Neil Young in Melbourne

I made the trip to Melbourne to see Neil Young in concert on Wednesday night. A few observations...

Neil Young still rocks

I was worried - I'd read a comment on a website from somebody who said he'd seen Young in concert a couple of years ago and said he was awful, especially his voice. I needn't have worried - Young sounded great. His voice sounded fine - just like you hear on all of his songs going back 40-plus years now. His guitar playing was as great as you could expect. He and his band played for two solid hours, and were very good.

Some complaints - I only knew about half of the songs he played. Some of the stuff, new and old, he played I just wasn't familiar with, although they all sounded good. And after great versions of "Spirit Road" and "Cinnamon Girl" - the highlight of the show - followed a long set of Young's more countrified stuff, including a couple of songs off of Harvest.

But then he finished with a fiery "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World."

When he came out for the encore and started the song and singing, I was disoriented. I knew the song - but this wasn't a Neil Young song. A split second later I realized it was the BEATLES' classic "A Day in the Life." And wow, Neil Young totally owned it. I was wondering as the song built up, how he and his band would handle the "wall of sound" parts of the song. The Beatles never had to worry about that - they had quit playing live shows by the time they released this song on Sargent Pepper's. Young and band just thrashed the guitars, drums, bass, and keyboards to build it up.

Despite muffing a couple of words (the bit about "found my way upstairs and had a smoke, somebody spoke and I went into a dream"), it was great. And the the final wall of sound to end the song was a loud, long, messy, glorious bit of rock-and-roll over the top performance. By the end, Young's guitar strings were breaking and he was using them to flail at the other strings. It was quite a performance.

This was one of the two most surprising encores I've heard. The other? Wilco doing "Don't Fear the Reaper."

But I was still disappointed not to hear my favorite Young song, "Like A Hurricane."

My Morning Jacket

I was glad to see Young - but the presence of Lousville, Kentucky country/prog-rockers My Morning Jacket made me really want to go. These guys are brilliant. They have a reputation for strong stage shows, and they were very good in their 45 minute set.

But...

Outdoor Venues Suck

But this was at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, an amphitheater featuring a big lawn in a park by the Yarra River in Melbourne. And it had all the problems that this sort of place has. The ground is hard. People walk all over you. Smoking. The music isn't quite loud enough, so the morons around you can still carry on a conversation. And clearly most of the crowd didn't know MMJ, and all around me people were carrying on conversations while MMJ played. I'll have to catch them somewhere when they are the headliners.

Plus Melbourne was in the middle of a heatwave. The daytime high on Wednesday was 44C. That's 111F in American. Either way it's HOT. By the time MMJ started at 7:30 (a full 30 minutes BEFORE my ticket said the show was supposed to start, glad I was there by 7:15) it was still in the upper 90s. At least the sun had stopped beating on us.

And New Devices to Blather At Us

One more thing. Advertisers continue to find new ways to direct commercial messages at us. They especially like captive audiences. And Melbourne Airport has a new (to me) device. A little TV screen that comes on automatically. It is on those hot-air hand dryers! You put your hand under their to dry (no paper towels so you have to) and a little commercial comes on the little screen. It's enough to make a guy want to skip washing his hands.