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Phoenix, Redemption, poor college student,csny



So what is the deal w/ this thing 'bout the cancelled shows?  Is the Phoenix 
concert on?  Even though it'll be a seven hour drive or expensive flight, 
this college student w/ a minimum wage job is gonna get to that 
concert....It's over four years that i've been a wholigan and I thought I'd 
never see them live in concert (especially as a tight 5-piece!)  I found out 
about the vegas concert last october about a week before the show when I was 
home from school.  It was so surprising, I thought it was a hoax.  For some 
reason I hadn't been able to access this digest then and I didn't act on it 
and went back to school six hours north of vegas.  The next time I caught up 
on reading my digests I felt sick, disgusted, and nearly suicidal.....Shit!  
Not only had I missed the 'ooo, but apparently they were playing rawer and w/ 
the most power since their heyday 30 yrs. ago!!!  I was disappointed that 
vegas isn't on this summer tour, but somehow i'm gonna get to that phoenix 
show.  Last february I was able to go to the CSNY reunion tour and that 
kicked ass....totally awesome, seeing the greatest rock group in the universe 
this summer is the only thing that could top that for me.  
    One thing.....The only thing that really sucked about that CSNY show was 
that the crowd around me was so unemotional.  Granted, the people on the 
floor seats were standing the whole time, going crazy.... however the 
majority of people around me acted like they were watching TV.  I mean, I'm 
not saying that you need to jump around, shouting like a dirty bastard at 
concerts, but there needs to be a better vibe.
It's quite funny, actually.  The middle hour of the 3 hour concert was the 
acoustic section, w/ soft, folky material.  It was beautiful and awesome of 
course, and it was really the only part that the majority of the hundred or 
so people around me were clapping for after the songs, and really letting off 
a good vibe.  However, during the hard, intensely rocking 2/3s of the 
concert, seriously, people were like frowning and looking around w/ bored or 
puzzled expressions on their faces.  Did they not realize that this was a 
rock group, that was tearin' the fuckin place apart?  I mean it's neil young 
here people!?  So, I guess many of the crowd were just casual listeners who 
maybe just remembered that some CSN songs were played at their high school 
dances and on muzak.  This really surprised me considering that to get in to 
this concert required a $50-$75 price minimum.  The groove that came from the 
musicians was amazing, to bad a lot of the crowd didn't realize that these 
four guys played hard, loud, music.  
    Anyway, there's a big difference between the Who and CSNY of course and 
I'm not too worried about people being surprised that they play loud, raw, 
rock.  It's just a fact, I suppose, that w/ that many thousands of people at 
a venue not a whole lot of 'em will be hard core wholigans.  It's just that I 
feel young people of my generation would get turned off by a bunch of lazy, 
boring, people sitting and looking bored while timeless music and songs are 
being played and filling the venue w/ an awesome vibe.
In the end it's just you making a connection w/ the musicians on the stage 
(complete fucking bastards in the case of the who :)  I suppose...  Rock on...