Neil Young & Crazy Horse shuffled the deck for their second Melbourne concert Friday night at Rod Laver Arena.
Shows on the Alchemy Tour are being filmed for a live concert movie down the track. The first 10 songs of the first six Australian shows were locked into a template but tonight Young decided to shake it up a bit.
‘Welfare Mothers‘ from Rust Never Sleeps was played for the first time in 10 years at the show. ‘Love To Burn’ from ‘Ragged Glory’ was played the second time in 10 years. Both songs were played for the very first time ever in Australia.
Young looks like he is really having a lot of fun on this tour. There is something about the Neil Young, Frank Sampedro, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina combination as Crazy Horse that gives Neil Young the licence to loosen. It is the ultimate garage band. It is boys, their guitar toys and pure adrenalin driven rock and roll.
A lot of the visuals for this tour were designed for the end result, the movie. The 20-minute ‘Walk Like A Giant’ epic explodes into an electronic torrential downpour through a psychedelic pill of effects. It was quite a stunning performance, like taking Hendrix back to Hank.
Wednesday’s show at The Plenary feature a triple play from ‘Zuma’. The Rod Laver Arena show included three in a row from ‘Rust Never Sleeps’.
The setlist for Neil Young and Crazy Horse at Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne was:
Powderfinger (from Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)
Love To Burn (from Ragged Glory, 1990)
Born in Ontario (from Psychedelic Pill, 2012)
Walk Like A Giant (from Psychedelic Pill, 2012)
Hole In The Sky (new, unreleased)
Heart Of Gold (from Harvest, 1972)
Twisted Road (from Psychedelic Pill, 2012)
Singer Without A Song (new, unreleased)
Ramada Inn (from Psychedelic Pill, 2012)
Cinnamon Girl (from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, 1969)
Cortez The Killer (from Zuma, 1975)
Fucking Up (from Ragged Glory, 1990)
Prisoners Of Rock And Roll (from Life, 1987)
Welfare Mothers (from Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)
Sedan Delivery (from Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)
My My Hey Hey (from Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)
Mr Soul (from Buffalo Springfield Again, 1967)
Roll Another Number (from Tonight’s The Night, 1975)
Neil Young and Crazy Horse have one more Australian show, today (Saturday, March 16, 2013) at The Hill Winery, Geelong.