Neil Young & Crazy Horse w/Los Lobos and The Sadies
Sunday, November 11th, 2012 (Remembrance Day)
Rogers Arena,
800 Griffiths Way,
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Taper: LeifH
Source: CSBs (filter) > Sony WM D6C (Dolby B) > Maxell MX 110 (x2)
Transfer: Master cassettes > Modified Sony TC-WE475 (Dolby off; azimuth adjusted) > H/K 3500 > Creative X-Fi Soundblaster > Wavepad Master's Edition @ 48000kHz (edits, tracking, downsample to 16/44.1) > flac (8) via Frontend

Setlist: 2:13:34
00 A Day in the Life
01 O, Canada
02 Love and Only Love
03 Powderfinger
04 Born In Ontario
05 Walk Like a Giant
06 The Needle and the Damage Done
07 Twisted Road
08 Singer Without A Song
09 Ramada Inn
10 Cinnamon Girl
11 Fuckin' Up
12 Mr. Soul
13 Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black)
14 Roll Another Number
15 Happy Birthday

I had general admission floor tickets for this show, so I stood approximately 50' back from the stage, dead centre. There was a chalk mark on the floor for 75' which was directly under the centre score board in the middle of the building. This was my third time seeing The Sadies and Neil Young, although not together, and my second time seeing Los Lobos, both times as an opening act at Rogers Arena. Originally the band entitled Everest was due to open the show, but for whatever reason they were replaced by the Sadies, who I much prefer anyway. They played a short set but it consisted mainly of their best songs. I thought Los Lobos were less inspired than when I previously saw them opening for Clapton, and their sound was not that great at times. I saw someone before the show started with a t-shirt on that said, "11.11.12 NEIL YOUNG," with a mangled cassette on it but was unable to speak at that point so I didn't try to ask what that was about, and not because I was recording, I literally couldn't speak at the time. My legs felt like jello during the opening acts so I sat on the floor in between sets. It was hard getting up and down those stairs to get a drink of water! There was a pair of big recording mics at the front of the sound cage about 10' in the air which I assume belonged to Neil's crew. I got a kick out of the pirate flag on stage behind the drum kit.

I am pretty happy with how this turned out, it sounds like it did that night, great. Nailed it. The floor this night was smoke central (yes, that's my lighter), and it seemed the majority of the crowd was drunk. There are a few very brief and maybe funny moments of crowd noise. Right at the beginning of A Day in the Life, as soon as the lights went out, some guy proposed to his girlfriend, and she said yes, hence the comments there. Hearing all the drunks trying to sing O, Canada is pretty funny. The entire show from start to finish was amazing, possibly the best performance I've seen from Neil Young and one of my top 5 favorite shows and recordings. He is so inspiring. My mood changed the second Neil walked on stage. I was in a psychedelic state of mind and the back drop/lighting was fantastic. All I can really say is, "wow." Some chick threw her bra onstage which got a big grin out of Neil. The ending to Walk Like a Giant was just bizarre and went on almost 7 minutes. They could have done it twice as long and I still would have enjoyed it. Some lady said at the end of the song, "I should have dropped acid," and I had to silently agree with her because I was glad I did, it really topped off the show for me.

The Woodstock rain sequence was very cool, and right around then I got so thirsty I would have paid the $6 for a bottle of water but the popcorn people were nowhere in site. There was no way I was going to leave my spot though. I didn't peek at the setlists before this show because I wanted to be surprised and I'm glad I used the 110 minute metal tapes, because there were some long songs, and the output sound on them is really nice and warm and detailed. There was a lot of engery and emotion put into this show, and Ramada Inn was one of the most intense moments. Cinnamon Girl definitely got the best (worst) reaction from the crowd. I think the highlight of the show for me was Fuckin' Up. Neil was stomping his Harley Davidson footswitch and making some shrieking guitar notes, just rocking away, hammering and abusing the bigsby on his Les Paul. Mr. Soul is the only song I've heard live at all 3 shows I've been to, one being Buffalo Springfield.

The following day was Neil's 67th birthday, so as the band was about to do their final bow after Roll Another Number, they began singing, "Happy birthday to you," and the crowd quickly joined in to sing him Happy Birthday as it was now his birthday in eastern time. After the show I was amazed yet again by how masses of people act like sheep. The exit for section 105 had a smooth flowing line, and everyone was just standing around, not moving at all. It made me think of using people like dominoes. It was raining most of the day and continued on after the show, which was actually nice after being in the heat of nearly 20,000 people. I was in the early stages of a cold and I was able to hold in any coughing and sneazing during the show.

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NeilYoungAndCrazyHorse2012-11-11RogersArenaVancouverCanada1.JPG