Having a bite to eat last week in a very ordinary franchise restaurant called La Hippopotamus in Bercy, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, watching the crowds gathering on the steps of the Palais Omni-Sport, Bercy for Neil Young & Crazy Horse.
We had tickets for the same show when Neil Young performed in Geelong on 16 March. Do you remember the night? Rain, hail, lightning, thunder - not the best night for an outdoor concert. Paul went and he enjoyed it, despite getting soaked, but I chickened out.
Given that this venue was so easy for us to get to on the Metro, Paul was very keen to see the show again. So here we are.
A great rocky support band and we are pretty happy with our seats. Our view was better than it appears to be in the photos; the photos are distorted by the lights. The venue holds 17,000 and Paul calculated that there were probably about 13,000 at this event. All those on the floor are standing.
Much mucking around by men in white coats to do the Crazy Horse set up.
And when they started I nearly died! I have never heard anything so loud in my entire life! And from only four musicians .......
Twenty minutes into the concert I really thought I was going to be sick - my head felt as though it would explode, my eyes were blurring and I felt panic. I had to sit still, focus on my hands, and apply all of my old relaxation and calming techniques to get over the assault of the noise. Once I'd done that, I felt better and after about an hour I was reasonably OK with the noise. It never worried Paul, of course but I noticed he wasn't hearing too well the next day.
Despite my silly stories, it was a great concert. Neil Young's voice is just as good as ever and the three crazy horses are all holding their own as well.
Our next concert is Leonard Cohen at this same venue.
And just to clear our heads after two and a half hours of excruciating "loudness" (I daren't call it noise) we walked all the way home.
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