Neil Young with Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot, the heaviest living rhythm section in rock, with second guitar from Willie Nelson’s nepo-baby Micah Nelson, dba Crazy Horse, played 2 nights this week at the Forest Hills Stadium, formerly known as the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium. I saw the first night.

It was a rainy day so I packed my nice umbrella but hired goons made me throw it into a box with hundreds of other nice umbrellas. It was rainy both nights.

We stopped by to say hi to Bill Sullivan, the Stadium’s kind creative director whose beautifully illustrated graphic portraits of past star performers (Beatles) and tennis greats (BJ King) who played there adorn the walls, along with plaques with bios that attach stylishly to the steel beams that hold the place up. He also does all the concert posters for the stadium and they are available on the first level (and online) at The Kiosk. There’s still a big tennis vibe to the place. Why would they play down its history as the original home of the US Open? It’s hard to think of another venue with such a deep music and sports history.

Our seats were in the middle of the floor, probably 20-25 rows back. There was an entire row in front of us that seemed like they were a cult of some kind. They all did a rain dance/chant and the rain actually stopped for a while! I found out later they were connected to the opening act, Rev Bill, which is some kind of anti-consumerist performance group or association and/or actual cult.

Neil and Crazy Horse came out and immediately launched into ‘Cortez the Killer’ and then hit after hit. I want to say, there is not anyone living or dead who I’d prefer to hear play the electric guitar than Neil Young, especially in this maximum rock context. His playing was as gorgeously unhinged and heavy as ever. We got ‘Cinnamon Girl,’ extra-extended guitar insanity on ‘Like a Hurricane’. ‘Don’t Cry No Tears’ (I felt like he played the suspended chord in reverse for a bit, intriguing, but I may have been hearing things). ‘Everybody Knows This is Nowhere’ and I might as well be on my knees but I’m still on my feet. ‘Powderfinger’ – the song with my favorite NY riff, the one he closes the verses with. ‘Vampire Blues’ from On Da Beach. Hyper-speeded out approach during the fast part on ‘Sedan Delivery’.

He also did a 3-song acoustic set. I nearly wept quite literally during ‘Heart of Gold’. I am, indeed, getting old.

There was an issue during the big finale, ‘Hey Hey My My’ (!!) where they sound kept going out (!!). You could only hear the stage monitors, barely. It would stop right before a rippin guitar solo but it would come back. I’m not sure why but I was completely convinced that this was a gag, as Neil seems capable of that kind of prank. I probably just wanted that to be true. I’m thinking it probably wasn’t.

“What’s your favorite planet?”

Neil repeated this a number of times throughout the set. Each time he would get a pretty weak “EARTH” from the 13,000 (sold out) fans. He shared some jolly disappointment as he said that he had been practicing to get the maximum audience response. He said very little else. He mentioned Bill’s work and talked about how the Monkees played there with Jimi Hendrix opening.

The venue is all around great with some of the usual challenges of big chaotic rock events. Mainly extremely large numbers of slow moving people, etc. Pretty poor design on some of high end portajohns, which feel like coffins. They gave me anxiety. You have to step up on a ledge inside the porta-coffin.

Had some slices at Austin Street Pizza beforehand. Pretty good, a solid choice for quick pre-show grub at the Forest Hills Stadium.