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Bryan's review
(more reviews coming)

Also See:
The show details.
A KnoxNews festival diary.
A USA Today review (no Neil content).

First Set
1. Love To Burn
2. Sedan Delivery
3. Powderfinger
4. Hey Hey My My (Into The Black)
5. Cortez The Killer
6. Fuckin' Up
7. Like A Hurricane
   1st Encore
8. Be The Rain
9. Cinnamon Girl
10. Rockin' In The Free World
11. Roll Another Number (For The Road)
    2nd Encore
12. Down By The River

Very glad to have driven about 400 miles round trip to catch The Horse in Manchester, Tennessee. I rolled up at about 3:30am on Friday morning, and it took another 5 hours to reach my camp site. After I parked, I crashed for about 5 hours, then woke up and went looking for the RustFest that had started at 11:00am. I did not find either of the general stores until the next day.

When Ben Harper finished his set (just before Neil), I was standing on the left side of the stage, right up front. Ben's fans backed out of there and I was able to roll right up to about the third row in the center of the left side of the stage. I was wearing my Greendale T Shirt and told a few people about the show I had seen a couple of nights earlier.

About an hour later, when Neil walked out and picked up Old Black, I knew that this show would be different from what I had seen Wednesday. Love To Burn Love ran somewhere between 15-20 minutes, as did Cortez, Down By The River, FU and LAH. All the other songs seemed to run about 10-15 minutes, except for Cinnamon Girl and Roll Another Number.

The Horse was strong and powerful out in this field in Tennessee, and they got up to a full gallop early on. Neil looked to be enjoying the jam, and not just going through the motions. He was wearing a white "Don't Spook The Horse" T-Shirt. Everyone looked fit and strong until Neil's hat fell off during DBTR, and then the bald spot and thinning sandy hair gave the truth away: he's fucking old.   :-) &nbps; But he fucking rocks...

The concert was "air guitar city" from start to finish, and from where I was the crowd was very pleased all the way. This group of red necks and hippies and school kids got exactly what they wanted, and I think they all really appreciated it. There was a very favorable buzz all over the farm after the show and the next morning -- a great day for both the fanatics and the casual fans. Neil had won over a lot of people who were there for other reasons (like The Dead and Widespread Panic).

I was definitely disappointed about not being able to see the Greendale show again.

This morning I woke up at 8:00am and drove right out of there. The place was very sleepy at that hour. I had some reservations about missing The Dead's show, but no regrets about not having to smell all those stinking hippies for another day...

Bryan

(more reviews coming...)