14th
Cocaine Eyes Can’t Hide Your Face
This absolutely essential Neil Young live show from early 1989 in Seattle actually starts out in a pretty ho-hum fashion. Neil opens with solo acoustic versions of four of his most overplayed tunes: “Comes A Time,” “Sugar Mountain,” “Needle and the Damage Done,” and “After The Gold Rush.” Don’t get me wrong, I love those songs, but I could probably do without hearing them on bootlegs ever again. But as Neil is joined by his band (which he dubbed The Restless for this tour), things start to pick up. There’s a queasy “For The Turnstiles,” a lovely “Silver & Gold” and some other rarely played gems. And then Neil plugs in and proceeds to play some of the most facemelting electric guitar of his career. And for a dude who’s played a LOT of facemelting guitar in his lifetime, that’s saying something. The electric set kicks off with songs from the then-just-released El Dorado EP, including scorching asskickers like “Heavy Love,” “Cocaine Eyes,” and “Don’t Cry.” That last song deserves special notice — it’s one of the most unhinged Neil Young jams ever. Yikes! The show also is of historic importance since it includes the debut of “Rockin’ In The Free World,” a song that (if Neil is to be believed) the band learned that night onstage. Turn this show up — it captures Young at his most demonic!
