Review | Neil Young at the Santa Barbara Bowl

I’m always amazed at how much expectations can influence your enjoyment of an event. 

Moments before Neil Young took the stage at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Friday, July 7, I read a report from his show a few nights before at the Ford Theatre in L.A. that said his setlist was full of unrecognizable songs and “ultra-rarities.” Given that the 77-year-old singer-songwriter has 45 studio albums to his credit — on top of key contributions to multiple bands, including Crazy Horse; Buffalo Springfield; and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — it’s no surprise that not everyone in the audience got to hear their favorite songs. 

I was fine with that, having gone into the concert with few expectations, just a willingness to go along for the (train) ride with a living legend. Neil Young’s “Coastal Tour,” as it was named, featured a train on the poster, a choo choo going round a fireplace onstage, and he even wore a conductor’s style cap — so that old school, stop-and-smell-the-roses mode of transportation was an apt metaphor for this particular musical journey.