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<\/a>Friday night\u2019s show started off with Bob Dylan and his band. Dylan who has been on his \u201cNever Ending Tour\u201d for years now, played a number of his hits albeit sometimes with slightly re-arranged tempos. Even re-arranged Dylan songs were still Dylan songs and for the most part the audience didn\u2019t seem affected by the Nobel laureate\u2019s change of musical pace.<\/p>\nDylan\u2019s set list included some classic gems like \u201cRainy Day Women #12 & 35\u201d, \u201cDon\u2019t Think Twice, It\u2019s All Right\u201d, \u201cHighway 61 Revisited\u201d,\u201dSimple Twist of Fate\u201d, \u201cTangled up in Blue\u201d and \u201cDesolation Row\u201d. My personal favorites had to be \u201cHi Water (For Charley Patton)\u201d and \u201cBallad of a Thin Man from Dylan\u2019s 1965 release Highway 61 Revisited. The obvious crowd favorite was saved for the encore when Dylan featured his classic \u201cLike a Rolling Stone\u201d.<\/p>\n
The first night\u2019s party was ratcheted up a few notches when The Rolling Stones took the stage. I\u2019ve seen the Stones a number of times now and they seem to get better every time. Mick Jagger appears to be unstoppable at this point in his 50 plus year career as he still cavorts and skips around the stage like a 20 year old and Keith Richards is still twisting and bending the guitar strings as only he can do. Along with the ever stoic and serious Charlie Watts maintaining the automatic drum backbeat and Ronnie Wood adding his raunchy guitar touch, The Rolling Stones are still on top of the Rock and Roll heap.<\/p>\n
The set was similar to ones I\u2019ve seen from them in recent years and covers just about every angle and decade since the band has been in existence. From \u201cGet off of My Cloud\u201d to the soon to be released \u201cJust Your Fool\u201d the show featured something for every fan.<\/p>\n The set did feature a few numbers that I never heard performed live which included \u201cAngie\u201d and Keith Richard\u2019s obligatory two song spot featuring one cool version of \u201cYou Got the Silver\u201d that had Ronnie Wood flashing some incredible slide work on acoustic guitar. The other Richards number was \u201cLittle T&A\u201d from the Stones 1981 release Tattoo You.<\/p>\n Other Stone\u2019s classics performed included \u201cSweet Virginia\u201d, \u201cLive With Me\u201d, \u201cPaint it Black\u201d,\u201d Midnight Rambler\u201d and \u201cSympathy for the Devil\u201d to name a few.<\/p>\n Encore numbers featured this evening were \u201cYou Can\u2019t Always Get What You Want\u201d and \u201c(I Can\u2019t Get No) Satisfaction\u201d. This show was yet another great performance by the best of the best.<\/p>\n Neil Young has always been unpredictable so although I was familiar with his latest endeavors that feature a top notch band, The Promise of Real, I still wasn\u2019t going to try and guess which Neil would show up for the first set of the evening for day two of Desert Trip. I\u2019ve seen Young go country in the 1980\u2019s with The International Harvester\u2019s and go full frontal guitar assault with Crazy Horse so whatever he was going to bring\u00a0would be or could be a surprise either way.<\/p>\n After walking on stage unannounced, Young sat down at a beaten up piano and started the set with the title song of one of his most well known albums \u201dAfter the Gold Rush\u201d. Young continued to go solo for the next few songs which included pristine versions of some classic Neil Young standards such as \u201cHeart of Gold\u201d, \u201cOld Man\u201d, and \u2018Long May You Run\u201d a song dedicated to his first car. His last solo effort was \u201cOut on the Weekend\u201d from his 1972 release Harvest.<\/p>\n More Young standards would follow accompanied by the band including \u201cAlabama\u201d, \u201cHarvest Moon\u201d, and the uber classic \u201cHelpless\u201d, originally performed by CSN&Y. It was around this time that Young decided to crank it up a bit and presented the crowd with some classic blistering guitar work on versions of \u201cWords (Between the Lines of Age)\u201d\u2019, \u201cPowderfinger\u201d, and a good twenty plus minute jam based version of \u201cCow Girl in the Sand\u201d.<\/p>\n Songs from Neil Young\u2019s soon to be released album called Peace Trail were sprinkled throughout the show and from what I heard this will be another Neil Young musical diversion. With songs like \u201cTerrorist Suicide Hang Gliders\u201d, \u201cShow Me\u201d, \u201cPeace Trail\u201d and \u201cTexas Rangers\u201d the audience got a good sampling of great things to come. Young capped off the show with his rock anthem \u201cRockin\u2019 in the Free World\u201d which was a perfect ending for what I considered to be one of the best shows of the week end.<\/p>\n Also worth mentioning was Young\u2019s mid show interaction with the audience when he put his guitar down to address the crowd. He was going on about how ridiculous a California law was in regards to distributing organic seeds across the states county lines. In protest, Young, holding a giant picnic basket filled with small bags of seeds, started throwing them into the crowd and told them to take them home and plant them. Young mentioned that he might be breaking some sort of law but really didn\u2019t seem to care. Kinda\u2019 crazy but I guess he was making a good point for the organic farmers out there.<\/p>\n Sir Paul was up next with his long time band and was, as always, full of energy which he would need to cover his massive set list of thirty-nine classic Beatles, Wings and solo songs, as an extra deep cut he even threw in one from The Quarrymen days.<\/p>\n For those of us who were not fortunate enough to attend a Beatles concert a McCartney show is the next best thing. As usual McCartney loaded up the performance with standards like \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night\u201d, \u201cGot to Get You Into My Life\u201d, \u201cDay Tripper\u201d and more.<\/p>\n McCartney really seemed to enjoy himself on stage as he would engage the crowd with old stories and anecdotes from his long and winding career. One story was about playing ukuleles with George Harrison which segued into Harrison\u2019s Beatle classic \u201cSomething\u201d featuring McCartney on ukulele for the first few verses. Other \u2018I can\u2019t believe what I just heard\u2019 songs from McCartney included \u201cJet\u201d, \u201cLive and Let Die\u201d, \u201cWe Can Work It Out\u201d, \u201cBand on the Run\u201d and the ubiquitous \u201cLet It Be\u201d, and way too many more hits to list.<\/p>\n This was another excellent performance by one of the original four masters of Rock and Roll, The Beatles.<\/p>\n The Who, (Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry) concluded their \u201cWho Hits 50\u201d tour on day three of Desert Trip with a bang as the band covered everything from 1964 onward. This was my first time seeing the Who so my anticipation was pretty high. After the first guitar cord was struck by Townsend and the band kicked into \u201cI Can\u2019t Explain\u201d I knew the crowd was about to be treated to something special.<\/p>\n Daltry and Townsend do not appear to have skipped a beat since the inception of The Who and to see these two perform on stage with an incredible band that included Pete\u2019s brother Simon on guitar and Zak Starkey on drums was monumental. Starkey\u2019s drumming was to say the least an amazing tribute to Keith Moon as was Pino Palladino\u2019s bass work was to John Entwistle\u2019s original work.<\/p>\n<\/a>Kicking off with the red hot \u201cJumpin\u2019 Jack Flash\u201d, the Stones immediately got the crowd\u2019s attention and didn\u2019t lose it for close to two hours.<\/p>\n<\/a>Fronted by Lucas Nelson, The Promise of Real eventually joined Young on stage for the balance of the performance. The first number featuring the full band was \u201cComes a Time\u201d from Young\u2019s 1978 release of the same name.<\/p>\n<\/a>As an extra bonus McCartney was joined on stage by Rihanna for a duet of \u201cFour Five Seconds\u201d, a song originally recorded with Kanye West as well. But the real treat was when Neil Young joined along for \u201cA Day in the Life\u201d, \u201cGive Peace a Chance\u201d and \u201cWhy Don\u2019t We Do It In The Road\u201d which was performed a week earlier for the first time live. Neil Young stole this particular song as he would venture off into Crazy Horse type guitar smashing sounds throughout the number.<\/p>\n