Neil Young in HalifaxI was getting ready for school one morning when my father said that my cousin Jennifer was on the phone and she wanted to know if I wanted a ticket to the Neil Young
Trang 1Neil Young in Halifax
I was getting ready for school one morning when my father said that my
cousin Jennifer was on the phone and she wanted to know if I wanted a ticket to
the Neil Young concert coming up in Halifax I said I did and I kind of forgot
about it
It was Halloween night and I was listening to an old Crosby, Stills,
Nash and Young album when I looked at the release date when I realized that in a
mere five days I was going to witness a legend in his finest form
Some say the Neil Young is playing the finest guitar of his life these days
Some people say that he's just an old man who can't sing, never could sing and
should have retired a long time ago I on the other hand see him differently
He is man who doesn't care about his appearance, doesn't care about what
other people think about him He is an entertainer He is a healer He is a
Canadian He is a man When I picture myself at fifty I picture myself like
him
We left for the concert on Tuesday morning and we arrived in the city at
about noon My uncle drove me and my cousin Edward up We bummed around the
city for a while and then we went to Jen's place where we were staying There
were a few other people from Inverness staying there as well
My uncle, Edward and I left for the concert at around
quarter to seven We
kind of got lost We got to the show at around seven thirty While we were in
line waiting to get in I could here the band that was performing
It was then
that I realized what I was about to experience I stumbled to my seat, half
looking a my feet, half looking at the band on stage I can't remember their
name but they were good As soon as we sat down the band ended their set and
the lights came on Then we just sat their for a while and I saw
a lot of
people that I knew from Mabou
The lights went out and the place started to rumble with excitement
Moist came out on stage and started playing their set When the band started to
play Push I ran down to the front along with just about everyone else But we
were pushed back by the security So we just sat in our seats for the rest of
their set
The lights came back on and their were a bunch of guys on stage who were
messing with stuff One guy had on a big white jump suit and
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he was Neil Young so when he would appear on the stage everyone would start to
scream Neil Young did come out on the stage once to tune his guitar He just
stood there and looked out at us all He played a few things and
he handed his
guitar to the man in the white jump suit He left the stage and didn't return
for about a half hour
I was talking to Brandon McNeil when the lights went out again Neil
started his set with a real hard rocker which just sent everyone into a frenzy
Everyone was standing on their seats which meant that if you wanted to see
anything you had to as well They jammed for what seemed like hours
Neil would be leaning forward just beating the tar out of that old guitar
It's same guitar he's used for over 28 years It's the same guitar he played at
Woodstock It's all black except for the back of the neck where his hand has
rubbed off all the paint so it's just the color of the wood His stage presence is like nothing I've ever seen before He's not the
most gracious person I've ever seen but he's got a real quality
to him A true
quality He would just rock back and forth and crunch up his face and let his
guitar sing At one point, Neil Young, the bass player and the other guitar
player were huddled around in a circle and they were all rocking back and forth
It looked as though they were going to butt heads It reminded
me of a tribal
dance of some sort
The concert mesmerized me I paid no attention to the idiots in front
of me smoking pot or the guy who kept falling off his chair a few seat down
For the entire time I was in a world of my own Just me and Neil
He didn't talk much At one point he said into the mic "How
ya doin'?"
But that was pretty much it
He played a lot of songs of his latest album which I didn't know But he
played a lot of old songs too like "needle and the damage done" and "heart of
gold" which were crowd pleasers But when he played "rocking in the free world"
I ran down to the front of the stage I was about four feet away from Neil
Young and this giant hand grabbed me from behind That giant hand was attached
to a giant security guard which asked me for my ticket so he could escort me
back to my seat And since I gave my ticket to someone so they could get on to
the floor I didn't have any ticket to show him I said that my mom was holding
on to my ticket and I ran from him before he decided whether he
Trang 3believed my
story or not
When Neil was done with "rocking in the free world" they just went bananas
for about two minutes They would build up all this musical tension and then
release it and build up this tension again that was just asking
to be resolved
I just kept getting louder and louder and louder and Neil Young sang the chorus
to "rocking in the free world" one more time by himself and he addressed the
crowd saying "Thank you and good luck" Which seemed to sum it
up pretty well
He left the stage but everyone knew he would be back again
so we all just
stood there and screamed at the empty stage He came on again and played for
another twenty minutes or so The encore wasn't anything I knew but it was
still good
By this time I realized I was very tired and my feet hurt But what I left
the concert with wasn't pain or tiredness it was inspiration
I went to see a
man who was doing what I hope to do myself some day He showed
me that I can
That night while I laid in bed I kept thinking of what he had said, "Thank
you and good luck" It made so much sense then He was thanking
us because if
we weren't there he wouldn't be where he is right now He was wishing us luck
on our own journeys whether they be in music or business or
engineering
This concert was one which I will remember for the rest of
my life I'm
going to look back at this as a millstone in my own musical
career The day I
realized what truth really is and how I can achieve it