It's grey and chilly today, so after my morning hike and visit to the farmers market, I'll be staying in and watching football all day until around 4pm, when I have to work for a few hours. After that, who knows...maybe I'll go out.

Sorry to be presumptuous, jb, but maybe if you tell me the two choices I can help you decide?

The funny thing about this is that people have been saying the same thing about the Stones since the 1972 tour. "This could be the LAST TIME!" They might have even said it in 1969, but it really was a theme on the 1972 tour. They had already been around longer than most bands...10 years...and were over 30, except for Mick Taylor. It was new territory the Stones were in...most acts after awhile became revival acts, playing the county fair and rodeo circuit or package deals with other oldies acts. The idea that a band could go on past 30(remember the 60s slogan "Never trust anyone over 30"?...it was even used to great effect in "Planet of the Apes") and still be creatively viable and not an old nostalgia act was an unknown thing at that time. Most bands never lasted long enough to test the theory...the Rolling Stones were the first. That was the real Stones genius...while never as popular or groundbreaking as the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones survived longer than those bands did. So, like clockwork, every subsequent tour from 1972 on brings with it the concurrent cry: This could be the last time!

Seeing the Stones in '72 was one of the only times I feared for my life at a concert. The difference between a Stones crowd back then and now is almost unfathomable.

A very late supper. Tomato bisque and a salad of butterleaf lettuce, roma tomatoes, gorgonzola cheese, and pomegranate seeds. Green tea.

The first two songs he played, which I missed..."Love and Only Love": And "Powderfinger":

^^^Wait no more. Here's the setlist for the October 17 concert at the Hollywood Bowl. 1. Love and Only Love 2. Powderfinger 3. Born In Ontario 4. Walk Like a Giant 5. The Needle and the Damage Done 6. Twisted Road 7. Singer Without a Song 8. Ramada Inn 9. Cinnamon Girl 10. Fuckin' Up 11. Psychedelic Pill 12. Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) Encore: 13. Mr. Soul I got to the Neil concert during "Walk Like Giant". There were two opening bands that I missed, Los Lobos and I forget who the first band was. After getting messages and calls all day from people who were going to see "Celebration Day" that Wednesday, I finally couldn't take the feeling that I was missing out. So figuring that with two opening bands that Neil probably wouldn't go on until after 9 or so, I took a calculated risk that I could see the first screening of "Celebration Day" at Universal Citywalk and still make it to the Hollywood Bowl in time to catch the majority of Neil's set. One factor in my favour was that the Universal subway stop is only a few minutes from the Hollywood/Highland stop. As soon as the end credits began rolling on "Celebration Day, I bolted from the theatre and ran to the shuttle that takes you down the hill. A few minutes later I was down the hill and on the subway. A few minutes after that I was at Hollywood & Highland. A 10 minute walk up Highland and I was at the Bowl. Neil and the Horse were playing so loud I could hear them before I got to the Bowl itself. Definitely no loudness issues here, haha! My seats were kind of crappy, as I didn't have $300 to spend on the good seats up front. I was way back in Section T, so Neil and Frank and Ralph and Billy looked pretty tiny. Fortunately they brought the giant amp and mic props they started using in the 70s. Which only made Neil and the boys more mice-like on stage. Didn't notice any Jawa roadies...instead they looked like Caltrans workers. It was interesting that I noticed a similar band formation to the one I had just witnessed on screen watching "Celebration Day"...i.e. all of them facing each other in a tight circle around the drumkit, jamming. And jamming and jamming and jamming. Many of the songs were stretched out with long guitar solos or codas of squelching feedback. It was fantastic. Though they didn't do the new song that's 27 minutes on the "Psychedelic Pill" album, there were several that went on for 20 minutes or so. I was hoping they might do a song or two from the "Americana" album, but there was nary a mention of that record. It was like it didn't exist. I was also bummed when I found out I had missed "Powderfinger". But the two big disappointments for me regarding the setlist was the lack of "Cortez the Killer" and "Thrasher"...especially after seeing that he had played "Thrasher" at earlier shows on the tour. Amid all the guitar hurricane frenzy it was special to get a nice acoustic classic like "Needle" and one I didn't recognize, "Singer Without a Song". Of course, you either love Neil's voice or you don't...there doesn't seem to be any middle ground with people. Count me as one who loves his singing and even at his age, he still retains that youthful quavery quality. The thing most people come to a Neil Young & Crazy Horse show for, however, is the guitar buzz from Neil and Frank. In that regard, this show did not disappoint. There was plenty of loud guitar to shatter your skull, with Mr. Young grinding away on his trusty "Old Black", and Frank aiding and abetting and egging him on. It would have been even better had I been up close to feel the gale force coming from his amps. Just as the movie rushed by in the blink of an eye, so too did the two hours plus that Neil played disappear in a flash. Only one encore...the Buffalo Springfield classic "Mr. Soul", which I think he played at the Bowl in the 60s. All in all, a damn good Neil Young concert...not perfect, and not as good as the Rust Never Sleeps or Ragged Glory shows, but still one of the best bands around. Neil Young is great in just about any format; but he's just a different beast when he hooks up with Crazy Horse. He enters a different dimension. There's already some decent clips from the show on YouTube. So if you're trying to decide whether to see him when he comes to your town, have a listen. This first clip is the song he was playing when I finally got to the Bowl, "Walk Like a Giant". Needle and the Damage Done: An unreleased song..."Singer Without a Song":

Thanks for letting me know about the Rich Stadium name change...it will always be Rich Stadium to me, too. Saw a lot of OJ Simpson "The Juice and the Electric Company"-era Buffalo Bills games on tv growing up in the 70s. Bills vs. Dolphins or Bills vs. Raiders games were always shown in L.A. It helped that L.A. didn't have an AFC team. Now...about the Stones. The 1978 tour was normally 90-100 minutes, no encore, and most of the outdoor stadium gigs were afternoon affairs. Anaheim Stadium was also during the day...and since it was late July, it was HOTTER than Hell. Peter Tosh and I think the Outlaws were the openers. So you still got a good day of music...although I thought the Stones sounded weird and slightly anemic, compared to past shows. Maybe it was the acoustics of Anaheim Stadium or a faulty PA system, but they didn't sound as good as they did in 1972 and 1975. Which was too bad, as I loved the "Some Girls" album. The Stones were known for rarely playing encores back then, so Buffalo wasn't being buffaloed...that was the S.O.P. of the Stones then. Hell, in 1972 their concert barely lasted 70-80 minutes. As for why tickets sell out now even when they are priced sky-high, there are several factors. 1. Many of these tix are bought by scalpers, professional and amateur alike, looking to make a killing on the secondary market. 2. This ties in with #1...there will always be enough rich yuppies and retirees and corporate types who use a Stones concert as a lure to woo a client. Go to any Stones show nowadays and a significant percentage of the audience are lawyers, agents, CEOs, and other business muckety-mucks taking clients or potential clients to the concert and later writing off the cost as a business expense. That's why contemporary Stones concert audiences are lame and boring...it's a bunch of rich entitled jerks who just want to hear "Satisfaction" and pretend they're rebels. They're about as rock and roll as a Brooks Brothers suit. 3. Another sizable segment of a Stones concert since 1989 is made up of families...moms and dads taking their kids or even grandparents and grandkids, all in a bid to recapture those fading days of youth and the last glowing embers of the 60s. A writer made a good point in 1981 and it is just as true now, maybe even truer...the Stones are the last band standing. The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Pink Floyd are not fully functioning bands...whether due to death, personal conflicts or whatever. The Rolling Stones are all that's left of the major groups that formed the backbone of the "classic rock" era. So they are the beneficiary of all the pentup love and nostalgia for that time that people have. To all the old hippies, or people that wished they could have lived in the 60s, going to a Stones concert is just about all they have left. 4. The Stones branding is second to none...only Kiss is in their league as far as selling their name and image on everything from here to Timbuktu. So generations and generations of people have been brainwashed with the slogan of The Rolling Stones as the 'world's greatest rock and roll band', when they bear not the slightest resemblance to the band that forged that reputation from 1962-73. So there's always gonna be people who go just so they can say they went to a Stones concert, even though they couldn't name 5 songs. They just have heard they're the 'world's greatest rock n roll band' and that's all that matters. It's the hype and the place to be seen to these people. They couldn't care less about the music.

A Neil Young & Crazy Horse concert, the Yankees getting swept out of the playoffs, seeing "Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day" twice in two nights, and now tonight seeing Paul Weller and Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings at the Greek. It's been a very happy three-day stretch from Wed-to-Fri. HAPPY HAPPY! JOY JOY!

Happy birthday to our fine and mellow fellow, chillumpuffer! I'm sure a suitably delicious birthday repast has been planned...to be followed by a birthday toke or two. Party on and mellow down easy, mate.

To hell with the tall glass...given the fact you're in a hotel I am concerned about the quality of fruit and vegetables that hotel is providing you. The state of produce at some hotels is dismal.

^^^ It's not even going to sound like "Love You Live" or "Let's Spend the Night Together". FYI Rick...I'm guessing you're talking about Rich Stadium in Buffalo. Do the Bills still play there? I thought they got a new stadium? Anyway, the Some Girls tour was the summer of 1978...I saw them at Anaheim Stadium that tour. 1981 was their next US tour...the Tattoo You tour. Saw them at the LA Coliseum, Houston Astrodome, and Dallas Cotton Bowl that tour.

Correctomundo! Thanks chillumpuffer for explaining to Joe the wonders of the Earth's rotation. Joe, I am 8 hours behind you Liverpudlians. Plus, it was about a couple hours after I ate that I finally posted that info...so subtract around 10 hours from the time of post.

Poached Flounder fillet in white wine, seaweed salad, and whole wheat fettuccine with lemon, butter and pine nuts. Ty Nant mineral water.

Damn Aussies!

Absolutely, henrybonzo, FUCK THE STONES!!! Who, along with the Eagles and Pink Floyd, aided and abetted this entire wave of 'ticket gouging' to begin with. Lee, your only hope is that the Stones do something similar to 2002, where along with the usual expensive stadium and arena shows, in select cities they also performed small theatre gigs for $50 a ticket. In L.A. they played the 2,000- seat Wiltern Theatre with Solomon Burke opening. I saw the Stones 4 times on that 2002 40th anniversary tour...Halloween at the Staples Center(ticket $150), Wiltern($50), and 2 nights at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco($125 each). The Wiltern show was by far the best. Now tix are gonna be $250 minimum for the cheap seats...and that's before all the service charges and "convenience" fees are added. Convenient for who? You know things suck when the servive charge is more than I paid for any Stones ticket in the 70s...you know, when they were actually good. This is patently obscene!!! This means that a man that wants to take his family to see the Stones, maybe share his love of the Stones with his children, is gonna have to fork over more than $1000 just to get in the stadium in the nosebleeds. If he wants a better view, he's looking at close to $3,000-4,000. And that is before adding in costs for parking, food and drinks, merchandise. You'd have to take out a second mortgage. A rock concert should not cost more than your monthly car or house payment or your rent. I don't care who you are or how "legendary" the band is. All of you Stones apologists can save your breath, too. I have heard it all from the deluded, rose-coloured-glasses, Stones sycophants who believe the Stones can do no wrong at countless Stones gigs over the years. These are usually people who didn't see their first Stones show until 1989 or 1994. They are so deluded that their senses have completely abandoned them. For all it takes is a working pair of eyes and ears to see that the Stones have become a charade, a parody of themselves...they have become what Robert Plant talks about when he explains why he is reluctant to go on a Led Zeppelin reunion tour. I will say this...the Stones picked a perfect title for their new "plunder the fans" package: "GRRR!" is exactly what a lot of us true Stones fans who remember the Brian Jones/Mick Taylor years say when we think of the tired old joke they have become. GRRR! indeed. But what can a poor boy do? Obviously they can't see the Stones. FUCK THE STONES!

G n R are about as relevant as Taco these days...maybe even less.

I'm on a forced quarantine of Zeppelin music until I see the "Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day" movie Thursday night. The last Zeppelin I listened to was the 10-9-72 Osaka boot last Tuesday and the Jason Bonham concert I saw last Thursday.

Somebody here has a thing for Rose McGowan.

Hope he remembered to pack a parachute.

Hopefully, she won't use the 'Megan Fox-method'.

Oakland Raiders @ Atlanta Falcons on CBS 2 and Dallas Cowboys @ Baltimore Ravens on Fox 11...switching back n forth during commercial breaks.

What American kid growing up in the 1970s doesn't remember watching "Godzilla", "Destroy All Monsters!", "King Kong vs. Godzilla", "Rodan", and all the rest of the Japanese monster movies on TV every weekend? Whether it was Creature Features or some other Horror Movie showcase that were popular on television in the 60s and 70s, you could always count on a few of those "Men in Rubber Suits" movies every month. One of my personal favourites was "War of the Gargantuas"... a real heartbreaker; I never missed a broadcast if I could help it. I finally managed to see the original "Gojira" in the '90s on the big screen...and have seen it in theatres several times since. Even better, the American Cinematheque had a nice big 50th anniversary celebration in 2004, where they showed 8 of the first 12 Godzilla movies, along with some other choice Japanese monster movies, like "Ultraman". I went to nearly every screening...here was the lineup schedule: http://egyptiantheatre.com/archive1999/2004/godzilla50.htm The festival was such a succss, the American Cinematheque had another one the following year in 2005, including more recent Godzilla films...but thankfully not the horrible American remake. http://www.americancinematheque.com/archive1999/2005/japanese_giant_monsters_festival.htm

That's very nice of you because, from what I hear from people that have worked with her, she's going to need it.