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Rating: Neither rain nor hail stops us during the journey, and with difficulty, we reach Barolo for the much-anticipated Neil Young concert; as a reward for our boldness, a violent 15-minute downpour blesses us when we're already packed without remedy into the crowded square awaiting him.
To clear up any doubts, I'll start by saying it was a good concert, albeit with some regrets as it could have been exceptional with a little attention to detail, and I'm a bit disappointed. It's the first time I've seen him so close, and I'm convinced it won't be the last, also because anyone who claims Neil Young is washed up is simply light-years away from reality.
I'll get straight to the point by pointing out what I think could have been avoided or reconsidered. Taking into account the rather grueling tour, just the day before, he was in Ulm, Germany, and for obvious age-related limits, which nonetheless didn't stop him from jumping around the stage like a cricket and sparing no effort (along with all the Crazy Horse), the concert wasn't very long; let's say just under two hours. Neil didn't play any covers from his latest album (A Letter Home) and only one track, the title track, from the previous “Psychedelic Pill” and then I wonder why in a concert composed of 14 tracks, including the encore, he included three from “Ragged Glory” and two from “Are You Passionate?” of which one was likely discarded because, although it could be dated to that album, it wasn't included?
I would have much preferred, since this tour wasn't promoting any album, if his choice had fallen on other classics scattered throughout his vast and extraordinary production. Listening to the thoughts of people spoken at high volume, I can more or less condense them like this: "...beautiful concert, pity I didn't know most of the tracks". An observation that I would have considered before drafting the setlist if I were him.
For me, the decision to propose a Bob Dylan cover and to include a track from a non-essential album like “American Dream” by CSNY is also very debatable, especially considering the sparse number of tracks offered.
In short, let me say it out loud, you can't skip “Like a Hurricane”, “Hey Hey My My”, or “Powderfinger” just to name a few in a celebratory concert of Neil Young, because in certain cases some tracks have to be played regardless, even though in almost 50 years of an extremely honorable career, he might have replayed them so many times that he probably even came to detest them.
Another negative point was the subpar sound quality in the square—the drums were barely audible, at least in the first part, the bass muddied everything up, and even the guitars were often distorted. We were outdoors, and for me, the sound engineer could and should have done much better.
The stage was too low for thousands of people positioned in the square, and raising it by a good meter would have been a good and just thing, but perhaps here the fault lies with the organizers of the package of events held in Barolo. Another jarring detail was the arrangement of the equipment on stage, the amplifiers and backing singers relegated to the background, even in height, where they were almost unnoticeable, but they prominently displayed the giant access pass on their chests, which was a truly annoying detail.
Lastly, the giant screen that had entertained us, far more than the dull performance of the opening singer whose name I couldn't even tell you, with fantastic images from the stage and on the crowd: a celebration of magnificence that had whetted our appetite for all the details we could have enjoyed...and indeed we would have, because for the entire Neil Young concert the immense giant screen positioned on the stage, with a definition that ranged from perfect to otherworldly, was solely used to display the stylized Indian on horseback logo on a massive black background of the Alchemy tour. Decision somewhere between incomprehensible and idiotic. Here the negative notes end, because then the concert was good (but not great).
It opens with the fireworks of “Love and Only Love” from “Ragged Glory” then moves on to the first unreleased track, “Standing in the Light of Love”, probably a leftover from “Are You Passionate?” then again “Going Home” and “Days that Used to Be”, still from those two albums. The performances are beautiful and intense, but the impression is that the people around me are wondering what the heck he's playing.“Living with War” although not a memorable piece is still a warning to today's tense world situation and fits well, but the subsequent cover of “Blowin' in the Wind” frankly doesn't, all the more so since the people finally recognize a piece and the stadium roars explode, all with a song by another giant and nonetheless offered by an artist who has an immense acoustic production that is literally divinely chilling. Okay, the references to tension and the desire to ask questions, but damn it, I'm here to listen to his classics as well, but he'll only please me with the wonderful “Cortez the Killer” and “Heart of Gold”. Before even the Dylan song, he offers a long, and avoidable, version of “Love to Burn” (God only knows how much I would have preferred a long version of “Like a Hurricane”) and a decent, but also avoidable, performance of “Name of Love” from the mediocre 1988 CSNY reunion album.
Then finally the concert takes off with the acoustic and beautiful “Heart of Gold”, “Barstool Blues” from "Zuma", although for the first time, there are some noticeable slips even to untrained ears, the excellent "Psychedelic Pill” and a magnificent goosebump-inducing version of “Cortez the Killer” which leaves a lot of bitterness for what this performance could have been but wasn't. The concert ends with the rousing execution of “Rockin' in the Free World” with the people finally enthusiastic and participatory; in other times, the concert would have started now, but alas, it's ending.
As the only encore, another rousing unreleased piece “Who's Gonna Stand Up and Save the Earth”, which will be released in the subsequent "Storytone", but the die is cast, Neil's voice doesn't allow him to dare more, and seeing him face-to-face, hailed by those present, I seemed to read that it bothered him a little. But, for God's sake, how can you not do “Powderfinger” and choose “Living with War”?
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