Neil Young News

March 2004

Fresh Wheat - 3/17/2004

Radio City Music Hall, New York City















Photos by Thrasher and Thrasherette

• A great show at Radio City Music Hall, New York City for St. Patrick's Day. Lots of green and Be The Snow. Neil was in great spirits and talked profusely prior to "Carmichael" saying this is important and shouting down a heckler with a "Shut up asshole". Thunderous applause with neil saying "See, the audience is behind me. Now let me finish".

  Crazy Horse rocked and Dangerbird was awesome -- going on & on. A wonderful, rare "Old Country Waltz" with Mountainettes.

  Great seeing lots of friends and catching up at the International Rust Fest with folks from all over the world including Austria, France, Holland & Japan - at least. Thanks for putting together Ray "Northern Man"!

  Also, thanks Neil-Billy Dave for the guitar pick (Herco Flex 50) from Larry Cragg. See you tonight!

• Setlist for 03-17-2004, Radio City Music Hall, New York City, New York, from Bad News Beat and Tom at Sugar Mountain :

  Greendale Set
  ---
  11. Hey Hey, My My
  12. All Along The Watchtower
  13. Powderfinger
  14. Rockin' In The Free World
  ---
  15. Old Country Waltz
  16. Love And Only Love
  17. Dangerbird
  18. Roll Another Number
  

  More Greendale 2004 Tour photos.

  Fresh Wheat - 3/16/2004

  Greendale 2004 Photos

• More fantastic concert photos posted on Rusted Sister's gallery page.

  

  Photos above from Camden, 3/14/04 (left by Rusted Sister) and Detroit, 3/9/04 (right by Julee Sprague).

  

  Camden, 3/14/04, photo by Barry P.

  

  Photos by Julee Sprague (left, Detroit 3/9/04) and Ed Gendelman (right, Camden 3/14/04)

  

  Hershey, 3/12/04, photo by Rusted Sister

  So visit Rusted Sister's gallery page for full coverage of Detroit, Hershey and Camden fests. Lots of great folks, music and fun. Thanks Rusted Sister, Barry P., Ed Gendelman and Julee!

  Fresh Wheat - 3/12/2004

  

  Sacramento - The Review

• Well, folks, a monster front row report of the Sacramento show posted on RUST by Bob the Writer, aka Robert Clark Young. Rusties were entranced by the dozen posts of full color commentary in Bob's inimitable prose. The gig will certainly be long remembered as a highlight of the 2004 Greendale tour logging in at 3 hours with 20 songs.

  It doesn't get much more vivid than this. Full coverage of catching Ralph's drumstick, interviewing a Mountainette, and the Greendale stage up close and personal.

  Check out Bob's Sacramento concert review.

  Fresh Wheat - 3/11/2004

  cover photo by Tom Hambleton from Boarding House, San Francisco, CA 5/28/78
  Broken Arrow Magazine #93

• The latest issue of Broken Arrow magazine from the Neil Young Appreciation Society is landing in mailboxes around the world. Another great issue featuring lots of Greendale reviews and photos from Australia tour.

  Also, an interesting series of articles on Bob Dylan and Neil. From Neil scholar Johnny Rogan some insightful commentary on the two legends and their places in rock history. Also, an article on Neil's sailboat - the W.N. Ragland - and its role in whale counting. And a fascinating tale of a rare photo album of Neil restoring the Ragland to seaworthiness.

  Another great issue Surfer Joe! If you don't already subscribe, do it now .

  Fresh Wheat - 3/8/2004

  
  Venice Magazine Interview

• From rust@yahoo, an interview link for Venice Magazine, a Los Angeles Arts & Entertainment mag, where Neil discusses Greendale, bio-diesel fuel, and election year politics with the Dixie Chicks, Howard Dean and George Bush. See an excerpt on how Young learned the film making craft on the making of Greendale page.

  Sacramento, CA (flac)

• From largehearted boy, a girl, and his radio comes word on the "Daily Download" of Neil's 2004-02-23, Sacramento, CA concert. To download the flac file, you need to register at Sharing The Groove and use a Bittorrent client. Keep on Rockin! Thanks Largehearted Boy!

  2004 Concert Reviews

• Reviews posted for Vancouver Vancouver, Portland, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Albuquerque , Colorado Springs , Milwaukee, Chicago and Moline.

• Also, from the Guestbook a nice note from Scott G:
  "I saw the Greendale show at The MARK of the Quad Cities in Moline Illinois. I can see why some are unhappy with all of this... but it was a very powerful and fresh concert. I cried at many points in the show... and the Mark crowd was totally into it. A moment in my life I will always cherish. Take a look at what the music industry has to offer us as an alternative. Stop your whining folks... it's more than music... It's about people... like you and me..."

  More on Greendale whining and challenging audiences. Also, vote on the poll question of whether "Neil "owes" his audience anything?"

  Fresh Wheat - 3/5/2004

  photo by Expecting To Fly
  Colorado Springs Review

• From Expecting To Fly, as cross-posted to both rust@yahoo and Human Highway , a front row report with a tale of a souvenir guitar string from Old Black on which Neil Young with Crazy Horse played Hey Hey, My My / Powderfinger / Love And Only Love / Like A Hurricane // Cinnamon Girl / Fuckin' Up.

  Check out Expecting To Fly's full review of Colorado Springs concert and setlist.

  Fresh Wheat - 3/2/2004

  Albuquerque, NM Concert Reviews

• An encore set highlight of Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb Blues".

  From Tom in New Mexico in the Guestbook, the concert was what he called "a poet's vision".

  "Neil Young has always been the bearer of unexpected things. His musical genius combined with the backwoods reality that is his music is the perfect vehicle for this Kielloresque drama. What I liked about the show was the way it was introduced. It was just suddenly there. Most other bands or musicians that have even half of Young's vast collection of hits will play a show and introduce new material almost apologetically. "

  From Coder in the Guestbook on a show where "it seems like we were surrounded by Californians that flew out to see the show."

  "They played for 3 hours without a break. 2 hours of Greendale and 1 hour of Crazy Horse. At one point he commented "this place sounds pretty good", it did too.

  I think it was also a good crowd for him. No negative vibes got reinforced. He sort of got (acted?) distracted when he was introducing "devil's sidewalk", making somewhat vague statements about evil in the world. He said something like "but anyway, this song isn't about that" just before starting to play."

  Coming soon, reviews from Sacramento's towering 20 song setlist show. For more reviews and setlists, see Greendale Concerts page.

  The Green-ness of Greendale

• From RollingStone.com article by STEVE BALTIN (February 27, 2004) on the Greendale tour being powered by bio-diesel fuel:
  "Neil Young has inspired generations of musicians musically, now he's hoping he can do the same environmentally. While promoting his latest album, the ecology-minded Greendale, and new film of the same name, the veteran rocker is filling his tour buses with Biodiesel, a cleaner burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources such as soybean oil and recycled cooking oil. Young is using B20, twenty percent Biodiesel mixed with eighty-percent diesel, which is the most common blend, to power the fifteen diesel trucks and buses it takes to carry the tour from city to city.

  "I think it is incumbent upon me to do everything that I can to try to live up to Sun Green's version of what the world should be like," Young says, referencing one of his album's characters, "and the kind of changes people should make. Biodiesel has seventy-five to eighty percent less pollution than normal diesel. We're just trying to make a statement: 'Hey, this is something you can do right now. I could be driving around in my SUV or Hummer burning vegetable oil.'"

  Young joins a list of rockers trying to raise awareness of the alternative fuel, including Bonnie Raitt, the Indigo Girls, Jonathan Richman and Jane's Addiction. At last year's Lollapalooza, Jane's used the fuel to power the tour's generators.

  Joe Jobe, executive director of the National Biodiesel Board, says that having someone with Young's environmental track record use the fuel is a boon for the organization. "Neil has been a leader on a number of issues, and if he believes in something he will become a hardcore advocate," Jobe says. "He's proven time and time again that he is successful at it."

  In addition to the environmental advantages, Young believes the alternative fuel offers a solution for the plight of the American farmers, a cause he's been actively involved in for a number of years with the Farm Aid concerts. "You're out there putting American farmers to work with a renewable fuel and taking away our dependence on foreign oil and our need to go through all these wars and tap dances we do over economics in the Middle East," he says. "Why should we do that when you have everything we need right here and we can put our own people to work?"

  

• To discuss the green-ness of Greendale, check out the Be The Rain thread over on Rusted Highway.

  

  See February 2004 for more news on 2004 Neil Young Greendale Concert Tour opening shows with setlists, photos and reviews.

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