You might say that my first Neil Young concert experience was not bad. in 1978 I bought a fifth row center orchestra seat from a scalper in front of Madison Square Garden for $30; the concert with Crazy Horse turned out to be the legendary “Rust Never Sleeps” tour and I was hooked for life.

 I was in my first semester at Queens College when Neil Young and Crazy Horse raised the bar on the concert experience and I have attended every Neil Young tour that has made its way to the northeast (and beyond) ever since. 

This year’s tour with The Promise of the Real is in support of “The Monsanto Years” album and Neil Young provided a free copy of the CD or download with each ticket purchased. Mr. Young’s beef with Monsanto (and Starbucks) regarding GMOs had become unsettling as the cantankerous elder statesman of rock will play what he wants to play (irregardless of the ticket prices). Ticket sales had been slow prior to the start of the tour as those periphal fans who only want to hear “Harvest Moon” may have been scared off by the possibility of a political rant and a twenty minute distorted guitar solo. Just when you think you have Neil figured out, Young will change course and usually will provide the unexpected. If you want “greatest hits” only, there are plenty of acts on the road year after year playing the same fifteen hits from the 70’s. Neil Young is a vital artist following his muse. 

I emmersed myself in The “Monsanto Years” before the Camden, New Jersey show and, much to my surprise, it is some of the best work Neil has put out  since “Psychodelic Pill”.

I got a late start toward Camden, and traffic crawled, but I made it to the Susquehanna Bank Center in time to hear Mr. Young singing a solo acoustic “Old Man” 

This tour starts off solo acoustic and after players in white Hazmat suits spray the seeds that had been placed on the stage with faux pesticides, the Promise of the Real appear on stage with Neil to play “Hold Back the Tears” and what turns into a country rock set before finishing up the three hour plus concert with a fiery electric barrage by Young and his baby colt.

Solo acoustic, greatest hits, golden nuggets, new music, electric distortion; this show had something for everyone from the casual fan to the hardcore fanatic. The Promise of the Real started out as “the band with Willie Nelson’s sons” but turned into another brilliant decision by Young as he fed off of the much younger group who is earning a Masters degree in rock and roll all the while standing toe to toe with the king of grunge. It is an amazing concert alive in the moment as Young and the band travel the country changing up the setlist as his new cohorts learn the tunes along the way. There are too many highlights to list them all but the energetic frontman shreds on the new tunes as well as “Down by the River”, “Cortez the Killer”, or “Cowgirl in the Sand” which he played in Bethel Woods near Woodstock where he voiced his displeasure at there being no pit in front of the stage.

In Camden and Bethel Woods, Darryl Hannah was seen on the down low wearing a hoodie while videotaping the show from the side of the stage with what looked to be an IPad and a cell phone.

At Jones Beach Theater, we arrived before the venue was open to the public and my wife managed to outmaneuver some Neil Young fans from all over the country who came to see a true rock and roll legend; we had a front row view from the general admission pit as Young added yet another extraordinary chapter to a career like no other.

Long May You Run

GQ

On Friday, the unannounced special guest was My Morning Jacket who played an hour long set and then backed Roger Waters to close out the day. This was a reunion of sorts since the two performers played the Love for Levon tribute show at the Prudential Center in New Jersey similarly together. During Roger Waters’ set at Newport yesterday Amy Helm joined Waters, G.E. Smith and My Morning Jacket to play a Levon Helm tune. Roger Waters also played a John Prine tune and ended the day with Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young”.

On Saturday the unannounced long rumored special guest was James Taylor whose 1969 Newport set was interrupted by Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. No moon walk this time, only some technical difficulties, but a nice acoustic set anyway.

The Decemberists close out today’s festivities with more to come tomorrow.

Rock on

GQ

If recent shows are any indication, Neil Young will hit the Jones Beach stage at 8:45 PM solo acoustic and progress through country rock, new songs, classics and deep cuts, finishing up with a distortion filled last hour of Crazy Horse- like guitar pyrotechnics. There is something for everyone during the three plus hour performance and if you look closely during the show you may see a special guest in a black hoodie videotaping the proceedings from the sides of the stage.

Tickets are still available.

A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop

Walk on

GQ

While the Foo Fighters and Neil Young continue to fight the good fight rockin’ in the free world, when I see Kim Kardashian on the cover of my Rolling Stone magazine and I get an email from Groupon offering discounted Neil Young concert tickets for Jones Beach, the future of rock and roll would seem to be on life support.

Those of us who subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine count on the continued integrity of the publication and its commitment to the past, present, and future of rock and roll. Let Vanity Fair and ESPN pander to the Kardashian nation; Rolling Stone magazine should be better than this or go away graciously.

It is Better to Burn Out

Than to Fade Away.

Rolling Stone Magazine should 

Not Fade Away.

And while I occasionally purchase the inexpensive Groupon concert ticket for a cheap night out, when I see Gregg Allman with the Doobie Brothers on Groupon for Jones Beach and their Laid Back Festival, or Neil Young at the Beach for $18.00 because the show is not selling, it makes me a bit sad for the future of the industry. Although I am confident somehow it will survive, with the ever increasing difficulty for less established acts to sell their music and make a living, never mind get rich, I wonder how the rock and roll music will evolve and in what form. 

Go to a concert, put your smartphone away and live in the moment.

Support your favorite bands with your disposable income and discover new music.

and Rock on

GQ

Rhiannon Giddens is a must see and the concert is FREE as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn program. Prospect Park is a great outdoor venue in a cool neighborhood with great food trucks inside the venue which will be general admission for this performance.

On Thursday 7/16/2015  I traveled to Camden, New Jersey. just outside of Philadelphia. to attend Neil Young and the Promise of the Real with opener Band of Horses.

On Friday, 07/17/2015 I traveled to Bethel Woods near Woodstock to see Neil Young and the band with opener Puss N Boots featuring Norah Jones.

The tour continues Tuesday at Jones Beach Theater after which I will provide tales from the road, Darryl Hannah in a hoodie videotaping the concerts on the down low, and passing Neil Young’s custom tour bus on the New Jersey Turnpike.

The road goes on forever

The Monsanto Years

Walk on

GQ

I have to admit that when Dave Grohl broke his leg falling off a stage recently requiring six pins to put him back together, I was hoping that the band would postpone, or even cancel, their North American tour. I believed that the ticket prices were a little high for a stadium show to begin with and I had visions of Meat Loaf performing his “Bat Out of Hell” tour from a wheel chair at St. John’s University after he had broken a leg. At the end of that show, after being confined to a standard wheel chair during the performance, the heavy set Meat Loaf dramatically pulled himself out of the chair as if he had broken out of restraints and staggered/limped forward  victoriously toward the end of the performance. I did not know it then, but Mr. Loaf was known for his athletiicism and for doing tumblesaults but not on this night and I have always felt that I did not see Mr. Loaf at the height of his powers.

While Mr. Grohl is not known for doing backflips on stage, he is a high energy rock and roller; an old school rocker who I saw roaming the Sirius studios before his Chelsea Handler Town Hall interview enjoying an afternoon Coors Light while looking for the men’s room. Dave Grohl is my kind of rock and roll star.

The last time I saw the Foo Fighters was at the Global Festival with Neil Young and Crazy Horse in Central Park when he announced it would be their last performance as the Foo Fighters. As we now know, that did not last very long. Before that I saw the Foo fighters open for the Rolling Stones at Giants Stadium many moons ago.

My hopes of a postponed Citifield performance were dashed when I read that this tour was going to generate upwards of 68 million dollars for the band. Like when The Who went on tour after John Entwhistle died unexpectedly, if the money is in the bank, they are not making refunds. YES will apparently tour this summer without the late great Chris Squier who passed away recently.. YES is a band already currently touring without Jon Anderson or Rick Wakeman and with an old Alan White on drums. The show must go on I suppose but maybe Robert Plant has got the right idea about Led Zeppelin reunions. 

My wife and I took up spots in the general admission in front of the stage extension into the middle of the orchestra. I was really expecting the worst; a money grab from one of the last of the true rock and rollers. After the two man aural assault by a very interesting Royal Blood and video clips from the Sonic Highways documentary series, the Foo Fighters curtain dropped at 8:30 PM and our rock and roll savior Dave Grohl was seen on stage sitting in a magnificent throne-like chair with a red oval backing, an FF emblazoned on it,  with rotating stage lights around it’s back and various guitar necks protruding from the sides as if it could take flight at any given moment. Grohl’s right leg was elevated and in a cast and mid song the chair traveled up the catwalk where he was right above us. It should have sucked but it did not. Dave said that he was going to rock harder in that chair than he ever did on his feet and I’ll be damned if he did exactly that. 

We should have never doubted Grohl’s will to rock. It was a great show that included video clips of Dave’s on stage accident, x-rays, and a travelogue through his recovery and special chair configuration. 

The show was not sold out as they put the Wednesday show on sale after the Thursday sold quickly. The band rocked, appeared to be having fun and, while the Foo Fighters generally do not perform encores (and there was an 11:00 PM curfew), Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers joined the band on drums for the Faces’ “Stay With Me” with Taylor Hawkins on lead vocal which lef the crowd pretty satisfied as we headed to the Citifield parking lots.

Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins wore a Yes t-shirt throughout the show that said RIP Chris Squire which was a nice tribute to the legendary bassist.

The Foo Fighters are in Boston tonight and tomorrow for two shows at Fenway Park.

Let There Be Rock

GQ

I have been a neglectful blogger so to my one follower out there, my apologies but here is how my summer vacation is going (so far).

I attended Stephen Stills at City Winery a couple of weeks ago. It was advertised as a solo show but Stephen did have a band with him. which was a good thing. While I would have gone irregardless, Stephen Stills’  voice is pretty rough and ragged these days and on a bad night he struggles. On this night at City Winery Stephen was in good spirits (except for a few rants about cell phone video) and he was able to hit the high notes as well as he can presently. 

One great thing about a Stephen Stills performance  is that despite the current vocal shortcomings. Stephen Stills’ long history with the audience has everyone in the venue rooting for him; when he hits the difficult note, or comes close, the audience erupts in applause. 

The last time I saw Stills without Crosby and Nash he was with the apparent one-off The Rides with Kenny Wayne Shepherd in Westbury. The Rides was a blues fueled project where Stephen shared the stage somewhat equally with the other players.

Both shows had Stills playing nice renditions of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World”.

My “Peaches Records and Tapes” 1978 CSN Walk of Fame T-shirt was a big hit with random people in the City Winery crowd and my daughter said it was the best show we’ve seen at City Winery, which  is high praise indeed.

In June I spent a week at Bolton Landing , New York on Lake George where I finally got to read the Gregg Allman autobiography and Neil Young’s  Waging Heavy Peace. I found both books interesting and worth reading but if I had to choose one, the Neil Young book, which he wrote in his own, was a far more interesting read as Neil jumped back and forth between time periods and topics while keeping the narrative moving forward to provide great incite to his history, creative process, and motivations.

Treetop Flyer

Rock on

GQ

i have to admit that when I picked up tickets to see Mudhoney at the Bowery Ballroom it was partly to see the band connected to the 1980’s Seattle music scene that gave us Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, among other acts, but the primary pull was to see them at one of my favorite venues, the Bowery Ballroom.

I had heard of the band but was unfamiliar with the music and did not know even one Mudhoney tune before the show. I was truly a blank slate for this show but I enjoy a new musical experience so I was raring to go. 

Mudhoney rocks. 

The lead singer/ guitarist Mark Arm exudes the best grunge while channeling John Lydon and Iggy Pop’s love child. The songs are intelligent, the band is tight, and the music is loud but clear.

I left the concert wondering how this band did not break out big but I am sure there is an interesting back story that explains that particular question.

Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

Rock on

GQ