Back In February I asked Ambiana if she wanted to go see Neil Young & Crazy Horse with me because he was playing in Massachusetts almost exactly one year after we went to se Taylor Swift at Gillette Stadium. She said she would go if we could get some friends to go with us and I reached out to Corey to see if he and his daughter Eliana wanted to join us. Not only did they, the entire family plus Eliana’s friend Popie wanted to go as well.
So on Friday we met up with Corey, Analou, Eliana, Sylvan & Popie at exit 7 in Berlin and caravanned down to Mansfield Mass and the Xfinity Center for the show. The kids were in one car and Analou and Corey rode with me and it was nice to have that time to get to know them even better.
We had a picnic in the parking lot, played some games, tailgated with the other fans and went into the venue at 6:30pm
We set up on the lawn where we had a good sight line, the grass was so lush, the weather was fine and the time was fun!
The opening act must have been a Neil Young creation because it as eight person choir with a preacher and all the songs were about climate change and the need to change our ways. They had a good groove and were an enjoyable opening act.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse came on at 8:30pm and played for 2 hours. The set was heavy on long jams and wandering guitar solos. Neil spoke a bit to the crowd; the best line was “Nice to see you all again. You look a bit different” The crowd was mostly gray hairs like myself with a smattering of younger folk. Neil played three acoustic songs; “Comes A Time”, “Heart of Gold” and “Human Highway” before ending the set with “He Hey My My”. The crowd was not to enthusiastic and I was relieved that the band came back out for an encore which were the two best songs of the set; “Down By the River” and “Like A Hurricane”.
During “Down By the River” Ambiana and Sylvan started to bop in a line and Eliana and Popie joined in and then the guys next to us joined them which got me into the line and then there were two girls who joined to my left. For a moment I though the bop line would go viral and spread across the lawn. Even though it did not it was the most fun of the night.
We spent the night at Jayme’s in Milis and got to spend some time with her and Orlando in the morning. On our way home we dropped in at Drea’s work to see her and get some cider donuts. Then it was back to Vermont and Jakobi’s dance performance at the Barre Opera House. Her dancing was beautiful!
