Neil Young Adds New Dates to ‘Spontaneous Tour’

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Young acknowledging the crowd during “Cinnamon Girl” on May 1, 2018

Update (June 17): Neil Young has announced two “spontaneous theater” additional shows, at The Lobero in Santa Barbara, Calif., on June 19-20. These shows, at the 600-seat theater, will feature Promise of the Real and Young said on his Neil Young Archives website that they will “be playing some songs we’ve never done before.”

On May 9, Young announced six solo concerts in “four of my favorite cities”: Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Boston. See his current 2018 itinerary below.

Our original news item…
Neil Young reunited with members of his longtime band, Crazy Horse, on Tuesday night (May 1) in Fresno, Calif., for the first time in nearly four years. Young last performed with Crazy Horse in Reykjavík, Iceland, in July 2014. (Prior to that, they had toured together in 2012-13.) The concert, at the Warnors Theater, was only announced on April 23. In the following days, a total of five performances took place with three more (May 2-3) in Fresno and two (May 5-6) in Bakersfield.

For these shows, Young was joined by Nils Lofgren (guitar), Billy Talbot (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums).

May 1’s 15-song set opened with “Big Time” (which, according to Setlist.fm, he hadn’t performed since 2001) and included such well known numbers as “Cortez the Killer,” “Like a Hurricane,” “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and “Cinnamon Girl.”

There was a delay just before the evening’s fifth song, “World on a String.” “Technical problems,” joked Young. “Thanks for coming out; we appreciate it.”

The videos that we originally shared were removed from YouTube. We subbed-in several from the 17-song, May 6 mini-tour finale in Bakersfield… but, they, too, came down. Two songs at that May 6 concert – “Hey, Hey, My, My” and “Down By the River” made their debut on this tour.

Watch “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” from their May 2 concert in Fresno

Watch “Cortez the Killer” from the May 2 show

Neil Young and Crazy Horse, May 1, 2018, Warnors Theater, Fresno, CA Setlist

Big Time
Country Home
Don’t Cry No Tears
Winterlong
World on a String
Scattered (Let’s Think About Livin’)
Fuckin’ Up
Too Far Gone
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Cinnamon Girl
Cortez the Killer
Walk On
Like a Hurricane
Mansion on the Hill

Encore
Roll Another Number (For the Road)

Since 2015, Young has used the group Promise of the Real as his backing band. That group includes Willie Nelson’s son Lukas Nelson on vocals/guitar.

Other Neil Young Dates
Jun 19 – Santa Barbara, CA – The Lobero (with Promise of the Real)
Jun 20 – Santa Barbara, CA – The Lobero (with Promise of the Real)
Jun 23 – Pasadena, CA – Arroyo Seco Weekend (With Promise of the Real)
Jun 28 – St. Louis, MO – Fox Theatre
Jun 30 – Chicago, IL – Auditorium Theatre
Jul 01 – Chicago, IL – Auditorium Theatre
Jul 03 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre
Jul 06 – Quebec, Canada – Quebec Summer Festival (Band not confirmed)
Jul 11 – Boston, MA – Wang Theatre
Jul 12 – Boston, MA – Wang Theatre
Sep 23 – Saratoga, NY – SPAC (Outlaw Music Festival) (With Promise of the Real)