I became very excited when I found out Neil and the Horse were coming to Moline – which is about an hour from Iowa City. So I got three tickets – for my son and son-in-law as well as me. I was pleased with getting 6th row.
The evening began with a “fest” at a local restaurant near the venue. It was great being able to talk with others, and being able to put a face to some of my trading friends.
I knew what Greendale was going to be so it was no surprise. Hadn’t seen him since 1994 Farm Aid (and before that ’87 and ’88 in Chicago). I was pretty much mesmerized by the intensity of the encores. I had never seen him so close – Neil had an aggressive, almost assaultive relationship with Old Black…. I got blisters on me eardrums! I wondered why Ralph isn’t required to wear safety glasses – there were splinters of his sticks flying all over the place.
A good friend Marv (who was there but I didn’t know until years later) mentioned about the guy falling off his “tractor,”* making me wonder if Neil felt we were a bunch of farmers here in the Midwest. Someone also yelled out “Barney Fife” when talking about Carmichael. He hesitated and said something to the effect that “No, that wouldn’t be the case,” or something like that. He hesitated again and said, something like “Maybe that could work” as if to consider incorporating Barney into the story. (Being a Barney Fife fan, this pretty much made the whole night even better!)
At the end of Greendale, when they were all arm and arm, I noticed Neil turned to Sun and said (reading his lips) “I’m ready to go now!” I wasn’t
sure if that meant leave, indicating he was ready to call it a night, giving us less than a stellar encore performance (which wasn’t the case as far as I’m concerned) or meant he was ready to go straight into the encores.
Again, about the drumsticks – it looked as if Ralph was putting them through a tree chipper at times, splinters flying everywhere! And then at the end, it appeared he had just enough energy to toss them only as far as the first couple of rows.
Neil commented that he didn’t think he had ever played here before, then said no, he hadn’t. Maybe he had as a good a time as we all did and won’t forget us next time around. See ya somewhere down the road…
*Re the “tractor” comment, it dawned on Marv that Neil was referring to a Creedence Clearwater Revival song that comments on a guy falling off a tractor in Moline!
“Oh, it came out of the sky, landed just a little south of Moline
Jody fell out of his tractor, couldn’t believe what he seen”