Concert Review of the Moment: Washington, DC - 11/15/07

Photo by Vick Griffin - 11/15/07

An awesome Concert Review of the Moment on Washington, DC,11/15/07 show:

At 11/17/2007 12:34:00 PM, Locator said...

Did any of you ever have the following experience in your youth.....?

For whatever reason, you felt such joy that you smiled (yeah...smiled ) for, well....hours. You smiled so much that the next day, the muscles in your cheeks were actually sore.

It's been a long time since I experienced that.

I was privileged to attend the Thursday night show in DC and on Friday, on the long drive home with my bro, Vick Griffin, my cheekbones and attendant muscles positively ached.

Having read Thrasher's review of the Friday night DAR Constitution Hall show, I'm...well ("jealous" isn't in the spirit of the events so I'll settle for the more benign) "envious". OMG!!!!

All I can comment on (in the first person) is Thursday night's show. It's fair to say that I've been to see quite a few Neil shows in my time and they were all special but through the years there have been those certain shows that had that weird light around them...the stuff of myth. I'll cite one: Hartford Meadows in 1996 when Neil did (among others) the version of "When You Dance" that wound up on "Year of the Horse". The friends I went with (we were all Rusties back then) Thrasher, Shakey, Powderfinger, Randy Schechter.....I know I'm forgetting a few (mea culpa)...but those friends still benignly joke about how transported I was when Neil & The Horse launched into that song. It was a Golden Moment and somehow I was fortunate enough to recognize it for what it was as it happened. I was enlightened, transported and about as blissed-out as one could be.

This is all kind of the long way around to stating that Thursday Night at DAR was just such a show for me. It scratched (almost) every itch. What a wonderful experience! I haven't been that straight-on happy in years.

I've read some of the comments here...somebody actually painted this tour as an "Archives Tour", like that was a bad thing. For me anyway, I can only say that this is the kind of tour I've been hoping Neil would do for ages. I've checked out the setlists from other shows and frankly, I'm grateful that Neil is gearing this tour to the more dareIsay Die-Hard Fans that have been his core support for 30+ years. Somebody referred to the inclusion of the unreleased gems "Try" and "Kansas" as "fishy". I gotta respectfully disagree. Jeez, I thought I was cynical. Hey everyone's entitled to their opinion, right? Acknowledged. I just feel we've been privy to a very special tour full of "Golden Moments" and I for one am endlessly grateful to have had a chance to have been there.

I'll wrap this up by stating that I've never heard "Ambulance Blues" done better than Thursday night and that is no doubt because I didn't want to spoil the Thursday night show by listening to any of the previous shows...I'm sure it's probably been consistent throughout the tour but I never heard Neil's voice so strong and at the same time so delicate....beautiful!!!

The songs from Chrome Dreams II positively come alive when performed. "No Hidden Path" was an absolute standout. He was doing stuff with 'Ol Black which I haven't heard him do in years.

All my L & A to Thrasher & Thrashette, I'm privileged to have friends like you. Also had a chance to meet and talk with Nan Philpot. What a sweetheart! You GO, Girl! Met some other great folks, Rusties, I'm assuming. One of them asked if I had a list handle and I started to relate some ancient (Dan Farmer-era) Rust history and my small part in it...then kind of realized that none of it mattered anyway because we were all united as one in our appreciation and celebration of one of the only souls we've been able to consistently rely upon for 35 plus years...Neil.

My only regret is that I never got to see Cheryl Beddard or Randy Schechter and since I'm no longer affiliated with any lists these days, I gotta make a shout-out of love to the both of you here in my comments on Thrasher's Wheat. (Cheryl and I sat in the corner, high up at DAR for the 1995 Voters For Choice show-and that was another transcendent performance where he worked out in glorious feedback Song X/Act of Love). I'm sorry I didn't get to see you guys. Lotta miles, lotta shows.

One last word about the audience. What an enthusiastic and at the same time properly reverent group of people! I think we did Neil as good as he did us. Made me proud as hell just to be part of it.

This show was one for the Angels.

Roger & Out, Good Buddies....

Locator

Beautiful words, Locator. Thanks good buddy.

More concert reviews of Washington, DC - 11/15 & 16/07.

Also see, Neil Young 2007 Tour concert reviews.


Photo by Vick Griffin - 11/15/07