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Mauro Stein's early comments
Fabio Augusto's review
(more reviews coming)
Also See:
The show details.
An Estado de São Paulo review (in Portuguese)
A Folha de São Paulo review (in Portuguese)

First Set
1. Sedan Delivey
2. Hey, Hey, My My (Into the Black)
3. Love And Only Love
4. Cinnamon Girl
5. Fuckin' Up
6. Cortez The Killer
7. Like a Hurricane
8. Rockin' In The Free World
   Encore 1
9. Powderfinger
10. Down by the River
    Encore 2 [didn't leave stage after bows]
11. Welfare Mothers

Just got home from THE SHOW. AMAZING. No words... and dead tired... It's five am.

RITFW reeeeallly rocked... After Down By The River, when we thought he was gonna leave he said was gonna play one more -- the audience went crazy.

I'm sure he loved to play for us. The atmosphere was magic. They were smiling all the time. Everybody dancing...

Very tired. Bye from Rio, mauro

I'm back from Rio, exhausted, with sunburn and sore feet. All worth it.

It was my first Neil concert, and you can imagine that my opinion will be highly favorable, because... well, I was seeing Neil & The Horse live for the first time, man! Try to remember how you felt when you first saw him live, and you'll have an idea of how I felt.

Before I get to Neil, two quick paragraphs to describe the two shows that preceded Neil. I had never heard much of the Dave Matthews Band before, and I was pleasantly surprised by their show. Quite lively, and it got the crowd into a good vibe. All Along The Watchtower was the highlight and the crowd loved it. Dave Matthews said he felt great since it was the biggest crowd he had played for, and the band was enjoying themselves.

As for Sheryl Crow, well it was nice, but nothing beyond that. It's not the kind of music to play for over 150 thousand people. She only got the crowd going with All I Wanna Do, and especially with Sweet Child O'Mine. She was quite nice on stage, saying how much she was enjoying Brazil and everything. She looked pretty good, too... ; )

On to Neil...

I must first say that Neil is not well known in Brazil, very few of his albums were released here (none of the classics). I thought a lot of people would leave after Dave Matthews or Sheryl Crow, but people remained in the festival, waiting for Neil. Quite a few left during the show, but most remained, and it was nice to see people dancing around and trying to sing songs from a guy they knew almost nothing about.

There were about 150 thousand people last night at the festival, and it was the least attended night of Rock in Rio. There were over 200 thousand people there on Guns 'N Roses night. Also on the Iron Maiden night, and on the Britney Spears night. By the way, she was booed during her show -- apparently it wasn't a very lively show and it was clear she wasn't singing the song live (it was playback). Also she displayed a huge American flag during one of the songs, which drews boos from the Brazilian crowd.

I don't know if this was the biggest crowd Neil ever played for, but he said during the press conference he was a bit nervous to play for such a huge crowd.

He took the stage around 1:20 am to great applause, and went right into...

• Sedan Delivery -- I'm not a fan of the song, but it sounded great and it was a great opener. You could feel from it that the boys were in the mood to play.

• Hey Hey, My My -- Excellent, very distorted, got the crowd singing along.

• Love And Only Love -- I must say that I was impressed with Neil's guitar playing on this one. It was extended, and he played his ass off here. A long intro before getting to the first verse, the crowd loved the playing here.

• Cinnamon Girl -- You can't miss with this classic, great to hear and sing along to. And it went right into...

• Fuckin' Up -- The guys really got into this one. Wonderful playing by Neil. The crowd loved it.

• Cortez The Killer -- Well, it was mind blowing. A very long intro, by this time the people were so impressed with Neil's playing that everyone was applauding by the end of every solo he played. When he sang, "...and the women all were beautiful", he pointed to the audience, the crowd loved it.

• Like A Hurricane -- Mind blowing as well, probably the highlight. The girls came out for this one, and Pancho went to the keyboards. After a false start (at least I think it was, after playing the riff for a while, he and & The Horse started to play like he was already finishing the song, then they started it again) he played his ass off again. Near the end of the song, he broke two of his guitar strings, and started to slash the broken strings for a while. I could see on the big screen monitor over the stage that his wrist was bleeding. That didn´t stop him, though. Eventually he pulled the microphone towards him, and started to sing the song again! Weird, but everyone loved it.

• Rockin' In The Free World -- Another highlight, the crowd sang along to this one. He played the USA's anthem at the end. I think it was during this song that Pancho had problem with his guitar and had to replace it, but I'm not sure.

• Powderfinger -- Great, a classic and you can't go wrong with this. The crowd seemed to love the melody on this one. The final chords of this song were the first for...

• Down By The River -- A lot of people left after RITFW, because none of the shows during the day had encores. After the first chords of Powderfinger, you could see people coming back to the show, but a lot had already left. Too bad, it would have been great to hear the crowd sing along to the creepy chorus. It was a good version, but nothing exceptional.

• Welfare Mothers -- I was already way back, next to the exit, and could only see the show from the big screen they had over the stage. Once again, a lot of people that were about to leave came back. I quite like this song, and it was a nice way to end the show.

Fellow Rusties, it was worth the wait and all the sun on my head during my trip to Rio.

Cheers,
Fabio

(more reviews coming soon...)