From Rust Never Sleeps to Greendale, Neil Young has also become known for the goofy ways he likes to decorate his stage, and this show was no exception. There was everything up there from a cigar store Indian, to an oddly lettered backdrop — which didn't seem to make any sense at all until the end of the evening when it appeared to spell out "Pegi And Neil." During the electric portion of the evening, there was also a huge easel where each song was introduced by a different painting depicting the song title.

Speaking of the electric set, words simply cannot describe the way he tore into a twenty some odd minute, feedback drenched version of the song "No Hidden Path," from the new Chrome Dreams II. This was vintage, cranked up Neil playing in that trance-like state he gets himself into where he sways back and forth so hard you just hope he doesn't fall over and hurt himself.

I've read some other reviews of this show on the internet — mostly linked over on Thrashers Wheat — where it has been suggested that Neil looked old, or that he otherwise was "phoning it in." I don't know what show they were at, but from my 14th row vantage point Neil both looked and sounded great to me.

The only other thing that I really noticed as far as this show being any different from past shows, was that the crowd was nowhere near as mixed as I usually remember, and definitely tended to skew older. The mix seemed to be part professional computer geek types (I'm pretty sure I spotted Paul Allen seated a few rows from us), and what my concert pal for the evening referred to as "old grey ponytail special." It was the sort of mix (or rather, the lack thereof) that I would one hundred percent attribute to the higher ticket price.

The opening set, by Neil's wife Pegi, was pleasant enough, even if wasn't anything particularly special. The good news is that Pegi has a nice voice, a few decent songs, and in general managed to escape the curse of rock star wives trying to share the stage that has plagued music going back at least as far as Yoko Ono (and boy do I smell some trouble coming for what I just said).

Still, there was no escaping the fact that there was indeed a "special" sort of feel about this show. Now if Neil would only consider sharing that "specialness" with some of his, shall we say, "lower rent" class of fans.

Setlist:

Acoustic:

1. From Hank To Hendrix
2. Ambulance Blues
3. Sad Movies
4. A Man Needs A Maid
5. No One Seems To Know
6. Harvest
7. After The Gold Rush
8. Mellow My Mind
9. Love Art Blues
10. Love Is A Rose
11. Heart Of Gold

Electric:

12. The Loner
13. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
14. Dirty Old Man
15. Spirit Road
16. Bad Fog Of Loneliness
17. Winterlong
18. Oh, Lonesome Me
19. The Believer
20. No Hidden Path

Encores:

21. Cinnamon Girl
22. Like A Hurricane