Concert Review of the Moment: Winnipeg Concerts of Neil Young & Crazy Horse - February 2019

Image via Neil Young Archives | NYA

The Concert Review of the Moment is from the recent Winnipeg concerts of Neil Young & Crazy Horse on 2019-02-03 (Night #1) and 2019-02-04 (Night #2).

Neil Young Solo
Photo by thrashette via NYA Livestream

The Concert Review of the Moment comes after the following message was posted here on Thrasherr's Wheat: "Was ANYONE at either show who can give us a thoughtful review????!!!!"

To which Jeff posted the following comments...

These comments aren't thoughtful but came from my Facebook page.

My wife and I had tickets for Monday night's show and were going to drive from Bismarck. I only got tickets for one show because we had been on the road for over a month and were in Pensacola on Wednesday Jan. 30 and wanted to allow at least three days to get back and allow a cushion. An approaching storm got us on the road to Winnipeg a day early, and I snagged tickets online for the Sunday night show immediately.

Here is my first post: "I’m pretty sure this world would be a better place with more Neil Young fans in it. The young couple from Edmonton with whom we shared our table at dinner last night were a perfect start. He was a rabid Neil fan who had met Neil twice—the last being just that afternoon when he staked out the concert hall to get an autograph on his 'On the Beach' vinyl album cover. To make a good day better, yesterday also happened to be his 40th birthday. As we walked to the show, he tried to convince us that we needed to reconvene in the same bar after the show. I said, 'We’re really old. We’ll have to head for bed then.' They will be back on the floor tonight so I’ll try for a photo of us together.

The Burton Cummings Theater is a grand old venue with a main floor and two balconies with a capacity of just over 1,600. This was the coziest place I’ve seen Neil at ever. The merch line was long and slow so I missed the opening acoustic number 'Thrasher', but I did score another T-shirt for my collection. A woman from Minneapolis and a young man from Winnipeg chatted with me like we were old friends the entire 45 minutes we were waiting.The woman sitting behind us congratulated me as I grabbed my seat because she had given up on getting a shirt earlier due to the long line.

I won’t bore you with the details but the format was a short acoustic set and then Crazy Horse joined Neil on stage. They jammed and soared as only the self-described “third best garage band in the world “ could on a frigid winter night that needed some warming up. And they most certainly did heat up the hall.

I had one wish for the set list and that was 'Don’t Be Denied', Young’s song about growing up in Winnipeg. As you can read in the attached story, Young and the Horse played it last night for the first time since 1997. The show ended much too soon after almost two hours. We floated through the snow back to our campsite.

Waiting for the elevator we talked to a silver ponytail who had attended three of the four shows in Minneapolis last week. He said he had seen Neil about 20 times, and this was the second best show of all he had seen. We’re excited for tonight’s show and really happy that the weather got us up here a day early.

I’m hoping for an even better show tonight as Young has really been mixing up the set lists on this little winter tour.

Here’s the second post:

"We're home safe again after the last leg of this long winter road trip.

In my view, last night's show certainly had the stronger of the two setlists. The acoustic half hour was very similar with the exception of the opener 'Out on the Weekend' replacing 'Thrasher' and 'War of Man' and 'Don't Let It Bring You Down' taking the place of 'Heart of Gold'. The electric Crazy Horse set was mostly revamped retaining only 'Winterlong, 'Cortez the Killer' and 'My My, Hey Hey Hey (Into the Black)'.

I'm with Pancho, Crazy Horse's guitar player who is replaced by Nils Lofgren on this tour, in that I don't need to hear 'Cinnamon Girl' every time I see Neil live. (I remarked to Linda that this has to be the first show we've ever seen without 'Heart of Gold' and 'Cinnamon Girl'. I checked my list and these were our sixth shows to see Crazy Horse, and the thirteenth total Neil shows not counting the two times we've seen CSNY.)

The Centennial Concert Hall was a larger venue than the previous night--2,600 vs. 1,600 and some of the intimacy of the first night wasn't there. I had to nitpick to find a problem with Neil's singing on the electric opener 'Rockin' In The Free World', and I thought that his electric guitar Old Black was lost in the mix in a couple of places in the show.

But, damn! That was a fun two nights of music. (The attached link provides more details about the show if you care.)

PS The three photos are a tour of the stage before a Neil show. [ See jeff.weispfenning | FB]

The set at the start is a mix of an acoustic show and an electric show. In the first photo you can see the tie-dyed grand piano, the huge Crazy Horse banner and the circle of acoustic guitars and one banjo that disappear after the acoustic set. In the second photo, you can see (left to right) the old pump organ (that wasn't used either night), the ring of acoustic guitars, the Love light, the White Falcon Gretch guitar and the wooden Indian. The final photo shows the Danger Bird organ suspended high above the stage. It's up there every time Neil and the Horse play, but I've only seen it come down for 'Like a Hurricane'. It came down last night for the encore. And, maybe my personal highlight, they played 'Danger Bird'."

Thanks for the reviews Jeff! Very thoughtful indeed and much appreciated details and commentary.

Now, please let us know your FB page where the photos are posted and we'll update here.

Also, see:

• Neil Young's Solo "Big 3M Theater Tour" Begins Tonight: Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 23 - (49 Comments)
• CONCERT REVIEW: Neil Young Stuns Furloughed Fed on Opening Night of 2019 Mini Solo Tour - (4 Comments)
• Concert Review of the Moment: Neil Young Solo - Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 23, 2019 - (4 Comments)
• Neil Young Solo: Madison, Wisconsin, January 24 - (26 Comments)
• Comment of the Moment: Neil Young Solo: Madison, Wisconsin, January 24 - (5 Comments)
• Neil Young Solo Minneapolis Residency: #1 - Pantages Theatre, January 26 - (25 Comments)
• LIVE STREAM: Neil Young Solo Minneapolis Residency: Night #2 - Orpheum Theatre, January 28, 2019 - (42 Comments)
• LIVE STREAM "TEST" TONIGHT: Neil Young Solo Minneapolis Residency: Night #3 - State Theatre, January 29, 2019 - (61 Comments)
• Neil Young Solo Minneapolis Residency: Night #4 - Northrop Auditorium, January 31, 2019 - (38 Comments)
• Neil Young's Solo "Big 3M Theater Tour": Setlist Analysis - ( 46 Comments)
• Pacific Northwest Concert Dates Added - ( 46 Comments)
• TONIGHT: Live Stream Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Winnipeg Night #1, 2019-02-03 - (42 Comments)
• Comment of the Moment: Nils Lofgren's Guitar in Crazy Horse Band - ( 4 Comments)
• LIVE STREAM TONIGHT: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Winnipeg Night #2, 2019-02-04 - ( 37 Comments)
• Setlist Analysis: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Winnipeg 2019 - ( 3 Comments)

See you down the road!
ps - Keep it wild

Image via Neil Young Archives | NYA

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