CORRECTION: Neil Young and Crazy Horse did play a few new songs from their upcoming new album, “Psychedellic Pill”. Their song they played, “Walk Like a Giant” is a new song, my bad.

So I watched the live viewing on youtube of the Foo Fighters, Neil Young & Crazy Horse concert at the Global Poverty Project event in NYC. A serious event to raise money for a good cause. I know the Black Keys were a part of this concert too, but I missed their set. I did catch the Foo Fighters and Neil Young & Crazy Horse. The Foo Fighters played a short set, but they were pretty tight. They played mostly their hits, of course, but they were fun to see. My only problem is that Dave talks a bit too much in between songs, and he can get kind of annoying with the crowd. Other than that, they played an incredible set, I am a fan of the Foo Fighters as I own quite a few of their albums in my CD collection.

As for Neil Young & Crazy Horse, they were just phenomenal and they killed it, like Neil usually does. When Neil walked on stage, you don’t see him wearing any fancy clothing, he just wears casual things. Just jeans, a t-shirt and he wore a red flanel coat. It was just Neil and his guitar. Neil Young and the band played mostly recognizable classics. I recognized “Ontario”, “Fuckin’ Up”, “Walk Like A Giant”, “Needle and the Damage Done” (solo acoustic) and “Let the Good Times Roll” (solo acoustic). Of course, they had to close their set with their most famous song, “Keep On Rockin’ In the Free World”, which they had the Foo Fighters and the Black Keys jamming with them on that one.

I love the way Neil performs on stage, ’cause he is a phenomenal lead guitarist. One thing I’m disappointed in that when the Foo Fighters were on stage, the live viewing got like 18,000 views, and when Neil got on stage, the views got lower and lower, all the way down to about 6,000 views or a little under. I mean, really? I’ve also noticed that some of the crowd were leaving Neil’s set as well.

After seeing all that, kind of hit me. Don’t people know good music anymore? Unfortunately not! Neil is a genius, a fucking legend! A rock n’ roll legend and people weren’t interested in watching him? The man is 66 years old, and he can still rock on that fucking stage! After all that talk about discussing “guitar gods”, I will include Neil in that guitar god category. My belief is that people were getting bored of his long guitar jams. Well, that’s tough people! That’s how Neil always played his concerts. He’s been playing like that for the past 30 years or more. Long 15 – 20 minute guitar jams. Just play guitar for a long time, sing a few lyrics, jam some more,  sing a few lyrics, jam some more, etc. That’s Neil.

Why do rock bands sometimes jam that long? It’s called improvisation. The music stops when it wants to. It’s all about using your imagination. Long jams and improvisations were really big back in the 60’s – 70’s. That kind of music is no longer popular anymore in today’s industry. Neil still sees music that way. Which is why I admire him. That’s what pisses me off about today’s industry. A lot of people would rather see Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj or Jay-Z, when everyone should concentrate on real musicians like Neil Young. While it is a bad time for Neil to still be around, he is still here ’cause music is what he does. He’s not going to give it up until he’s dead.

This is a perfect example of how I’m going to play my live shows when I get a band. Jam out. I love those long guitar jams myself, and I want to rock out like that. It’s why I admire bands like Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Phish, Hendrix, etc. The jam rock stuff. That’s how I played my acoustic shows over the years when I play out. Musicians and bands can’t help it when they play long on stage. That’s what music does to them.

I thought the Global Poverty Project in NYC was interesting stuff, and they put on a good concert too. I’m such a huge fan of Neil. I own a little over 10 of his albums in my collection and still counting. I’m trying to collect his entire discography. Neil is the fuckin’ man and a guitar genius. I’m sure people wanted a better headliner for the Global Poverty Project, but the reason they wanted Neil to headline ’cause Neil is a polio survivor, so it made sense to have him.

Kev