Neil Young rocks the free world and Death Cab For Cutie rocks no one...

I was wrong. See I am not afraid to admit it. Once or twice in a lifetime it happens. Whether I like it or not. Back when I was in the forest service, 1987, there was this guy. I think his name was David. I can't remember. I might have a pic of him around here somewhere. I will look for it. Okay yup I found a pic of him. Here he is circa 1987 after a softball tournament in Orofino Idaho. I have an embarassing photo of me to share from that same day I will share at the bottom.

Anyway, he was a huge Neil fan. In fact he was just in the process of discovery of Neil. Every time I would see him he would have a new cassette, you remember them don't ya? All that tape hiss and fast-forwarding to the song you want to hear? Cassettes sucked. Anyway, he would rant and rave about how great Neil Young's music was and how great the lyrics were. On and on and on.

I of course being the music supremist(did I just invent a word?) that I was, would make fun of him and tell him he should listen to something from this century. I was such a cool guy. I would not give him any credit. I just wanted him to put in LL Cool J or Run DMC and get off my back so I could Rock the Bells. Yup I was hip hop totally to the core.

Well, I should have listened to him back then and took the time to examine Neil's body of work. It truly is amazing. Oh, and he is Canadian. Not sure how that works in to the equation but he is.

Fast forward to 2008 and on last Saturday I had the extreme pleasure to attend a concert. It was Neil Young with Death Cab for Cutie opening up. There was some other band named Everest that played also. Which I might add had shirts at the merch table for $45. Now, who in their right mind is going to buy a shirt for a band they have NEVER heard of? That shit was crazy.

You all know that I truly enjoy listing and ranking things. In fact I did a whole post back in the day about my top 10 concerts EVER. Needless to say after Saturday night I think I may have to alter that list a bit.

I was right about one thing when I was giving David shit, Neil Young is old. He was old then and is older now. There I said it. He is ancient. In fact, his guitar tech is even older. Wilfred Brimley is what we were calling him. I will tell you though, all these new jacks out there can take a few notes from this old guy. Neil Young can wail. Wail he did on Saturday. He played a few new songs and lots of old stuff. It was cool to hear the man sing Hey Hey, My My, Rockin' in the free world, Old man, and my personal favorite Needle and the damage Done. Which he killed.

I also noticed that there were no cel phones being held up instead of lighters at this show. Mostly because most of the old dudes in the house had lighters so they could smoke their funny cigs. There was sooooo much pot in the house I thought I was high. And I have no idea what being high feels like.

I can't say enough how great this show was. After Rockin' he left the stage for the prerequisite 'break' before the encore. When he came back out he did A Day In The Life by the Beatles. Now you might think a guy who is as old as he is might just come out and kick an old hit just to satisfy, but you would be wrong thinking that. He tore this song up. At the end he broke all the strings on his guitar and was tapping them on the frets just making all this killer feedback. Then he just walked off the stage leaving us all there to wallow in that feedback. That my friends, is how you end a show. Just walk off and let us wallow in your awesomeness. He did come back out to take a bow but to just walk off that kinda says to me that Neil is telling us that it don't matter how many articles you get in FHM or Vibe magazine or what you are wearing all these new jacks ain't got shit on him. Rock on Neil. Oh and David, sorry for being a dick back in 1987. I was wrong.

The only thing I missed was I would have liked to have heard This Note's for You and Fuckin' Up, but he has so much material somethings are gonna be missed.

Now there was some bad at this show. That bad came in the form of Death Cab for Cutie. Man they sucked. I knew the show you are watching is bad when me and Trev started talking about movies and what was going on at work. They just sucked. No stage presence, no charisma, nothing. They have some good songs but they just did not transfer live. I was dissappointed because all of you fine Americans will get to see Wilco on your leg of the tour but we were forced to sit thru Mr. Sensitive and his pussy back-up band. You can tell they are sensitive because of their lighting. You suck. In fact at one point there was this stoned guy who started calling for Neil to take the stage. We all agreed so he got even braver and in the next break he yelled FUCK YOU to the boys on the stage really loud. I know they heard it because the people in the balcony were laughing. If they heard it the sensitive guys on the stage heard it. I hope it did not break their confidence too much. I didn't help much when I started yelling "Freebird". Yup, I'm that guy.

Okay so get to it moron, where does it rank? Okay I will remind you what the other shows are in order...

1. Run DMC/DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince - Paramount Theater - Seattle, WA
2. Bikini Kill - Minot Punk Club - Minot ND
3. Pearl Jam - Rexall Place - Edmonton Alberta
4. Tragically Hip - Ryans Ballroom, Kimberly WI
5. TIE - Violent Femmes - Cowles Fieldhouse Des Moines IA/Neil Young - Brandt Centre, Regina Saskatchewan
6. Wilco Summerteeth Tour - Barrymoore Theater Madison WI
7. Blink 182 - Telus Field Edmonton Alberta
8. Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock/U Krew - Nez Pierce Fairgrounds, Lewiston Idaho
9. Foo Fighters - SummerFest Milwuakee WI
10. Gear Daddies - Minneapolis Zoo Amphitheater, Minneapolis Minesota
11. Soul Asylum/Tina and the B sides/TPOH - Detroit Lakes Freedom Fest

So this is a tough decision to make. I think I am going to cop-out and put them in as a tie for 5th place with the Violent Femmes. I know that sucks but it is my list. Deal with it. I am seeing Bob Dylan this month also so this could change again. Yup, seeing a lot of shows this month. I am also seeing Lenny Kravitz on the 30th so I am not sure what he is going to have to do to get on the list. Maybe crap out a guitar on stage and play it? Who knows. Oh I forgot I need to add the Gear Daddies to that list also. Man this is getting hard. You know what, Geardaddies take over number 10. I am going to keep Soul Asylum and Tina on the list. Spinal Tap can go to eleven so can I. Deal with it.

Okay here are my embarassing pics of the day. First up is a pic of me drinking a bit of beer at the softball tournament in Orofino. As you can see I have a shitty Twins hat, I am sure I got it free somewhere, and a huge mug in my hand. I have of course dubbed the mug the 'Magnum Mug'. I think at that time I was into calling everything Magnum. Yup I was a loser. Nice hair. One good thing is my location in relation to the keg. I sure knew where to sit. Not to hard to get a drink, just reach over and fill.


Next pic is me, again drinking, shortly after I got my ear pierced. Yes, a drunken pierce in an effort to impress the girl in the pic. She is the sister of the guy standing next to her. Not sure what her or his name is. I spent the evening in a drinking contest with her. I was really interested in some other kind of contest but did not have the guts to make a move. I know she was a bit disgusted with the fact that I was alone with her for around three hours and I did not make one move. I am such a loser. Of course that is Dave I have in a head lock. I am sure he suggested we listen to Neil and I said no, we will listen to the Fat Boys.

On that note I will let you go and enjoy your weekend.

Good day, EH.