What a night it was!

We, me and my wife Kathrine, drove up to Bergen in warm and sunny weather and the forecasts said that was the way it would be at the venue in the evening as well. The fucker in control of the weather should get a beating. We’ve never been so soaked in our entire lives, and we’ve lived in Bergen for more than 7 years (yeah, I know, we should know better than to trust the weather forecasts in Bergen).

We wouldn’t be wetter if we jumped into the fjord (I tried to hold my mobile-phone still, but to no avail, it rained too hard!).

Waterboys were great, it is always hard to play second fiddle, but they did a good set. If it was a stand-alone gig, with more Waterboys fans it would’ve been a night to remember. Today they were “warm-up” to the main attraction. Mike Scott knew this and at a point he said:

“Normally I play a guitar-solo at this point, but not before Neil Young, do you think I’m crazy?”

When they started Glastonbury Song the heavens opened, at first I was thinking that a guy with a hose stood behind us and soaked us in water, but then I realized that the gods had flushed the skies. We were wet to our underwear in two minutes.

The Waterboys set list:

1. The Whole of the moon
2. We will not be lovers
3. I’m still a freak
4. The Pan within
5. A girl called Johnny
6. Low down in the broom
7. Raggle Taggle Gypsy
8. Mad as the mist and snow
9. Glastonbury song
10. Fisherman’s blues

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Neil Young & Crazy Horse came on and played Be the rain (not played live in about ten years), it was so fitting, and it seemed like a thing he decided there and then, but I know that the song had been rehearsed at sound check earlier on the tour.  That doesn’t matter, we became the rain, his message soaked in, the stage was set.

We had tickets for last years cancelled show, and we jumped at the opportunity when new a new show was announced. Last years show was cancelled when Frank «Poncho» Sampedros broke his hand. Last night “Poncho” had a great shirt on, it depicted an X-Ray of a hand flipping us the finger.

This night we got the environmental-cowboy Neil Young , he was a rabid preacher and a true force of nature, and he did a tremendous job! We got the guitar wall and we got the tender protester, Neil Young gave us his best.

The highlights of the evening for me was, Love to burn and Tonight’s the night.

Tonight’s the night:

In addition to being a preacher and a guitar-god he did two acoustic numbers, a beautiful Blowing in the wind that drifted into a very good Heart of gold. All good, in fact, all great!

Heart of Gold:

Last I saw Neil Young he gave us a greatest hits set and it was superb, last night he chose more carefully. The Concert had a theme, this time Young had an agenda, he has an important message: we need to save our earth! No less. And it was just as good. He has a treasure-chest of songs, and many of the songs that are kind of underwhelming on record, comes to life in a live setting.

Kathrine said:

“Any other concert and I would have gone back to the hotel, I was freezing to death, but I couldn’t leave, not this concert.”

A woman after my own heart!

He rounded off with a raging Rockin’ in the free world, angry, poignant and insistent. I couldn’t ask for more. To be frank, the encore, the new, Who’s gonna stand up and save the world was a bit of a let down, but it acted as a book-end and another reminder that rock’n roll can have a message.

Yep, it was one for the books.

Set list

1. Be The Rain
2. Powderfinger
3. Standing In The Light Of Love
4. Days That Used To Be
5. Living With War
6. Love To Burn
7. Name Of Love
8. Blowin’ In The Wind
9. Heart Of Gold
10. Barstool Blues
11. Tonight’s The Night
12. Rockin’ In The Free World
—
13. Who’s Gonna Stand Up And Save The Earth?

– Hallgeir (sorry for the bad photos, but all I had was a drowned cellphone)