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http://HyperRust.org/Tour2003/?R14

Falconer Salen
Copenhagen, Denmark, April 27, 2003

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The Confirmed Set List
    First Set "Greendale"    (Song titles from NeilYoung.com.)
  1. Falling From Above
  2. Double E
  3. Devil's Sidewalk
  4. Leave The Driving
  5. Carmichael
  6. Bandit
  7. Grandpa's Interview
  8. Bringin' Down Dinner   [On pump organ]
  9. Sun Green
  10. Be The Rain
    Second Set
  11. Lotta Love
  12. Expecting To Fly   [on Grand Piano]
  13. Old Man
  14. Don't Let It Bring You Down
  15. Pocahontas   [on 12-string]
  16. The Needle And The Damage Done
  17. Harvest Moon
  18. After The Goldrush   [on Piano]
  19. War Of Man
    Encore
  20. Heart Of Gold


Falconer Salen
Copenhagen, Denmark, April 27, 2003

review by Johnny Jensen

Well, a three hour long concert has come to its end. Neil played in front of a full capacity crowd (2200) in Falkoner Salen, a smallish place nowadays. He's played there twice before: Jan 11, 1970 (with CSNY, still a 'concert classic' around here -- and I was there!) and March 16, 1976 (with Crazy Horse).

The stage was kept very much in darkness, with three huge white candles on the piano, the organ and the grand piano. Neil and his black chair were surrounded by three guitars during the first set, and during the second set by five guitars.

I think it was a really great concert with a very kind, very good and healthy looking, very talkative Young oferrig the crowd much charm and humour. He drew from the audience not only applaus, but also a good laugh now and then...

Strange to think of the man up there once sang about 'being left alone at the microphone'. Well, now he was really alone - on purpose - and wow, did he enjoy it. ;-)

The sound was great. Neil's voice is still competitive, to say the least. And his guitar work is impressive. He really worked hard, although sometimes his strings (especialy the deepest one) seem to buzz. And you could sometimes hear loudly his fingers were sliding over the strings. But on to the music...

GREENDALE

Neil introduced each song with a solid introduction (and somtimes a couple of jokes). I did not get much into Greendale before the concert, so it was hard to catch the core content of these rather long and wordy (and worthy!, it seems) songs, but they seem to me to repeat one of Neil's favorite themes: Civilization versus Nature. At least, in Neil's intro to the last song, Be The Rain, he talked about Alaska as being "one of the most beautiful places on earth", and sang about "Mother Earth" -- bringing my memory back to Here We Are In The Years and of course Mother Earth (Natural Anthem).

Neil made one mistake: when finishing a song's instrumental intro, he broke up, because he had used the wrong harmonica. When he replaced it -- causing much fun and applause amongst the crowd -- he then joked about how the coming reviews would be bad due to this mistake. He suggested a headline, "Young loses hair, keeps soul".

OLD YOUNG

Neil dedicated Expecting to Fly to the late Jack Nitzsche. He talked about all the fun he had recording it with a huge orchestra. He introduced Old Man by telling the audience about his 1976 gig here with Crazy Horse and asked the crowd 'who was there?'. Though I've loved Old Man right from the its release on Harvest, I feel that it's one of Neils's songs that really needs additional vocals and additional instrumental backing. I missed that here...

On Don't Let It Bring You Down, Neil's guitar sounded weird. He struggled hard to bring this one home, also due to the way this song challenges his voice when taken to real high pitch.

Pocahontas was a great version in Unplugged style. Great playing, wonderful vocals. Then came a suprise Needle And The Damage Done. This was after the crowd started suggesting songs -- a guy who at the very start of the show had annoyed Neil now suggested he do Needle. Neil responded with a 'You're my friend', took up a different guitar from what looked like planned and with no hesitation started out on this classic tune... Great! Thanx! I love this song! (Who doesn't?)

Harvest Moon was wonderful and got a long applause. After The Goldrush was great. Interestingly, it didn't get much crowd response to the famous lines of "felt like getting high."

War of Man was also great, what a performance on this complicated song. When Neil left after having waved goodbye at both sides of the stage, he looked satisfied, and why not???

ENCORE

Took a long time for Neil to come out. Drew a large applause from the crowd. Did a wonderful Heart Of Gold. Neil changed lyrics in the first verse from "expressions I never give" to "expressions I try to give".

Ohhhhhh, it's great to see Neil solo. A review from Stockholm mentioned that Neil did not put much affection in his old material. From what I heard in Copenhagen I can't agree. He really showed true love & affections for this golden material.

Have a good time, fellow European Rusties when attending coming concerts in Europe on this solo tour...

Forever Young
Johnny Jensen
Copenhagen


(more reviews coming...)