Neil Young @ Allianz Ampitheatre in the great city of Richmond
Pre show - as expected, traffic was horrendous getting to Richmond on a Sunday afternoon, it took about 3 hours. I was home in 90 minutes this morning. The weather couldn't have been more glorious for an August day in the south. I had some fears it would either be 110 degrees or violent storms and none of those things happened. Dinner at The Hard Shell pre show was excellent with quiet acoustic Neil being played in the background.
Now... the amphitheatre. I'm sure our friend and mayor of Richmond will have much better thoughts and insight on this, but to invest what I can only expect was at least 50 million dollars, a lot of strange elements to the place. I'm going to say I would go back, it's gorgeous, but some flaws.
1. Well, they only have bathrooms on one side of the amp. So... if you're in section 201 (hi!), you have to walk across the entire venue to go to the bathroom.
2. This was Neil's fault, but they sold NOTHING but "local" beers which were double IPAs and was the last thing I wanted to drink last night. Tons of angry rednecks and pissed off customers that there was essentially nothing to drink. I chose the $25 dollar double whiskey/ginger ale. I took a piss about 10 songs in and all of a sudden they had 24oz Modelos, but I passed.
3. The lawn... not that I'm a savage and would ever choose to sit there, but there was ZEEROOOO space for anyone.
4. Outside of the venue... There were probably as many people sitting outside of the venue on the extended lawn vs. the real lawn. If I was a resident of Richmond and broke, it seems like a pretty reasonable thing to do on a regular basis. I'd imagine some cop will ruin that at some point.
5. The sinks worked as well as The Anthem circa 2018.
I get that Richomnd's a stop over city, sorry Jules, but the calendar looks about as exciting as the Fillmore Silver Spring so my guess is most of the shows won't gain traction like Neil... I also saw that DMB played there this summer which I can't even imagine what a shit show that was.
Anyway... Neil.
I haven't seen him in 14 years and I'm glad I got to check it off the list again, but I don't think I'll see him again (and who knows if he'll ever actually tour again). He sounded amazing and his backing band was really good (still wish I got to see Crazy Horse instead), but I've probably had enough. He's another artist with such a vast catalog but plays the same shit constantly. Highlights were Ambulance Blues, Cowgirl in the Sand, One of these Days, Harvest Moon.
the end.
