as much as i like neil, at $74 - $124 i think i'll stick with the vinyl.

It was a lot of fun seeing you two tonight. I don't know what to say about the show. I was never a really huge fan, but I totally get it that Neil Young is a true living legend, as much as anyone can be. I've been in bands going back to high school that played his stuff (Heart of Gold, etc.). He had some very moving moments tonight. Yet he also frequently and literally moved the building to absurd volume levels.

After the show, I was trying to explain to our KV hosts what I thought they were doing to his guitar to make it sound that way, which I'll describe in a moment. Driving home I realized that I was wrong about the frequencies. A low open "E" on the guitar is about 80Hz, NOT 40Hz as I had said. (40Hz is that of a bass guitar or upright bass, which I'm used to thinking of.) So to get the 40Hz were heard tonight, they WERE dividing his low frequencies by 2. Since all of his guitars except the first one or two acoustics did this, I think it was all done through the sound system.

So the lowest frequencies were electronically altered to produce notes one octave below normal, like a bass. Also they amplified this narrow frequency range around 40Hz to ridiculous levels. The rest of the guitar was not modified much, except he sometimes used various degrees his trademark type of really grungy distortion (sometimes a LOT of it). Unlike the bass thing, I think most of that distortion came from the guitar amplifier on stage.

But the levels! I was thinking the low bass was maybe 20 decibels higher than the rest of the guitar's mid-frequency average, but I stood behind the sound board and saw the real time analyzer that showed it was closer to 30 or 40dB higher. So if the main guitar volume was 90dB (fairly loud and that number is probably a very conservative guess), then the low frequencies were 120-130dB, kind of in the range of a jet engine. This is just f*cking nuts. And he sang sensitive songs, like "Love and War"?!

I don't know how much louder it would have to be to drive significantly more people out of the auditorium, but there were some of us who reached our limit. It was numbing. Ear plugs don't really help much in that situation; it jars your internal organs as much as your ears. And I used to be a loud rock'n'roll freak who loved deep bass.

It was a weird concert. Most, I'm sure, thought it was a heavenly experience. I can't wait for The Greencards' next performance in town. And Darrell Scott put on a sublime performance last night at Tennessee Shines.

So are my wife and others we knew in the lobby who were also taking refuge. That's great if you had a wonderful time, Rachel, but did you really enjoy it that loud? If so, how much louder would you have enjoyed or even tolerated it, just because that's the way it was supposed to sound?

Maybe I'm just an old fuddy duddy anymore. That's fine. I'd like to try to keep the remaining hair cells left in my ears. To each her own. I'm not trying to play the spoiler, but just trying to understand. If loud is cool, at what point is it not?

There was something in the Metropulse a few years ago about some of the local sound-board knob-twiddlers. The thing I remember striking me most was a comment from one (maybe more that one?) that they don't listen to music much anymore, because it's too much like work. On one hand, that seems reasonable. On the other, what?

I forgot earplugs for the last Elvis Costello show, and for me, it was all just noise and clipping. Loud has two purposes. First, just to get up above the din of the crowd. Second, it does have a neurological effect, and at a certain level is kind of fun. For me, though, when it's loud like the Costello and Young shows, what's the point? Most people don't bring earplugs, so what is it that they're hearing when it's that loud? Noise and clipping? Is that fun? Does nobody say anything for fear of sounding like a curmudgeon? Not to worry. No one will hear you for the ringing in their ears.

Rachel, but did you really enjoy it that loud?

Umm, I didn't comment on the show; just that I enjoyed seeing R & M.

I don't mind loud, I don't mind a lot of bass (rock and roll SHOULD make your insides vibrate), I don't even dislike the Neil Young distorted sound. It wasn't the loud that bothered me last night; it was that the bass just completely dominated everything else. I might as well have been sitting on a jet runway.

It was fascinating that he could get that sound out of a single guitar; it was not all that likeable. It made me go "wow"; it did not make me want to dance around the room. And Cinnamon Girl ALWAYS makes me want to dance around the room.

The accoustic stuff was wonderful tho, and I really liked the organ on After the Gold Rush. So all in all, a mixed review from me.

Hi, Bill! Sorry we somehow missed each other Thursday night. I wish I could have talked to Darrell, but we left a little early. I remember him being very nice and soft spoken. I wanted to ask him if he's still roasting his own coffee, like he once said at a Blue Plate that he was. And whether that was his Prius parked behind the Cherryholmes bus. Oh well, maybe next time when he comes (I hope) to do a whole concert.

BTW, although this steals some thunder from the NY topic, those who missed TnShines probably don't know the announcement Lauderdale made about Darrell's new band. Was it Songs of Joy, or something? Let's see: Darrell, Buddy Miller, Patty Griffin, Robert Plant, Byron House and one or two others. I wonder if Andy knows about this. Mr. Axel?

We're in agreement, Rachel. It was just the overwhelming bass that almost literally blew me away. It could have been half as loud in apparent level and still be bone shaking loud. I like your and skb's reviews, which were fair and balanced. I liked the organ thing too, and more than the piano piece(s).

Somebody, usually my theory for poor or loud sound is that the sound guy is the only one who likes it that way and is probably deaf too, and that the artist may be unaware of how bad it is. In this case, though, I have to conclude that NY knows how it sounds in front. The bass would be just as loud on stage and he's a detail freak who reads reviews like the one Randy linked to yesterday. But it's weird. While such a sensory overload definitely gives the show another dimension to the experience, such great music doesn't seem like it should need such adulteration. And modern digital recording technology allows those type of bass levels to be put on CDs and music files, but no recording engineer would do that. A live recording of this material would never be so tilted up in the bass, unless maybe for hip-hop/rap, but still not this high. So why perform it that way? I wonder what recording engineers like Gary Paczosa would think of this show.