The evening started with meeting my brother Citrus and his wife Sherry for dinner and a few beers before the show, then a train and bus ride to the venue. As we were heading to the show, the sky opened up and it poured fucking rain, oh no, with this being an outdoor show, I was really hoping it wouldn't get cancelled. After stopping at a Dollar Store and getting some rain ponchos, luckily for us, the rain did stop and it ended up being a beautiful night for an outdoor show.
I had never been to this venue before Deer Lake Park out in the suburb of Burnaby and a bus ride through the residential area of where the venue is. Felt like it took forever to get to the venue, but eventually we did make it. Only to see the line up to get in go on forever, it really felt and looked like there was no end to the line up. While in the line up the couple in front of us had a bag of mushrooms that they were consuming and asked us if we wanted some, very kind of them, but we declined as i wanted to remember the show. Twenty years ago, I'd been allover that, but not tonight. I was starting to think we would miss the start of Neil's set by the looks of the line up. But much to my surprise, the line up went quite quick, thank fuck!
By the time we got into the venue, which is a beautiful venue, a park with a natural amphitheatre setting, with the lake in behind the stage, made for a very nice setting. And it was a general admission show, no VIP bullshit, or gold seating or any of that crap, just good ol' general admission with everyone paying the same price, which was a 120 dollars, very reasonable for a legend like Neil Young. My guess is the venue holds around 10,000 people, sold out of course.
Anyways, by the time we got in and got ourselves a few beers and got settled, we caught the tail end of the opening act which was a band called Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping from new York. Catching the tail end of their set was more than enough. I don't know how you would describe them, but it certainly did nothing for me. If you care to know more about them click here. All I can say is it was stage full of colorful characters with the lead singer singing and preaching something or another.
Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.
After a short break and a beer run, it was time for Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts. Neil and his back up band The Chrome Hearts are basically the band Promise Of The Real minus Lukas Nelson, who has backed up Neil off and on for a few years now, when he isn't playing with Crazy Horse. The Chrome Hearts are Micah Nelson (Willie Nelson's son) on guitar, Anthony LoGerfo on drums, Corey McCormick on bass, rounded out by Spooner Oldham on keys.
Just before Neil Young hit the stage a gaggle of Canadian geese, my guess is about 30 of them flew right over the crowd and then the stage, followed by another gaggle of geese, or maybe it was the same gaggle, i'm not sure, but twice we had a fly over of geese. So fucking Canadian, you would swear it was staged. I'm some glad I wasn't tripping on mushrooms or I'd be second guessing myself if that actually happened. After the second fly over Neil and The Chrome Hearts hit the stage opening with the song "Ambulance Blues" followed by "Cowgirl In The Sand" which was a song my wife Janis was really hoping they would play, and fuck ya, second song in and she was in her glory. And after that it was the quadruple hit of "Southern Man", "Ohio", "Long Walk Home" and the classic "Powderfinger" holy fuck we were off to an amazing start. Then it was a brand new song that had only been released a few weeks before and isn't even on an album yet, a song called "Big Crime" an anti-Trump song, followed by another new song from the Neil Young Chrome Hearts album Talkin' To The Trees "Silver Eagle". Neil even played a CSNY song "Looking Forward" which was super cool. Then a triple punch of "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", "Harvest Moon" which was incredible with the whole crowd singing along, gave me shivers right up my spine, like I was on mushrooms. And then into the old Buffalo Springfield song "Mr. Soul". Other songs played after that were "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" and "Old Man" and for the encore "Roll Another Number (For The Road)" and the show was over, and with the strong smell of weed through out the show, I think everyone did roll one for the road. Holy motherfucker that hour and a half went way too damn quick. Such a great setlist, there were a few songs I wasn't familiar with, and now know that they were from the 2003 album Greendale an album he recorded with Crazy Horse that I never really gave a chance. I have listened to said album since, and it's better than I remembered. Neil's back up band The Chrome Hearts fucking rock, the younger members in the band bring a lot of energy with Micah ripping it up as good as Neil himself, and bass player Corey who had the most energy out of all of them. Absolutely outstanding show, ya there were songs I wanted to hear but didn't, but no complaining here, great selection of songs, and probably the quickest hour and half show I recall in a long time. It seemed like it was over before it got started. With a noise curfew of 10pm, it ended way to soon. My only regret is that I didn't book a few more days off and stayed in Vancouver for the second show of Neil's two night stand at Deer Lake Park on Monday night, bummer. But at least I got to see him in concert again. With Neil turning 80 in November, who knows how many more chances a guy will get to see him again. My favourite show of the year so far and I can't see that being beat this year. Good times!!!
And a big shout out to my brother for getting us to and from the show in a seamless matter. Hell, we were back at our hotel in downtown Vancouver within an hour of the show being over. He really does know the transit system very well. Thanks Citrus!
If anyone has a recording of this show audio or video, I'd love to have a copy of this show. get in touch with me. Leave a comment. No comments get posted without me reading first, so send me a message if you can help. Thanks! Oh ya, and if anyone has a picture of the geese flying over before the show, would love a picture of that too.
Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts.
T-shirt front.
T-shirt back.
