Yeah yeah, the tour was basically a reprisal of the Neil Young/Crazy Horse Rust Never Sleeps tour, down to the oversized amplifier stage design. Twelve years later is a long time to be doing the same thing, but when you consider the careening of Neil Young's career between, the times at hand and the war of the moment, and the brilliant addition of a cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" to the repertoire – I mean, it was like they were literally blowin' in the wind as they performed the song. Oh, that was giant fans they were using? Anyway, what really works here is the unabashed appreciation for the sonics of rock 'n' roll as it emerges from the crucible. In fact, I think it was because the exuberant, prolonged turns toward feedback of those shows sounded so good that a 35-minute selection of them was compiled for a throwaway disk, called Arc, included in original releases of this set. Didn't quite work isolated that way, but somebody's heart was in the right place.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Weld (1991)
Yeah yeah, the tour was basically a reprisal of the Neil Young/Crazy Horse Rust Never Sleeps tour, down to the oversized amplifier stage design. Twelve years later is a long time to be doing the same thing, but when you consider the careening of Neil Young's career between, the times at hand and the war of the moment, and the brilliant addition of a cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" to the repertoire – I mean, it was like they were literally blowin' in the wind as they performed the song. Oh, that was giant fans they were using? Anyway, what really works here is the unabashed appreciation for the sonics of rock 'n' roll as it emerges from the crucible. In fact, I think it was because the exuberant, prolonged turns toward feedback of those shows sounded so good that a 35-minute selection of them was compiled for a throwaway disk, called Arc, included in original releases of this set. Didn't quite work isolated that way, but somebody's heart was in the right place.
Don't forget that touring partners on this run were Sonic Youth... reports at the time generally said they got booed off the stage by Neil's fans, but they were def. the inspiration for the Arc disk.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good point about Arc and one I hadn't thought of before. I don't think Sonic Youth was yet capable of holding an arena in 1991 (they were fine in halls and amazing in clubs, of course), but they learned a lot about how to do it on this tour. The Neil Young fans were definitely not impressed, but that says more about them than SY. Way too many there, unfortunately as usual, for "Sugar Mountain."
ReplyDeleteGood alias, btw. Thanks for stopping by.