I’ve been to many Neil Young concerts starting in 1972. This story is about Neil’s solo tours in 1983. We went to two of those shows. The first one we went to was in January 1983 and it was a Solo Trans show. He performed a few songs with a drum machine and sang through his vocoder. A great show!
The second show was also billed as a Neil solo show, but rumors were flying that he had a backing band for the latter portion of the show. That show was at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater in Irvine California on Saturday July 24th.
A day earlier on Friday July 23rd, my wife and I went to my 10-year high school reunion. My wife and I dressed for the reunion with her in an elegant black evening dress and me in a white suit, black dress shirt, and skinny pink tie.
The next night was Neil’s show, and we and a few of my friends were able to secure seats in the pit. It was a great show, but we were very surprised when Neil came out with The Shocking Pinks in the latter part of the show with his hair slicked back, wearing a white suit, black shirt, and skinny white tie. Almost the exact outfit I had worn the previous night! A couple of my friends who also were with me the previous night at the reunion looked over at me as if to say, “How did you know he was going to wear that outfit that looks just like yours from last night?” I didn’t. I had no idea.
As The Shocking Pinks portion of the show was progressing, the crowd in the pit was encouraged to rush the stage. Even though we were in the middle of the pit, we decided to shuffle off to the left side to avoid the crush. Just then, members of the band started throwing things out into the crowd. Something headed in our direction as my wife stuck up her hand and was able to catch a pink comb. The comb had a decal that said Neil and the Shocking Pinks. Half of the decal had already rubbed off and the rest of the decal was gone by the next day.
Neil is my favorite artist, and my life just would not have been the same without his music along on this journey.