I just got back to the C-bus after a whirlwhind trip to San Francisco (business, mostly) and then New York City (pleasure, mostly). The trip to NYC was made to see friends, eat some good food (the Striphouse features steak as well as truffled spinach that are both to die for) and - though I thought I could resist it - see Neil Young with Wilco opening up.I had been to Madison Square Garden twice in my life before this: once as a kid to see the Knicks with my dad during one of our annual NYC sojourns (pretty cool annual trip for a kid from straight up rural South Carolina), and later as a teenager on another family trip to see Rush on the Roll the Bones tour. (It was kind of awesome, and I even found a bootleg a couple years later of the second night of that stint at MSG for Canada's greatest prog rockers.)
I had not wanted to commit to a big, arena show with all the social comings and goings of this venture into the city, but I couldn't help myself and swung up to Penn Station around 6 PM to see what the ticket situation was. Scalpers seemed to be having a hard time giving these tickets away, and I ended up paying $80 for a general admission floor seat in section 7 (face value $90). I was telling the scalpers that I only wanted to spend $40, much to their chagrin, and to my surprise, low balling them worked pretty well. As did the fact that I was obviously not overly enthusiastic. Plus, well, they couldn't give the damn things away.
I relaxed with a Bud tallboy back at my buddy's apartment and then walked in around 8 PM. It was a strange maze of hallways for general admission ticket holders, and when I finally stumbled out into the arena, I think I was guided the wrong way, as I found myself in the closest possible general admission area. I waltzed up about 30 feet back from the stage, dead center, and about 20 minutes (most of which I kept thinking someone was going to pull me out of there) later, Wilco walks out and launches into a killer 4-song set opener. The rest of the set was quite good, though I could live without "I'm the Man Who Loves You." Hey - at least they left out "Hate It Here."
Via Chicago / Impossible Germany / You Are My Face / Spiders (Kidsmoke) / Hummingbird / Jesus Etc. / Forget the Flowers / Walken / I'm The Man Who Loves You
So then it's wait time for Neil. I drink a couple of Bud Lights from the floor people who are out selling it, as I was not about to lose my place. This was my first time seeing Neil, too, so it was kind of a big deal for me on many levels. There are so many things to highlight about this show ... his crazy amplifiers, the fact that he rocks pretty hard for an old codger, the fact that he played almost 3 hours (which was almost too much for me), the fact that his newer songs are often pretty awful (esp. the brand new ones on this tour that are all related to oil/cars/etc.). Regardless, just getting to see him rock "Powderfinger" or "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" was dreamy for me. I can't even begin to explain how long I've simply loved those songs, going all the way back to early high school when I picked up Live Rust and had my world blown open.
Seriously ... this setlist pretty much kills:
Love And Only Love / Hey Hey, My My / Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere / Powderfinger / Spirit Road / Cortez The Killer / Cinnamon Girl / Oh, Lonesome Me / Mother Earth / The Needle And The Damage Done / Light A Candle / "Cough Up The Bucks" / Fuel Line / "Hit The Road And Go To Town" / Unknown Legend / Heart Of Gold / Old Man / Get Back To The Country / "Off The Road" / Just Singing A Song / When Worlds Collide / Cowgirl In The Sand / Rockin' In The Free World // "Get Behind The Wheel" / A Day In The Life
I had to leave before "A Day In The Life" was done with its feedback outro as there was a train that needed to be caught as well as sleep that needed to be had, since I was flying out of LaGuardia at 9 AM and, as a lot of folks know, I only take public transportation to the airport - even LaGuardia.
