whatwouldcooleydo? wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 5:52 pm
Not especially great, to be honest. I have seen Neil at least 60 times and if this isn’t the lowest rated show I’ve seen it’s certainly in the conversation. He’s always been so consistent live that I have to say that Neil at his worst is still better than most. I was with a group of hardcore Rusties, people who all have seen Neil even more than I have, and most of them said it was the worst Neil show they have seen, something I also heard out of random people in the crowd after the show. I’m usually a tough (but fair) critic so it’s pretty unusual for others to be more critical than me
My biggest gripe was some of the material, while I heard others bitching about his performance & overall stage presence. Many said that they thought he was physically wobbly and that his voice was slurring. I didn’t personally pick up on that but I can kind of see it. Even for Neil Young this was by far the loosest, least structured show I have seen. Between songs he just kind of wandered around aimlessly and rambled on about whatever was in his mind. He’s always done this but this time seems like a completely other level. At times I felt like I was watching the Neil Young portrayed when comedians parody him. Pretty certain it is the shortest set I have seen him do when it’s a full official Neil Young show
I am seeing him again next Monday in Tahoe but it’s become uncertain. My wife is recently having some serious stomach issues and if she doesn’t improve I don’t know if we’ll be able to pull it off
So now it’s certain, no Tahoe. Rant incoming— because Neil is so terrified of scalping, he has set it so that tickets are totally non-transferable. Meaning that I do not have the option to even give my tickets away to a friend.
At the Berkeley show one friend had all 4 tickets for our group on his phone but could not even move them to us. We all had different agendas & itineraries but managed to meet up and all go in together. We still had issues so I asked the customer service rep helping us what would have happened had we not been able to go in together, and his answer was that he honestly didn’t know but that most likely any straggler would have been screwed. He did say that the artist- Neil- insisted on doing things in a way the venue was not used to
So here I am unable to do anything with my tickets except sell them via Ticketmaster as middle man. Go through their entire setup process, requiring tax identification numbers, etc., only to be told that resale is not an option at this time
No idea if that will change but with just over 48 hours until show I’m not feeling especially happy
Nice that Neil doesn’t trust his fan base & fucks us, all in the name of anti-scalping
I’m out a decent chunk of money but at least I’ll sleep well tonight knowing that someone didn’t scalp a ticket. So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice
