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.

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