Desert Trip
And as we presciently speculated yesterday, yes, we did indeed get the Paul and Neil mashup we all hoped for. Maybe not exactly as expected (we thought Paul would walk onto Neil's set for "A Day In The Life"), but even beyond our wildest speculations.
After Neil joined Paul for "A Day In The Life" they went straight into John Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance" followed by a rare "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?". Are we lucky and blessed or what?!
Via Sugar Mountain:
Neil Young
2016-10-08
Empire Polo Grounds, Indio, California, USA
Desert Trip
w/ Promise Of The Real
01. After The Gold Rush
02. Heart Of Gold
03. Comes A Time
04. Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)
05. Out On The Weekend
06. Human Highway
07. Neighborhood
08. Show Me
09. Harvest Moon
10. Words
11. Walk On
12. Texas Rangers
13. Powderfinger
14. Down By The River
15. Seed Justice
16. Peace Trail
17. Welfare Mothers
18. Rockin' In The Free World
guests with Paul McCartney
19. A Day In The Life>Give Peace A Chance (electric guitar)
20. Why Don't We Do It In The Road? (electric guitar)
Macca and Neil doing it in the road at #deserttrip pic.twitter.com/vuHRvSuKNA
— Joe Lynch (@branniganlynch) October 9, 2016
LIVE on #Periscope: Neil Young - The Desert Trip https://t.co/aGOO2XS1mX
— Robert Conley (@robertwconley) October 9, 2016
Think Neil Young is going to get political tonight at #DesertTrip?😜 pic.twitter.com/xTmkhCFElH
— Vanessa Franko (@vanessafranko) October 8, 2016
Listening to Neil Young sound checks from outside @DesertTripIndio pic.twitter.com/D7AoU5MGm6
— Lea (@justmelea) October 8, 2016
Seeing Neil Young tonight. Recreate CSN album cover pic.twitter.com/wlsyBz5xhh
— David Friend (@DavidMFriend1) October 8, 2016
Pregaming night two of @DesertTripIndio by spending afternoon in Palm Springs. Curious about Neil Young but pumped for Sir Paul. pic.twitter.com/xkDCSqMtOZ
— Andrew Hyde (@OnlineHyde) October 8, 2016
Neil Young with Promise of the REAL will open for Paul McCartney tonight, Saturday (Weekend #1), October 8, 2016.
A second weekend (October 14-16) was added to the Desert Trip Festival concert at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California, the site of Coachella, apparently, due to "overwhelming demand," according to DesertTrip.com.
The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan are featured on Friday; Paul McCartney and Neil Young follow on Saturday; and closes with Sunday-night performances by the Who and Roger Waters.
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.
And remember that time Neil Young was in playing a concert in Hyde Park, London and Sir Paul showed up???
Hyde Park, London, UK - June 27, 2009
Photo by Lzbth Corinthians (via Bernie B. Shakey)
(Click photo to enlarge)
Labels: concert, neil young
by thrasher@PermaLink: 10/08/2016 08:49:00 AM
31 comments
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31 Comments:
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I wonder if a McCartney friendly crowd will embrace Neil Young's brand of rock n roll.Except for HoG I would think not. Which is a good thing, McCartney lost his edge a long long time ago whereas NY's edge is as sharp as ever.
The day after Telluride I checked You Tube for videos from the show. There weren't any yet but there were several places to watch the show live. Of course the show was over so you couldn't see anything but apparently the show was streamed live. I don't know about tonight but you may want to check.
the show was NOT streamed live. those are all bogus clickbait links. you click on them and they want you to download something to "view" the live stream, which is not even happening. don't fall for it!
Sometimes this production company that is doing Desert Trips does stream live and wondering if Thrasherswheat might get a heads up on that with a bona fide and sanctified link? Have a feeling the "clickbaits" have malware they put on your computer when you download the "exe" file?
BTW, caught Steep Ravine in a hotel suite playing for the California Bluegrass Association at the IBMA convention in Raleigh and the lead singer was wearing a Neil Young & Crazy Horse "Rust Never Sleep" black t-shirt. When they asked for requests 'round midnight I asked for "Powderfinger," of course. Everyone in the band looked at me wide eyed like I was crazy till they realized the lead singer had the t-shirt on so they went into the first verse. Later, I learned they do cover Neil Young's "Sail Away" which I wish I would have asked for at the time. "Find out that now is the answer to answer that you gave later" kind of thing. Check out Steep Revine's superb video here which I think would fit in perfectly with the Bridge benefit and they hail from San Francisco...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCXDOPrPhGc
THANK YOU Dominic! I had no idea
Right now I'm listening to Desolation Row from last night's show. Bob and his band sound incredible, and the set lists for his show and the Stones both seem just about perfect. Tonight should be equally wonderful, and shoutouts to both Neil and (no, he sure as hell has NOT lost his edge) Paul for giving us countless gifts with their music.
Weds night I saw the true unbridled essence of rock and roll, when the mighty Titus Andronicus came to Portsmouth, NH as part of their Rockers on the Road Autumn Tour. For my money, Patrick Stickles is the new King, in all his wonderful and oh-so-human ways. Standing a dozen feet from the stage, each song was better than the one before. "Dimed Out" is about the best 3 minutes you could ever spend in concert (Patrick's opening line "Okay, time to rock and roll...let's fuckin' rock!"). Maybe a couple hundred folks in the great music loft of 3S Artspace got to experience what it's really all about. For the mostly young folks there, treasure that night--you'll remember it forever, I know this old guy sure will.
After playing for an incredibly intense 80 minutes (long shows are always great, but this music dish is best served in portions of an hour plus), it didn't seem there would be an encore. But the true believers and chants of "One More Song" brought the band back. Patrick thanked the crowd and the venue (he has a truly in-the-moment style that is so refreshing, no bullshit and life affirming), then told everyone to "keep on rocking", after which a very familiar bass line and groove signaled the start of the best cover of Rocking In The Free World that this music fan has ever heard.
Here's a current version of their song A More Perfect Union, which I've adopted as my running theme song for this oh-so-crazy ("I said it, it was wrong etc") election year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml15pmlPOm8
Enjoy the show, everyone who is going today, tomorrow or next weekend. Rock and Roll Will Never Die!
Titus Andronicus are one of the best bands of the past decade or so. Every album is phenomenal and every show is life affirming rock (I've seen them more than a dozen times at this point, perhaps closer to 20?).
Was A Giant Dog the opener?
My friends and I just got front Pit wristbands via StubHub for tonight/tomorrow for 75%+ off.
We had GA at face value from when they went on sale, but it's so huge that after last night... We doubled down and will actually be able to see Neil tonight instead of watching on a screen.
Thankfully Dylan and the Stones were lowest on our priority list, so this all worked out relatively well.
4th Neil show of 2016. So stoked.
I heard Dylan only played for 80 minutes
Wondering if The opening acts are confined
to a time limit
Thanks everyone for sharing the info and helping out.
Just reading the comments here leaves no doubt in our minds that Neil fans/rusties are the best music fans around.
Should be a great night for Neil + REAL.
The question is: Will the be a Neil + Paul moment?
Here's our speculations...
http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2016/10/flashback-about-that-time-paul.html
Saw Titus A a few weeks back in Austin, with hometown A Giant Dog opening. What a bill. Warms my heart they covered Neil, would have killed to see that.
According to Sugar Mountain, Neil came on during Paul's set and they played "Day In The Life">"Give Peace A Chance", followed by "Why Don't We Do It In The Road", which was McCartney's first live performance of that White Album ditty.
Wow, can't wait to hear reviews from those who were there.
It was awesome. All of it.
Words cannot describe it at the moment.
Paul's Set included:
A Hard Day's Night
Jet
Can't Buy Me Love
Letting Go
Day Tripper
Let Me Roll It
Foxy Lady (instrumental/partial)
I've Got A Feeling
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
Maybe I'm Amazed
We Can Work It Out
In Spite
I've Just Seen A Face
Love Me Do
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
Queenie Eye
Lady Madonna
FourFive Seconds
Eleanor Rigby
Being For The Benefit of Mister Kite!
A Day In The Life (w/Neil Young)
Give Peace A Chance (Chorus only - w/Neil Young)
Why Don't We Do It In The Road (w/Neil Young)
Something (false start)
Something
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Band On The Run
Back In The U.S.S.R.
Let It Be
Live And Let Die
Hey Jude
I Wanna Be Your Man
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
I might have missed some others....
Peace!!!!
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/see-mccartney-young-play-beatles-classic-at-desert-trip-w444043
why don't we do it in the road:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/watch-paul-mccartney-play-why-104748424.html
I'm always driftin' back 'cause I'm kinda old now...
Here's a YT vid from 1971.....> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ_ANiLeNNA
Short....but sweet!
Here's to Neil and Jack and the Gators and Michelob beer!
Wondering if any of the folks on the Desert Trip will join Neil & POTR in Pomona this week. Call me a Dreamin' Man...
Why no report on Neil Young?! Come on people, some of us aren't lucky enough to have been there!
Totally agree with you Thos I've been wondering the same thing. Such a huge gig and basically nothing about Neil
This comment has been removed by the author.
Yes, this is one of the most bizarre and disappointing threads I've seen. There's more information about Paul's music and others I've never heard of. Strange days indeed...
Most reviews and comments I've heard said Neil delivered the goods. To my surprise, apparently there were 2 hour time limits for the "opening acts" hence the relatively short set.
Neil was fairly political as always, mentioning Trump after "Welfare Mothers" and also quipped that fans should come back tomorrow because "Roger's gonna build a wall and make Mexico great again" which was humorous..
Sorry for the delayed "report" -- I was at the festival all day Sunday and then had to drive back to LAX and then fly back home, so honestly the last thing on my mind was letting everyone in the internet know about Neil's set on Saturday!
Neil started about 15 minutes late. The set times that DT sent out said 615pm, but he didn't start until about 630pm. That was a bummer to me, because I was hoping he'd start on time and get a 2.5 hour set in. The timing, in general all weekend, was clearly around "start at sunset" and "end by midnight".
This was my 4th show in 2016 -- if I had to rank them, it'd be impossible because JazzFest was so weird and Rome was so awesome because I was in Italy seeing Neil... but I felt like maybe this was the "worst" of the bunch setlist wise.. but only behind Rome in terms of energy, fun, etc.
I am kind of done with the acoustic opener stuff, but I get it and I know a lot of people love it. That said, Mother Earth continues to be awesome on the pump organ. When he sat down at the organ, the big screens flipped to a view from behind him... looking out over 80,000 people... with the sun setting in the distance behind the mountains and palm trees.. and it was absolutely perfect. That camera guy deserves a high five for realizing how perfect it was from that vantage and sharing it with the entire festival!
I thought the 4 new songs were pretty good, though the Texas Rangers song is a bit of a throwaway in my opinion. Kind of reminds me of Cough Up The Bucks or something.I loved that Neil didn't play guitar on a bunch and was just "one of the band" ripping harmonica solos as his instrumental duties. I look forward to the studio versions of all of these songs!
Someone yelled out for DBTR... and Neil acknowledged the guy, basically saying "yeah yeah, Down By The River? We'll get to it when we're good and ready". No clue if it was on the setlist or not, but I'm sure that guy's year was made. I've seen Neil do DBTR with Crazy Horse, most recently in 2012 at ACL Fest, and this version was way more ferocious and energetic.
Neil made some crack about it being "the year of the man" or something. Obviously a sarcastic joke about Trump's misogyny and chauvinism, but it just seemed awkward. He also said "Roger is going to build a beautiful wall tomorrow night for us... Make Mexico Great Again!" which got a nice cheer and laugh out of the crowd.
The Welfare Mothers intro, referencing it as Trump's new campaign theme song, was amusing... and he and Lukas "argued" about how they hadn't done it correctly live yet and who was to blame, etc.
Oh and that moment when he joined Paul later on? Jesus it was awesome. I knew it was coming when I saw the big red pedal board being lugged onto the stage, but most around me in the pit had no clue who Paul's "friend" was going to be. A Day In The Life was good -- Neil was like a kid in a candy shop with a huge grin, but it seemed kind of stilted performance wise. That said, I also didn't think it was so hot a few years ago (judging by the YouTube versions I watched). The novelty was more interesting than the actual performances.. but then "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" is teased with Paul saying that Neil is going to have to solo. And Neil acting like "Oh really? You want me to solo? SHOCKING, MAN!"... and they ripped into it and Neil owned the solo. It was mind blowingly cool. And the fact that Paul says things like "I love that boy" when talking about Neil? Awesome. So awesome. These two really do love playing together and seem like there's nothing forced about it.
I'm not sure what else I can write up about the show. I first saw Neil, a few days before I went to college, in 1996 with my Dad. I'm so fortunate to have the financial resources at the moment to have done this in 2016.
Thanks Pabst! great review. No apologies needed.
Glad you've had such a great Neil year. New Orleans, Rome, Indio. Quite a roll there.
Did anyone else see Thrasher's troll smackdown in the Comments section of the first Rolling Stone article on Neil and Paul? It was awesome! I'll try to locate it and provide the link later--thanks T.
Thanks Pabst, legend!
Thanks Pabst for your review
Here's the RS link; see Comments section for Thrasher's polite-but-pointed put away shot. And extra points for not responding back to any of the return fire--especially when it gets to the "I'm a trained musician..." part (which is a pretty standard thing in the RS Comments section). And that's all I will say here; sure don't want to be any more "disappointing" ha ha ha.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/live-reviews/mccartney-neil-young-deliver-powerful-sets-at-desert-trip-w444042
As a Southern Californian I was excited to see Neil was going to be at Coachella as part of the Desert Trip music festival. Unfortunately, I could not get tickets at a price that made sense. Having failed to get tickets to either Desert Trip concert, I decided to hit the road and see Neil and POTR in Salt Lake City and Tucson. Not to take anything away from the shows in Indio, but I think seeing the band from the rail in the pit in Tucson was the best concert experience of my life! I found out about the Pomona shows while on this trip and being a small venue it sold out fast. I got lucky when a couple of tickets went on sale the day of the second show. The will call set up prevented me from getting on the rail, but the cozy venue and great acoustics made that show just as memorable.
Some friends have begun to question my sanity for spending a week on the road following a legend and his band. I think at 58 I'm entitled to a little late mid-life crisis road trip. Hell, Michael from Germany was at Telluride and Boise too! It's a ways off, but I've always wanted to go to Australia and New Zealand. I guess I'll see when tickets go on sale....
@English Rusty - you made the right call. Altho, the Desert Fests packed a lot of punch with the veteran rockers out there.
Kind of wish there had been more all star hookups. Looks like the only walk on was Neil w/ Paul?! So how about that out of the entire weekend they were the only one's who's ego could handle sharing the spotlight.
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