Neil Young and My Morning Jacket

Seldom can I go to a concert and look forward to anything the band plays. Usually I have a level of anticipation for certain high spots; usually the band has some rather average moments.

Neil Young has behind him 40-odd years of experience in his craft, and just as much material to draw upon. Appreciating his guitar style alone is enough to appreciate the whole of his concert. He can improvise with consummate ease; and he clearly loves what he does.

I don't remember too much of the song list: much of it wasn't immediately familiar to me. He played Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere; one of the more trivial songs from the eponymous album, but possibly something that he simply enjoyed playing. He played a rousing Cinnamon Girl too, and The Needle And The Damage Done, but to my memory nothing more from his first seven albums. The centrepiece was an extended take on Cortez The Killer, which was truly mesmeric. Four Strong Winds was also included but again, as an acoustic song it seemed to be no match for those where he was electric. It's also worth mentioning an instrumental piece he played solo, on a miniature pipe organ and harmonica. Haunting; very well done.

There are few concerts to match such an experience that was captivating from beginning to end. Most of those for me have been guitar bands (The Clean, The Verlaines, Sonic Youth and The Church), but to that list I would add Solomon Burke, whose secular gospel style was truly spiritual.

My Morning Jacket was quite a surprise. They have (to me) a somewhat shoegazer ethic, but their guitar work is ultimately a mark of respect for Neil Young. Yet the guitarist is also a singer, with a voice that aspires to the heights of Thom Yorke. It is a wonder to see the two talents in one person, but it is unsurprising that he doesn't do both at the same time. Definitely a band to watch out for.

NYE: The Shouties/Shout Brothers/Bernie Hayes

Well, my time with the Shout Brothers was 20 years ago, when Roaring Jack was de rigeur at the Sando every Thursday, and it might mean a hangover on Friday. The Shouties also played there on Sunday afternoons, always covers, always raucous and enjoyable.

The Shouties were back for New Year's Eve, and the only thing in common seemed to be me and Bernie Hayes (and brother Justin?). The pub was different (it was the Botny View, down the St Peters end of Newtown), the punters were younger, the covers were different, and of course brother Stevie was no longer there.

Before they played, there was a bloke wandering around with a T Shirt of the Byrds' country album Sweethearts Of The Rodeo. As a tenuous coincidence the Shouties later played a cover of Cowgirl In The Sand, a song the Byrds covered in country style (quite creditably, albeit rather different to Neil Young's original). Anyway, the Shouties' version was lengthy and blistering: Bernie just wasn't doing that sort of lead guitar 20 years ago.

Just before midnight, they played Only For Sheep*. Just after the new year, they played Freda Payne's Band Of Gold, a song about a marriage that failed on the wedding night. One had to wonder if there was a message in either of those choices.

Nice to see them again. Almost like reliving...


*An obscure song by The Bureau, a Dexys Midnight Runners offshoot. I thought I was clever to recognise it, but it had actually been a hit in Australia.