So my friend managed to get some free tickets to the Neil Young/Wilco show at the Palace of Auburn Hills last night, as well as the keys to a corporate box with its own bathroom. I had been a little worried about the whole bathroom situation because I wanted to drink a lot of beer and I knew that with that many 50-plus-year-old male fans at the venue, the collective prostate issues were going to create some serious lines at the men's room. I counted seven David Crosby lookalikes just in our section.
One of my friends in the luxury box was a roommate from college who'd practiced this song on the guitar about 60,000 times our senior year, even recording it meticulously on his four-track in the basement. When the chords started I could feel his excitement, but when Neil Young sang the first verse: "Hey hey, my my, DETROIT CITY WILL NEVER DIE" even my withered spine felt a jolt. I love that kind of pandering. I think rock stars should always pander to local crowds and say nice things about where they are, especially 62-year-old rock stars who want to proceed with a set that includes 2-3 songs about the battery-powered/hydrogen cell Lincoln he's building. I wish I was kidding. Neil Young may just have written the definitive country rock song about fuel cells.
I hadn't seen Wilco in five years, but it's always nice to see Jeff Tweedy in his Canadian tuxedo. I had forgotten how much I liked this song, mostly because it was ruined for me years ago by some douchebag from Swarthmore who put it on a mixtape he made for my girlfriend and also by a girl standing next to me at a show during the Summerteeth tour who, after hearing the repeated line, "What you once were isn't what you want to be any more. . ." shouted, "Oh my Gawd, that is so true for me right now!" Gah! I could have punched her.
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