Philzone.org - Philzone Phansite Community Discussion Board: Setlists and Reviews: Non GD Related Reviews: Archive: Neil Young Everett, WA 10/21/08

10-21-2008, Comcast Arena At Everett, Everett, Washington

Neil Young & His Electric Band
(Neil Young, Ben Keith, Anthony Crawford, Rick Rosas, Chad Cromwell, Pegi Young)

Love And Only Love / Hey Hey, My My / Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere / Powderfinger / Spirit Road / Cinnamon Girl / Oh, Lonesome Me / Mother Earth / The Needle And The Damage Done / Unknown Legend / Heart Of Gold / Old Man / Get Back To The Country / Just Singing A Song / Sea Change / When Worlds Collide / Cowgirl In The Sand / Rockin' In The Free World // A Day In The Life // The Sultan

That was a pretty rocking show last night. There were two opening bands. The first was a new band called Everest that I only heard about a song and a half from as we were entering and grabbing beers. Death Cab For Cutie followed. It was their hometown show, so they seemed extra animated, but it didn't really do too much for me. Angular guitar a la Television or Nels' Cline's work teamed with whiny lyrics. Maybe if I was 16 I'd care.

Neil's set was mostly hard rock and he sounded sharp and vital. The Comcast Arena is a minor league hockey rink somewhere in the 8-9000 seat range. The acoustics were a little muddy in the back of the hall. While most of the assigned seats in the stands appeared full, the general admission floor was maybe half full. I believe people had to pony up in the neighborhood of $150 for the privilege of standing for 4 hours. The young security staff were being fairly eager in trying to make sure no one was jumping the boards onto the floor. Since there was so much space down there, it was hard to do so without being noticed. Eventually, timing our jumps to the waves of security personnel and the lights, my friend and I both were able to make like hockey players and jump "onto the ice". In front of the board, the mix was much more clear.

I'd been anticipating "A Day In The Life" and found Neil's performance of it authentic. He did a huge feedback jam at the rave-up at the end and deconstructed his guitar, breaking every string. I thought the show was over then, but then some guy dressed with a headress and tribal markings came out and they performed a spaghetti-westernish instrumental while the "Sultan" banged on a gong intermittently. My friend commented that there were a lot of very high older folks in the crowd. Seemed like a lot of folks gone on heroin or prescription painkillers. I noticed that element to the crowd (saw a few Sturgis patches, all sorts of tribal and biker wear), but lots of the everyday people Neil likes to champion.

Neil is still on top of his game.

nice review Dave!!!

After doing a little digging, I discovered that the second encore, "The Sultan", was a regional hit in Canada for Neil's first band The Squires in the early '60s. He's definitely mining the vault.

Jd does good reviews

Only seen Neil once in my 40 year career...

A few years ago Chula Vista I was far from stage

Beck opened

I dug both..Beck got the nod that night

>Eventually, timing our jumps to the waves of security personnel and the lights,

Hey thats my move.

Def Cab sure could use a lead guitar. I saw them open for PJ, just a long constant drone

Breaking every String! Rock and Roll Neil

thanx

How long a set did he play? I'm seeing him this weekend at the Bridge but I really want to see him plugged in, it's been a long time, and I'm trying to decide if I'm going to pull to Reno next weekend.

I'm bummed. Neil postponed his Omaha show that was supposed to be on the 5th.

With a ticket price of $150 was the place full?
That's a lot of scratch.

Neil played for just about two hours. The more affordably priced tickets (ironically, with comfortable seats) all appeared full. I paid $52 for my seats in the upper tier. For 4 hours of music it was not such a bad deal, especially since it was easy to get down to floor level on the bottom tier (I think those tickets were in the $75-100 range), and a little more difficult, but ultimately possible, to get onto the $150 a pop general admission floor. The floor looked less than half full. I don't think too many people in the stands successfully breached security and made it to the floor, as the security kids were fairly zealous. It was a shame to have the floor half empty and undoubtedly robbed a little momentum from the show, although Neil and co. rocked hard regardless. Most people in the seats remained seated. I'm sure if the staff had relented and let people roam freely, the floor would have filled up and made for a little less sedate crowd. The sound was definitely sharper on the floor in front of the board, so I'm glad I made the move.

Hopefully, Neil's inability to sell tickets at the astronomical levels will dissuade other artists from charging such high fees for the choice seats. They're excluding most of their hardiest fans by doing this. Save that shit for when you're collecting your AARP kickout and shilling for the blue-hairs in Vegas, eh?

seeing him at the LA forum next week, the place i saw my 1st show, van halen in '82!!

i love neil young

thanks

Reno tonight! Storm movin in, gonna be lots of fun. GO NEIL!