{"id":23787,"date":"2014-12-30T16:50:54","date_gmt":"2014-12-30T21:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=23787"},"modified":"2014-12-31T16:41:20","modified_gmt":"2014-12-31T21:41:20","slug":"year-in-review-concert-adventures-in-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/year-in-review-concert-adventures-in-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Year in Review: Concert Adventures in 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went to a lot of concerts this year, getting off to a great start by seeing my celebrity crush Neil Young<\/a> perform live on January 6<\/a>. He played solo at Carnegie Hall, accompanying himself on eight or so guitars, a banjo, a horde of harmonicas, two pianos and an organ.<\/p>\n

\"neilyoung1\"

Photo by Wendy Brandes<\/p><\/div>\n

The New York Times review<\/a> of the show included this anecdote:<\/p>\n

“Neil Young was just a few bars into an indignant old song at Carnegie Hall on Monday night, chugging a terse intro on an acoustic guitar, when he abruptly threw the emergency brake.<\/em><\/p>\n

‘Wrong!’ he barked, waving one hand, as if to cut off a rehearsal band. Part of the audience had started clapping to the beat \u2014 but not quite on the beat, as Mr. Young complained. His tone was even, his exasperation clear.<\/em><\/p>\n

‘It\u2019s something that you probably don\u2019t know,’ he said, peering into the house from the stage, ‘but there\u2019s a hell of a distance between you and me.'”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I didn’t catch the moment he stopped the audience from clapping on video but I’ve got everything after that, including all of that “indignant old song” … otherwise known as the classic “Ohio.” I got into a short Twitter tiff with a critic who insisted that the atmosphere became tense — never mind the fact that you hear the audience laughing and commenting favorably in this video.<\/p>\n