I saw Neil Young live in Sydney last night. It was one of the strangest gigs I've ever been to. He did all of Greendale in the first half (see below) and came back for the most boring, sludge-fest of a Crazy Horse rock show imaginable in the 2nd, encoreing with 2 lighter numbers - Ie they actually had tunes you could hum to.
the Geendale show is possibly the most cringe inducing thing I've ever witnessed - at least on par with some of the Australian Idol viewing. don't get me wrong - i actually like the album quite a bit (confused concept that it is) and some of the tracks were substantially better in the live arena - especially "Sun Green" with it's loudhailer 'chorus' and the beautifull "Bandit".
but the show itself was impossible to watch with a straight face. on either side of the stage are 2 badly made props - a housefront and a jail cell - and behind the band is a raised stage area in front of a video screen. in these spaces and around the band travel a group of actors MIMING badly to the lyrics as they are sung and over-acting the characters in them. Eg a bloke with a grey beard playing granpa green, eyes a poppin, knees a twitchin and finger a pokin as he dies on his porch of a heart attack.
best of all - there's a troupe of dancers who come out for the last 2 songs who reminded me of nothing other than the whole FAME crew doing their rock dancing best. the last song (it's already corny enough without all this rigmarole) was a pure classic of unmitigated schmaltz with US and Aus flags being flapped around, the whole bunch of actors and hangers on singing and clapping along and the dancers... the dancers... flexing and twirling and punching their fists in the air and making a wave when old neil sings about "saving mother earth". ah god, i wish i'd left after that.
― phil turnbull (philT), Saturday, 22 November 2003 06:10 (twenty-one years ago)