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An unofficial news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat with concert and album updates, reviews, analysis, and other Rock & Roll ramblings. Separating the wheat from the chaff since 1996.
The event of the season with Van Morrison ["Moondance"], Yusuf/Cat Stevens ["Moon Shadow"] and Neil Young ["Harvest Moon"] and The Chrome Hearts Love Earth Tour performing @ Hyde Park, London, England.
When Neil Young in 2009 saw the floor at the Olympiahalle in Munich being seated in front of the stage he had all the seats removed and promised a t-shirt instead to those who had paid for the seats.
Looking at the audience yesterday in Stuttgart I saw many folks in the audience who definitely would not have made it through the complete show while standing. It's an unsolvable problem: The older folks have the money for the seats close to the stage, while the band plays for those standing in the back. My son and I were waiting on the rail before the show but security send us back to the seats. Due to "booking errors" we ended up in seats in row 13 in the dead center (twice as expensive as the ones we paid for). The show was not sold out and many people did get an upgrade.
By the time FU started a group of a hundred fans made a rushed advance through the security aisle at stage right but were stopped by the security staff. When Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts started into Like A Hurricane the complete audience rose to their feet, stage right moved up to the rail and also the stage left aisle started moving towards the stage. Those Suebians (alemannic Germans living in the Stuttgart area and throughout the southwest of Germany) simply aren't made for breaking rules that an authority set up for them, no matter how stupid they are. They would ask for permission before starting a revolution... (Liebe Schwaben: Consider this to be friendly teasing by a Bavarian neighbour) Next time I hope Lookout Mgt. and whoever is in charge start looking (out ) earlier for outdoor venues.
The itinerary of this tour is an unsolved riddle to me. They toured Benelux, but then went across Germany to that Polish border town we call our capital and then headed straight back to Mönchengladbach not far from the Netherlands , where they came from. A tour that does not use planes within Europe somehow has to be a linear undertaking, not a zig-zag course going back and forth. That present itinerary reminds me of these teenage Eurail Pass travelers being completely lost after a week of travel in Europe.
More on the concert itself later.
"Cowgirl In The Sand"
So here’s my run-through on the Stuttgart 2025 Concert
“Ambulance Blues” started too bass heavy for my ears. This song is an example where one would like to listen to every nuance of every word and verse. I liked the band arrangement though. Like in the past especially in this song there were moments and movements when Neil Young appeared to be a much younger man than he actually is. Like all presentations in public playing to an audience has this re-juvenating effect, I believe.
“Cowgirl” came across very dynamic and with a lot of pressure (lacking the word in English for that quality)
I enjoyed both “Greendale” songs, and still can’t understand why they did not show up more often over the years, they are natural concert anthems, even sing-alongs for those who can’t resist. Also they play to the younger part of the audience, not so much to the HOGTTs.
The “Ragged Glory” (Fuckin’ Up”, “Love to Burn”) songs somehow had the anarchy of The Horse missing. On the other hand I found the CH feedback orgies of 2013 and 2014 taken a bit too far. Back then they could easily have played another three long songs instead of some of the factory noise.
Anyway Neil commented on “FU” something in the vein of “I hope these songs are not too personal”. I took it to be a reaction to criticism regarding his latest output maybe.
Neil Young wrote in his tour travelogue that he had been searching for songs that have not been released live or not with a full band indicating that there could be a live record document of this tour (What about these songs on “LeNoise” or “Peace Trail”?).
These songs would include “Ambulance Blues” and “Looking Forward”, also “Name of Love”, also “Daddy Went A-Walking” played in Montreux two days before. The Stuttgart version of “Name of Love” was fairly shakey, near the end of the set the strain showed (was to be heard).
My son, the sound technician running systems of almost a similar size, was impressed by Tim Mulligan’s FOH work. His ears, not as damaged as mine, wanted to have heard some irregularities or disturbance due to the fact that we were right between the stage and the FOH tower. Neil Young mentioned that he had problems with the stage sound being too loud (see travelogue #13 on NYA)
Looking at the stage set-up I saw a ghetto-blaster mock –up on stage right. Was this a relic of the “Rusted Out Garage” tour? It looked like a schoolgirl’s art project (our students do these things back in my school).
And somehow I got the feeling that this show and tour is circling the Dark Mirage, but that’s another story if I can get myself to write down my projections as part 2.
Thanks so much for the report Dionys! Decided to go with a placeholder here. Maybe folks will clamor for Part#2?! Just drop another comment any time and we'll incorporate here.
UPDATE:
Sure enough, Dionys comes through with not only Part #2, but Part #3 as well.
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