I had none of the trouble you did with the venue but I hit the food vans during Glen Hansard so probably missed the worst of it.Neil Young was really good. Except for the annoying bass player, Promise Of The Real are an excellent backing band. He played some shit songs (some new ones I don't know, Hank To Hendrix), some predictable crowd pleasers (Old Man, Heart of Gold, Rocking Free World) and some amazing stuff it's always good to hear (Everybody Knows, Cortez, My My Hey Hey and a bunch of tracks from Ragged Glory). He looked great and his shredding was intense. But it was a very similar set to the last few times I've seen him. When you have such an amazing catalogue, could you not mix it up a bit? Like A Hurricane? Powderfinger?
I thought Young’s set was great and thought the setlist was a nice mix of unusual selections and crowd pleasers. Opening with “Like an Inca” was incredible - it’s such a jammer compared to the studio version. Along with “Over and Over”, “Human Highway” and “Throw Your Hatred Down”, it was the first time I’ve heard the songs live in all the times I’ve seen him (this is number 8). Nice versions of “Everybody’s Knows This Is Nowhere” and “Piece of Crap” along with a blistering version of “Cortez the Killer”. There was no way that Dylan could follow that and he really didn’t. It was like watching a wedding band (with a drunk singer) after that. Not the worst I’ve seen Dylan but far from the best. The tune with Neil was fun but not worth having to watch the rest of Dylan’s set for.
Also, “From Hank to Hendrix” is nearly 30 years old at this stage, no new material at all last night. The most recent song was “Throw Your Hatred Down” from Mirrorball (1995).
And yes, the POTR bass player was like a steampunk Flea - he could play but he needed to do it out of sight. The two Nelson lads were a lot more in the zone than they were in the 3Arena a few years ago.