Notable Neil Young & Crazy Horse setlist from 1997

I keep Rust Radio on my twitter feed so I know what shows they play. Certain stuff I'm just not interested in, but when something good comes on you know I'm on that shit like butter on bread. My favorite Neil Young shows are the Crazy Horse (and "Echoes") shows from 1996 and 1997 because they had a unique fluidity to them that makes a lot of the songs sound particularly distinct from their studio counterparts. Though, of course, there are an awful lot of absolutely incredible periods and live shows from Neil and I'll probably discuss a lot of them on this blog eventually.

In any case I was lucky enough to catch a '97 show after the very first song, and here's the setlist (provided by the amazing Sugrmtn.org which chronicles all of Neil Young's setlists), it's from San Fransisco at the Torcadero,

1. Hard Luck Stories
2. I'm The Ocean
3. Razor Love
4. Crime In The City
5. Truth Be Known
6. Piece Of Crap
7. Don't Be Denied
8. Throw Your Hatred Down
9. Downtown
10. Hippie Dream
11. Mellow My Mind
12. Rockin' In The Free World
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13. Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
14. Slip Away
15. Big Time
16. The Losing End
17. Sedan Delivery
18. Throw Your Hatred Down
19. Razor Love
20. Cowgirl In The Sand
21. Prisoners Of Rock 'n' Roll

The main thing notable about this setlist is that it contains songs from all 3 of Neil's electric rock albums from the mid-90s: Sleeps With Angels, Mirror Ball, and Broken Arrow. This is unique in that while Neil was releasing all of these jaw-dropping records in rapid succession, he tended to drop them from the set rather immediately. In other words, '94 shows would include material from Sleeps With Angels, '95 shows would include material from Mirror Ball but not Sleeps With Angels, and '96/'97 shows would usually only contain material from Broken Arrow (of the three).

This has always perturbed me because, although certain songs like Pocahontas, Like a Hurricane and Danger Bird were lifted to their greatest heights in 90s shows, there was so much great material from the 90s, which to me crafts its own place and station. If Neil's 90s material constituted its own unique band, it'd easily be another of my all-time favorites up there with Neil. So my ideal 90s Neil Young set would include vast quantities of material from Neil's mid-90s records, perhaps bookended with classics from Ragged Glory, and an encore from Landing On Water (My choice: Touch The Night, played in a slow electric dirge version).

Other unique attributes of this set include "Hard Luck Stories" and "Hippie Dream," great tracks from my #1 Neil record of the 80s, Landing on Water, as well as a mellow electric version of "Razor Love" which wouldn't see release until Neil's 2000 record Silver & Gold (possibly the best song on that album), and finally "Don't Be Denied" from the illusive Time Fades Away is also featured... can't wait to hear how they play it!

What I really need to do is found out how to get into the Neil Young bootleg trading community. I really need to find out how to do this...