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.