Words cannot describe how great it was for this fan to be
in the presence of Neil during the opener for this tour. I
am so thankful to have been a participant as an audience
member of this concert. I'll break this down into parts.

Pegi's opening set: great band. No Neil. No comment.

Neil's solo acoustic set: 12 songs. And what a setlist.
Mostly stuff from a long time ago, but what a nice group
of rarely played gems. I was in heaven during this entire
set. I mean, how long has it been since he played A Man
Needs A Maid? He played it in the same style he used in
'76 with the organ/keyboard thing on top of the piano. It
sounded so nice. I thought his voice was a little shaky at
the start of the set and got warmed up and better as the
show progressed. Highlights were Ambulance Blues, Harvest
(frigging Harvest, incredible!!), Sad Movies, AMNAM (I
don't think this is a great song, but it was so great to
hear after such a long time), Campaigner, Love Art Blues.
Really, all of it was great. Neil made mention a few times
of Roy Orbison, but I don't know exactly what his point
was. Cool that he mentioned him though as I know Roy was a
great inspiration to him. He also talked about how Idaho
reminded him of the high desert of the Winnipeg area. As I
lived in Idaho when I became a Neil fan, this connected
with me on a very deep level. It brought my experience of
being a Neil fan to something of a full circle.

Neil's electric set: I was wondering if this band would
sound good together as Rick and Ralph to my knowledge have
never been on stage together. They were fantastic.
Wonderful really. I don't know how long it's been since
Neil has played Oh Lonesome Me that he covered on the ATGR
album but it sounded so great! The actor who played
Jed/The Devil in Greendale painted works of art for each
song which really helped me in identifying the new songs
as they have not yet made it into my brain yet. The first
standing ovation of the evening, after a really
outstanding set, was for the new song No Hidden Path. This
must have been very gratifying for Neil.

This was a great concert experience and will be memorable
for me for the rest of my life. I was also very fortunate
to have been surrounded by great Neil fans Brian, Pat (my
lady) and Tim. Thanks all of you for making my concert
experience even better by your presence.

Mike
Expecting To Fly

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