On Tuesday morning my buddy Buzzard and I took the three hour bus ride to Calgary to see the awesome triple bill of Neil Young and Crazy Horse with openers Los Lobos and The Sadies. Why this show never made it up to Edmonton is beyond me, but we weren't going to miss this show. So it was off to Cowtown for this one.
The evening started with Toronto band The Sadies opening. The tickets said show starting at 7:30, but because I have The Sadies on my facebook, I saw a post in the afternoon from them saying they would be on stage at 7:15. We didn't want to miss The Sadies, so we made sure to be at the Saddledome plenty early. At 7:15 they hit the stage to a near empty place. This was my ninth time seeing The Sadies in concert. I was wondering how they would come across playing such a big venue. Well by the end of their rocking countrified half hour set, they had a lot of people in there seats and paying attention. The Sadies led by brothers Travis and Dallas Good definitely made some new fans on this night. I heard lots of people talking about them after their set, and didn't hear a single person say a bad thing about The Sadies. Good to see and hear.
The Sadies.
Next up was the Los Lobos, this was my third time seeing them play, and again they were good. Not as good as the last time I saw them, which was a in a bar, but still good. The Los Lobos played a forty-five minute set mixing it up with songs from their 30 plus year career. And no, they didn't play La Bamba thank god. This is a band I would rather see in a different setting, like an outdoor festival or a bar. Nonetheless, I did enjoy their set.
Los Lobos.
Headliner of the evening was Canadian rock legend Neil Young with his back-up band Crazy Horse. This was my fifth time seeing Neil Young and fourth time seeing him with Crazy Horse. So I had a pretty good idea of what I was in store for. What did catch me by surprise was the way the show started. It started with the roadies coming out in smocks and lifting the oversize cases off of the oversize Fender amps and setting up the huge microphone, then came something I had never experienced before at a concert. The Canadian national anthem being played with Neil Young and Crazy Horse standing on one side of the stage and the roadies on the other side, and then the audience standing, taking off their hats and such and everyone singing along to the anthem with a huge Canadian flag draped at the back of the stage. Maybe with no NHL hockey so far this year, Neil figured we needed to hear the anthem play. Surely a different way to start a rock n' roll concert.
The roadies setting up and the Canadian Flag during the National Anthem.
After the anthem it was time to rock the hell out of the Saddledome. Neil Young and Crazy Horse (Frank "Poncho" Sampedro on guitar, Ralph Moilna on drums and bassist Bill Talbot) opened the show with a twenty minute version of "Love And Only Love" from the awesome Ragged Glory album that came out in 1990. Then the boys went in to the classic song "Powderfinger". Neil Young didn't shy away from his latest release Psychedelic Pill which came out last month, his second release of the year. Songs played from that release were "Born In Ontario", "Walk Like A Giant" another long jammed out tune which sounded excellent, "Twisted Road" and "Ramada Inn", all these new songs went over really good with the crowd of 12,000. The two surprise songs of the night for me were the Buffalo Springfield song "Mr. Soul" and the CSN&Y song "Helpless" which was the encore song. The only flaw of the night I heard was Neil missing a lyric in the song "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)". A minor mistake, considering the man is 67 having just celebrated his birthday the night before. What an amazing show this was, if you ever wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall listening to Neil and Crazy Horse jam, all you need to do is see them live. These guys just feed off of each other through out the concert standing in front of the drum stand wailing away for a solid two hours. All and all a great night of music. Good times!!!
Neil Young and Crazy Horse.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse setlist for the Calgary show.
Love and Only Love
Powderfinger
Born In Ontario
Walk Like a Giant
The Needle and the Damage Done
Twisted Road
Singer Without a Song
Ramada Inn
Cinnamon Girl
Fuckin' Up
Cortez the Killer
Mr. Soul
Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
Encore:
Helpless
T-shirt front.
Back of t-shirt.
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