Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Los Angeles Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California, April 27, 1991
Over on his Dollar Bin blog, my infamous older brother Nathan has been keeping close tabs on All One Song, my summer Neil Young podcast mini-series. It's a no holds barred running commentary that packs a punch! This is Nathan's right and privilege, of course — after all, without his shining example, I'd never have gotten into Neil to the extent that I have. He was the one who blasted Crazy Horse on long car rides, who took me to my first Neil show in 1993, who pooled his money with his pals to buy the Bottom Line 1974 bootleg, thus setting this blog on its course way back when. He's the patron saint of Doom & Gloom!
Nathan did not, however, take sixth-grader me to the Los Angeles Sports Arena in the spring of 1991 to see the closing night of the Weld tour. At the time, I think I thought he was going to see Neil Diamond. Ah well, I can at least listen to the tape of the evening, which is killer. The show had been rescheduled due to Young's "ear infection;" not sure if that's a euphemism for the insane hearing damage Neil inflicted upon himself during this era.
"Those shows were really fucking loud," he said later. "Loud in the way a crashing plane is loud, amped up for that war sound, that kind of thing. That's what we were going for .... It was very military sounding at times — big machinery, unbelievable power and destruction. That was our sound."
So uh, turn it up! Neil and the Horse are in pure corrosive mode for pretty much the entire set; the vocals occasionally sound a little ragged after a couple months on the road, but hey. The song from this period that always excites me is "Crime In The City," which has never sounded so good since; just a totally demonic ride, like To Live and Die in LA compressed into eight minutes, those strange violent, vignettes flashing by you. And then there's the completely blown away "Like A Hurricane," which breaks down completely in the middle. Unbelievable power and destruction, just like Neil said.
Oh and hey: Since Nathan brings it up in his most recent post — here's Arc II, which a Doom & Gloom reader put together a million years ago. You need it in your life!
Oh and hey hey: You may have noticed from the above poster that Sonic Youth were not on the bill in LA — who the hell are the Buck Pets??? I think that the rescheduling meant that SY couldn't make it. Earlier that month, when the original shows were supposed to take place, Thurston, Kim, Steve and Lee popped up at the Whiskey instead. Listen to the tape in all its glory!
