Cloaca Melodia

My life in concerts, by Mike Sauter.

2/24/1991

Neil Young & Crazy Horse/Sonic Youth/Social Distortion

Brendan Byrne Arena, E. Rutherford, NJ

It was a couple years before Neil was bestowed the "Godfather of Grunge" moniker, but this tour made clear he had an affinity with noisy, scruffy bands of younger vintage. A great show all around.


It was my first time seeing Neil, so I was pretty psyched. He had snapped out of his weird '80s era with a vengeance on 1989's Freedom and 1990's Ragged Glory albums. I was pretty blown away with how hard he rocked at the show. My most vivid memory of the concert was a giant microphone with a yellow ribbon on it getting a lot of applause (due to the Gulf War being still in progress at the time).

The opening acts were pretty memorable as well. I was struck with how low-slung Mike Ness played his guitar. And during Sonic Youth's feedback-drenched finale, Thurston Moore used his guitar as a bridge between the front of the stage and a security barrier and he carefully shimmied across it, all the while spewing caterwauling noise with every move.

This concert was part of Neil's "Smell The Horse Tour," with back-up by Crazy Horse (Frank Sampedro, Billy Talbot, and Ralph Molina).

Neil Young's setlist:
Hey Hey, My My
Crime In The City
Blowin' In The Wind
Love To Burn
Cinnamon Girl
Mansion On The Hill
Fuckin' Up
Cortez The Killer
Powderfinger
Love And Only Love
Rockin' In The Free World
Roll Another Number
Tonight's The Night


On a note of personal history, I had just been hired at WHTG mere days before this concert to be the station's production director. Earlier this Sunday (the day of the concert), I had done a short appearance on the air for my first full time radio gig (under the guidance of DJ Brian Billy) and would fill-in in the morning show the following day, just hours after this concert ended. I was supposed to do the morning drive shift for a week until a new host was found, but, as it turned out, I would "temporarily fill-in" as morning show host for eight years.

Labels: , , , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home