Nostalgia and rain — Hamilton remembers Neil Young’s 1973 concert

Decades have passed since Neil Young performed at McMaster, but attendees still remember: We stood in a long line on a rainy night," said Teenage Head guitarist Dave DesRoches. We waited forever."

DesRoches was 16 at the time and got offered free tickets by a neighbour.

He is Neil Young and one of the all time greats. So here he was, in our hometown. It was pretty cool," DesRoches said, who attended the concert with his brother.

Young was in Canada for his practise concerts, which happened at universities before his European tour.

He didn't play any songs I recognized," said DesRoches. I remember people were yelling asking for Ohio.'"

Last week, a unique tape of the concert was donated to a local store. In the recording, Young played a number of new songs that weren't officially recorded until two years after the Hamilton concert.

DesRoches said it would be cool to hear the tape since he remembers the night and the songs he was unfamiliar with.

I remember wanting the album from the concert and looking for it after, but when the new album came out (On the Beach') it didn't have the songs we saw live," said DesRoches.

GRIN, opening band for Young brought another Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee to the city, Nils Lofgren.

McMaster's The Silhouette" newspaper from that year said Lofgren later shared the stage with Young for the first half of the concert.

DesRoches said everyone was in wonderland" watching it.

We wanted to get better seats from where I was, closer to the stage. I'm a big Scott Young fan (a Canadian journalist and Neil's dad) so I sat in the same row as him." Scott Young was at the concert to see his son play.

DesRoches is releasing a new album with the Second Responders this month, and was inspired by Young's surprise set list for the unveiling concert.

We are doing five songs in the record and starting the show like that, and that's because of Neil. I want to give my audience that experience of hearing something they had never heard before."

The Silhouette" reporter, Carol Ann Westbrook, covered the concert back in 1973. Neil was so damn late."

Westbrook said her late husband Richard, the photo editor for the paper at time was disappointed with the long wait.

The now retired Brantford Expositor reporter remembers it being terribly cold and windy" that night. However, that didn't take the excitement away from the students and fans.

He (Neil Young) was kind of apologetic for the delay," said Westbrook.

Drummer from Hamilton band Trickbag, Paul Panchezak was at his first year at McMaster when the concert happened and described the performance as ragged and underehearsed."

Panchezak said Young was dressed in a white suit, sunglasses and on stage, a light bulb hanging from a chain and a real palm tree.

Throughout the concert he would pull the chain and say, Welcome to Miami Beach, everything is cheaper than it looks,'" Panchezak recalled.

Bleachers and seats were packed with fans across McMaster's gymnasium. Panchezak said he has been to many concerts at the university but it looked like one of its biggest crowds yet.

However, the two-feet-tall stage and its small production made the concert feel intimate. Panchezak said Young dedicated the song Old Man" to his father.

He said: My dad is in the house, and he hasn't seen me play in a long time and I'm going to send this one out to him," Panchezak said.

Neil Young's father, Scott, mentioned the Hamilton concert in his autobiography, Neil and me."

Panchezak said Neil didn't talk very much during the concert and that the Harvest Moon" singer seemed kind of aloof."

The Trickbag drummer said the entire concert was based on Tonight's the Night" album which only came out two years after the concert.

We expected to hear some familiar tunes but instead we heard this whole album that no one outside had," said Panchezak. When the concert ended everyone was like Wow I didn't recognize any of these songs!"

After a lot of applause, Young came back for two encores and gave the audience what they wanted. He came back and sang all of his hits with the band. Persistence paid off."

For Panchezak, the 1973 Neil Young concert live at McMaster will always be one of his top three concerts. When that album (Tonight's the Night') came out, it became one of my favourite ones. "

Other Canadian icons have also performed at McMaster including Leonard Cohen in 1975, Rush in 1976 and most recently The Weeknd in 2012 and Alessia Cara in 2016.

Beatriz Baleeiro is a reporter at The Spectator.bbaleeiro@torstar.ca