Australian tour end Mar 21 – Vector Arena, Auckland.
Blog on the Tracks: “Neil is a Touchstone.”
Simon Sweetman review of the Mar 19, 2013 – TSB Bank Arena, Wellington, Australia.
The writer/music reviewer says he cried watching Neil and Crazy Horse on the Australian Alchemy Tour:
Sweetman Writes:
“I’m super-grateful to have made it to the show. Twenty-three years ago I fell for the sound of Neil Young & Crazy Horse. I fell hard. There’s no picking yourself up and just dusting off, forgetting about it, after that happens. Hearing Neil Young with Crazy Horse was like hearing Hendrix, this Flannelette Coltrane with his exploratory guitar solos, antecedent for the grunge that was about to hook me in, a hark back to the heavy metal and punk sounds that were swirling in my head also at that time.
Neil Young is a touchstone, he gets called up all the time, the broken-arsed country/folk tunes and the Crazy Horse material; he’s the guy reviewers go to when they need a name that carries kudos, a handy comparison.”
At the tour opening in Perth, Australia, for the current ‘The Past, The Present, The Future’ tour, Neil Young and Crazy Horse performed a brandnew never-played-before song: “Hole in the Sky“.
an excellent review by James Morrison about the Melbourne intimate show at the Plenary:
“… Like any fan, I had my favourites that I was hoping would show up, and seeing the previous set lists I knew at least a couple were going to be there (‘Powderfinger,’ ‘Cinnamon Girl’ (my wife is a redhead…)), and resigned myself that others probably weren’t going to make the cut. When ‘Cinnamon Gir’l wound down, I was expecting to hear ‘Fucking Up,’ one of my personal least-liked. Instead, Neil wanders off to the right, his back to the others, and the intro to ‘Cortez’ starts. I’ll step into some dangerous territory here and mention (remember not a critic!) that to me, the arrangements to most of the old songs seemed very different and fresh. My wife used the word ‘ethereal’ and it was spot on.
Previous set lists were out the window, as ‘Cortez’ wound into ‘Danger Bird.’ (My only disappointment for the night was two-fold media-related – not getting this on tape in its entirety and running out of memory before ‘Like a Hurricane.’) The guitar work in this song however is worth the partial post. He does this thing with his hand over the strings, not strumming, but almost caressing, that vibrates in your chest. It was easily the darkest, most intense version I’ve heard of this song. I understand Bob’s comment about ‘out of body’ experience. Barstool Blues continued the diversion, and again taken as a group, the songs following Cinnamon Girl were played with an almost manic ferocity.
Melbourne setlist includes pearls like Dangerbird, Barstool Blues, Cortez, Sedan Delivery, Prisoners of Rock’n’Roll, Opear Star… here is the complete setlist.
Neil Young was up for pushing air around. He was in the mood to ram the laws of harmony through coils and cables until they bent the fabric of the universe, or else rupture the bowels of Satan trying. He also did Heart of Gold. In his sleep.
The disengaged solo acoustic flashback served two purposes. In terms of context, the easy listening nugget dovetailed ingeniously with Twisted Road, one of the more personal, reflective songs on his latest album with Crazy Horse, Psychedelic Pill.
It also showed the distance between the fireside singer-songwriter the world would love to have and hold, and the fringe-dwelling space-rock monster that long ago moved into the checked flannel shirt and stomped on every distortion device in sight.
Neil Young performs in Melbourne. Photo: Jason South
the discussion goes on. Hard to understand, why people expect something different than that what is known.
Rolling Stone: Show leaves Australian fans divided
[shows a video of Hey Hey, My My at Perth]
“By Andy Greene
March 4, 2013 11:25 AM
Neil Young and Crazy Horse kicked off their 2013 world tour in Perth, Australia on March 2nd. The set list was almost identical to the 2012 set, though he swapped in “Heart of Gold” for “The Needle and the Damage Done” and added a new song entitled “Hole in the Sky.” It’s a stripped-down (especially for Crazy Horse) track about the environment and how Young’s long-in-the-works LincVolt electric car project can save the planet. It sounds very much like an outtake from his much-maligned 2009 disc Fork in the Road.
The review of the show in the local press was extremely positive, noting that “Young and Crazy Horse displayed the kind of energy and enthusiasm for their craft that should make some of their younger contemporaries hang up their guitars and think again.” The comments on the site, however, tell a very different story. … ”
“I was in and out of consciousness, high on morphine. I was so sick I was hallucinating - I remember thinking I was floating around the hospital.” by -- Neil Young
Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.
memphish on 
Albert Stromann on 
liza on 
Baz on 
