h.o.r.d.e. tour 1997

H.O.R.D.E. 1997

Neil young - ben folds - leftover salmon, new world music theatre - tinley park.

August 3, 1997

First Appeared in The Music Box , September 1997, Volume 4, #10

Written by John Metzger

Last year, when it was announced that Blues Traveler was retiring from the H.O.R.D.E. circuit, and everyone expected the festival to disappear or, at least, quickly deteriorate. Instead, this year's event, headlined by Neil Young , easily exceeded everyone's expectations and outperformed any of the H.O.R.D.E. shows thus far.

H.O.R.D.E. and Young crept into town on August 3, only two weeks after Young's former bandmates Crosby, Stills, and Nash had performed at the Rosemont Theater. Unfortunately, that was two weeks too many for any sort of reunion to take place. Throughout the tour, Young has been sneaking off to the Workshop Stage early in the day to perform an acoustic set. For most of the tour, this set has featured no less than five songs and took place in front of some small crowds. Basically, it was a nice treat for those folks coming early in the day.

Unfortunately, local radio station WXRT announced that this would take place, prompting a huge influx of people to the venue. This was a great treat for the performers, who throughout the tour have played to small crowds, but it really ruined Young's acoustic set. The crowd was just too large, and sadly, many people were there "just because it was cool" — not because they wanted to hear Young pull off an intimate performance. Since most of those gathered around the small stage didn't know the songs, they chose to talk rather than listen, making it difficult at times to hear through the limited sound system. Nevertheless, John Popper stopped by for a surprise visit, and the pair ran through Roll Another Number (for the Road) and a bluesy This Note's for You before departing.

Back at the main stage, the highly touted Medeski, Martin, and Wood embarked upon a brief, 35-minute set. The group performed a blend of jazz and rock and came across as a jazzy version of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer , largely because John Medeski's keyboard playing was such a driving force behind the collective.

Chicago-based Push Down and Turn kicked things off on the Second Stage with a batch of infectious songs. This group has potential, as guitarist Sam King nailed a number of solos, behind Jason Brown's Stone Temple Pilots -style of singing. Unfortunately, by the end of the set, the band seemed somewhat one-dimensional with all its songs sounding very much the same.

This same problem also hit Main Stage act Kula Shaker, the only British group on the H.O.R.D.E. tour. They pulled off a 45-minute set that closely followed in the footsteps of the Stone Roses' Manchester sound, but the group seemed somewhat bored with many of its songs.

Toad the Wet Sprocket opened its set with Come Down and Whatever I Fear , the two hits from its most recent release Coil , and it was a welcome relief from the shrieking, irritating Second Stage act Cake Like. The psychedelic Butterflies was the first of several songs performed from the group's 1991 breakthrough Fear . This song ran smack into a surprise version of The Beatles' Within You Without You , but ended abruptly when the audience displayed little reaction. The crowd was much more responsive when, later in the set, Toad played a few bars of John Mellencamp's Jack and Diane before launching into its own hit All I Want .

It should be noted that singer Glen Phillips' vocal performance was much improved from a few years ago. In fact, his concert performances improved dramatically throughout the tour with Darius Rucker and the rest of Hootie and the Blowfish . Both Nightingale Song and Throw It All Away gave him a chance to really shine. His guitar playing has also improved, adding another dimension to this group's live performances.

Leftover Salmon kept the momentum going with a rousing set of bluegrass-inspired rock and roll. John Popper appeared on stage and performed the last two songs with the band, including a blistering Funky Mountain Fogdown .

Primus' bassist Les Claypool is an amazing performer, but the group's songs just don't come across all that well. For the most part, all the songs performed by Primus sounded the same. At times, the band did take off, particularly when Claypool allowed the its guitarist to explore a few musical realms of his own, occasionally sounding like Pink Floyd's David Gilmour . Unfortunately, this was all too rare, and Primus's set became somewhat tedious.

Next, on the Second Stage was Ben Folds Five , and the group didn't disappoint. Folds has a tendency to bang away on his piano in a rather unorthodox fashion that some keyboardists would say is sacrilegious. However, his stage antics are amusing to watch. His regular three-piece band consists of piano, bass, and drums, but this evening was augmented with a string section. With the lack of a guitarist, the group provides an interesting twist to the standard musical fare, at times sounding like Todd Rundgren with a sense of humor more in line with Phish .

Morphine is offered another interesting line-up and created a new twist on music. This band, like Ben Folds Five, is a three-piece outfit, but consists of a two-string bass, saxophone, and drums. Unfortunately, their second stage set was cut short by a downpour of epic proportions.

The rain did not stop Neil Young and Crazy Horse from taking the stage promptly at its designated start time. The band immediately launched into their portentous Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) and held back nothing as the dual guitar attack of Young and the underrated Frank "Poncho" Sampedro each belted out scorching riffs. It was great to hear Crime in the City and the more mellow Hippie Dream , but these were overshadowed by the raging thunderstorm that continued to surround the theater.

Young regained the audience's attention with F*!#in' Up , and driven by the rhythmic duo of Ralph Molina's drums and Billy Talbot's bass, he launched into an amazing solo that was cut short when the storm wiped out the power to the arena. Only Neil Young and Crazy Horse could possibly keep their momentum rolling, continuing to jam despite a lack of lighting and a sound system. Instead, flashlights and candles cast light upon the band, which continued unfazed. Gradually, the crew turned all the amps and monitors towards the audience, and the fireworks continued.

Lightning surrounded the theater with brilliant flashes and streaks across the sky. The wind and rain picked up, and Young and company countered in an awesome duel with nature. Without pause, Young led the band through a life-affirming, all-out experience of Like a Hurricane that only seemed to magically intensify the storm. The wind pushed the rain through the pavilion to the 35,000 seat arena. We were about midway between the stage and the back of the pavilion and ended up soaking wet. Even more amazing was that the wind picked up at such a speed, it pushed the hard-driving rain all the way to the stage, drenching everyone, including the band. Despite the risk of electrical shock, the group continued to plow through Like a Hurricane , which seemed more and more appropriate with each note it played.

Rockin' in the Free World continued the intensity. Water gushed down into the pavilion, and the audience climbed onto walls to avoid the flow, which peaked about 3 inches short of the foot-high barricade. Gradually, the water worked down to the front of the stage, where it created a small river. Young continued on through Tonight's the Night , while security told everyone that this would be the final song. This was a big mistake for those who left.

Young noticed the water flowing down the aisles and launched into a pairing of Down by the River and Powderfinger . Despite the fact that it was difficult to hear much more than the vocals and the guitars of Young and Sampedro, both of these versions were unbelievably intense. With the power of the group's delivery, the insanity of the storm, and the hysterical stage antics of a band dancing around in the rain, the remaining audience was totally captivated by the performance. Somehow, the group managed to defeat the rain — by the time it finished Piece of Crap , 80 minutes after taking the stage, the rain had stopped.

It no longer seems quite as necessary for Blues Traveler to return to the fold, as this year's acts more than lived up to the H.O.R.D.E. reputation. Given the amazing performance of veteran Young; a strong outing from Toad the Wet Sprocket; and inspired sets from newcomers Leftover Salmon, Ben Folds Five, and Morphone; this H.O.R.D.E. festival upped the ante for next year's tour. Whoever does sign up for next year's traveling circus will certainly have their hands full trying to live up to the insanity of this trip around the country.

Neil Young's Decade is available from Barnes & Noble. To order, Click Here !

Copyright © 1997 The Music Box

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This year's H.O.R.D.E. lineup

A diverse set of youthful performers opened, including Ben Folds Five and Morphine, but veteran rocker Neil Young stole the show

At the kickoff of the sixth annual H.O.R.D.E. Festival on July 11, the big question wasn’t why the seemingly strong bill failed to sell out San Francisco’s Shoreline Amphitheatre, a venue the all-female Lilith Fair had easily filled just a few days before. That could have been attributed to the absence of Beck and Blues Traveler, who will join the tour for select August dates. Nor was it whether H.O.R.D.E. would hold its own against this year’s lame Lollapalooza, which reportedly failed to fill even half of New York’s Downing Stadium that same day.

No, the big question at the newly dehippified, suddenly hip H.O.R.D.E. was what would happen when angst- ridden alterna-kids infiltrated what was once the crunchiest of summer concerts. With a Neil Young-topped bill that adds alternative-radio successes Primus, Ben Folds Five, Morphine, and Squirrel Nut Zippers to more traditional H.O.R.D.E. jammers like Big Head Todd & the Monsters and Leftover Salmon, the traveling love-fest broadened its scope. Would hanger-on hippies get bummed out by all the negative energy? Would purple-haired skate kids pelt peaceniks with Hacky Sacks?

Well, no. In fact, the audience — as varied as the show’s lineup — seemed surprisingly open-minded, cheering more enthusiastically for quirky second-stage acts Morphine and Ben Folds than for the terminally bland Toad the Wet Sprocket and Big Head Todd, whose main-stage sets were witnessed by barely a third of the crowd. Sure, there were plenty of confused crusties trying to noodle- dance to Squirrel Nut Zippers’ imitation swing (trust me, it doesn’t work), but at least they were trying, right?

Perhaps the good vibes shouldn’t come as such a surprise. While more diverse than at previous H.O.R.D.E.s, this year’s lineup still shared one important feature: The groups are inspired, to a large extent, by sounds of the past. From the ’70s-style piano pop of Ben Folds Five (beautifully complemented by a string quartet) to Squirrel Nut Zippers’ silly-but- fun ersatz prewar jazz to Primus’ prog-rock self-indulgence (a drum solo!), the bands’ styles were as anachronistic as the Lionel trains that ran around an exhibition tent just outside the amphitheater.

But the night belonged to the one artist on the bill who’s actually part of history, not just paying homage to it. Despite some noteworthy sets, the alt-rock undercard was clearly outmatched by headliner Neil Young. After opening the show with an unscheduled second-stage acoustic performance, Young returned seven hours later to close the fest with a brilliant, primarily electric set on the candlelit main stage.

Blazing through a familiar list of concert staples (”Like a Hurricane,” ”Helpless”) and newer tunes ( Broken Arrow ‘s ”Big Time” and ”Slip Away” were particularly moving), Young’s unflagging energy and gorgeous guitar work showed vastly more heart, conviction, and passion than any of the younger bands on the bill. After a long day mostly devoted to old-fashioned sounds, Young — whose two sets contained a good chunk of songs originally recorded before much of the audience was even born — seemed like the only performer who wasn’t likely to burn out or fade away any time soon.

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• July 11, 1997 Setlist

Primus Setlist at Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA, USA

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• John the Fisherman Play Video
• Groundhog's Day Play Video
• Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread Play Video
• Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers Play Video
• Puddin' Taine Play Video
• My Name Is Mud Play Video
• Jerry Was a Race Car Driver Play Video
• Shake Hands With Beef Play Video
• Seas of Cheese Play Video
• Over the Falls Play Video
• Pudding Time Play Video
• Here Come the Bastards Play Video
• Tommy the Cat Play Video

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6 activities (last edit by ExecutiveChimp , 5 Dec 2013, 05:59 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Here Come the Bastards
• Jerry Was a Race Car Driver
• Seas of Cheese
• Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers
• Tommy the Cat
• Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread
• Over the Falls
• Puddin' Taine
• Shake Hands With Beef
• Groundhog's Day
• John the Fisherman
• Pudding Time
• My Name Is Mud

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H.O.R.D.E. Festival 1997 setlists

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• Jul 01 1997 LKA Longhorn Stuttgart, Germany Add time Add time
• Jul 02 1997 Babylon Munich, Germany Add time Add time
• Jul 11 1997 H.O.R.D.E. Festival 1997 This Setlist Mountain View, CA, USA Add time Add time
• Jul 13 1997 H.O.R.D.E. Festival 1997 Portland, OR, USA Add time Add time
• Jul 15 1997 H.O.R.D.E. Festival 1997 Park City, UT, USA Add time Add time

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YOUNG, BECK RAISE H.O.R.D.E. TO SATISFYING HEIGHTS

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Breaking News

Ct man charged with attempted murder, assault after allegedly stabbing partner multiple times.

It may not have made any money, but the lightly attended H.O.R.D.E. tour at the Meadows Music Theatre was a blessing for those who went to it Wednesday.

Not only did they get the strongest lineup of any touring festival this summer, but great weather and no lines to boot.

Once an excuse for tie-dye bands to jam, H.O.R.D.E. (which stands for Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere) is now hip. It accomplished something Lollapalooza was never able to do: snare Neil Young to headline. Then it added such cool acts as Beck, Kula Shaker, Morphine, and Medeski Martin & Wood.

Young’s 11-song set was a blazing model in rock relevancy. Aside from a few expected anthems, such as “Hey Hey, My My” to “Rockin’ in the Free World,” he and his backing trio, Crazy Horse, turned to less obvious choices from his long and distinguished catalog, including “Crime in the City,” and the encore “Mansion on the Hill.”

Long codas of brooding, feedback-laden guitar interplay followed “Slip Away” and “Hippie Dream,” the latter song seemingly speaking to H.O.R.D.E. organizers.

The three-song acoustic portion was surprisingly effective and direct, with “This Note’s for You” (maybe he didn’t see the list of eight H.O.R.D.E. corporate sponsors) and “From Hank to Hendrix.” “Ohio,” which he said he sang from time to time to remember the Kent State victims he wrote about, had a deeply personal touch as well.

While Young was alternately tender and blazing, Beck was simply a blast. Heavy into his ’70s funk mode, he wore a second- hand suit to rouse the crowd, dance, strike poses and revert to old school raps. The last time he was in Hartford, for Lollapalooza ’95, he sang to an empty amphitheater as sod flew. This time he got the crowd rocking with a roster of splashy hits, including a splendidly extended “Where It’s At.”

Primus, a Lollapalooza ’93 veteran, was also a big draw on the main stage, with Les Claypool’s authoritative bass and quirky humor leading the way. Kula Shaker, the only English group on the bill, seemed to be plagued with technical difficulties on rock that sounded, without live sitars, even more like Oasis. Medeski Martin and Wood provided their cool Hammond B3 instrumentals to an early main stage crowd of literally dozens.

There were some slow moments in the 8 1/2-hour concert. Boston’s Mudhens didn’t leave much of an impression; Toad the Wet Sprocket’s middling pop sounded thinner than usual.

Acts of interest on the secondary stage included the low tones of Morphine, completing its H.O.R.D.E. tour of duty. A big crowd also turned out for the early evening set by Ben Folds Five, a North Carolina trio that’s augmented for the current tour by a four-piece string section led by classical violinist Lorenza Ponce. It was an interesting approach for the knockdown ’70s piano-led pop of the band; the group still sounded a little squirrelly.

The only real hippie band on either stage (or an act that would have fit in with the hippified H.O.R.D.E. of yore) was the Boulder, Colo., outfit of Leftover Salmon, which combined bluegrass instruments with rock, allowing a Metallica edge on a banjo breakdown. It sounds more interesting than it actually was, though.

For all its forced dissonance, the band Cake Like (signed to Neil Young’s label, Vapor) was easy to like, with its simple, rocking songs and succinct imagery. Besides, guitarist Nina Hellman said, “We’re the only all-female band you’ll see at the H.O.R.D.E. this year.”

Also in the second stage area, amid the commercial booths and market surveys, a third stage was dedicated to jamming, led by Col. Bruce Hampton and a member of his Fiji Mariners. Among the participants on the freewheeling stage were, at one point, members of Morphine, Beck’s horn section and Ben Folds on drums.

A show-opening acoustic set from Young on the jam stage, though, was scotched, as the 51- year-old feigned a sore throat and played instead with the huge Lionel Train setup with his son.

A slightly different lineup for H.O.R.D.E plays Great Woods in Mansfield, Mass., Friday and Saturday.

The song list for Neil Young & Crazy Horse Wednesday was: “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black),” “Crime in the City,” “Hippie Dream,” “F*!?’ Up,” “This Note’s for You,” “From Hank to Hendrix,” “Ohio,” “Rockin’ in The Free World,” “Slip Away,” “Sedan Delivery” (encore) “Mansion On The Hill.”

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H.O.R.D.E. Core (25 Years Later)

I’ll never forget what I heard on that walk to the venue.

It was the late afternoon of July 9, 1992 and I had just arrived at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine for the debut of an eight show multi-band bill that pledged to showcase the Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere. Blues Traveler manager and HORDE co-owner Dave Frey recalls viewing the “Stephen King-like” fog as a portent, describing the weather as “ominous” (of course he was anxious about the slow advance ticket sales for the event but would be appeased by a few thousand walk-ups). Such an adjective was the furthest from my mind, as I made my way to the facility, passing rows of parked cars, while their affable, energized occupants gathered nearby, chatting, imbibing but above all else representing, playing the music of the groups that pulled them across the Maine border (and a quick glance at the license plates made it clear that most of these vehicles had indeed originated from out-of-state). It was like the boosterism of the 1920s all over again but rather than preaching the virtues of their local townships, the focus was on music borders or perhaps the lack thereof, given the range of improvisation reflected in that quilt of sound.

As I walked inside, I discovered a welcome, wondrous site: five thousand animated folks showing their colors. Phish and Blues Traveler predominated the T-shirts iconography but Widespread Panic and Spin Doctors had their adherents as well (I’ll confess that I can’t remember seeing an Aquarium Rescue Unit shirt, even if they were the band that would predominate my thoughts over the days to come, leading me to a second helping of H.O.R.D.E. a few days later). In this era before the Internet had really take hold there was a prevailing sense of We Are Not Alone. Who knew that this many people would travel to Portland, Maine for 75 minute sets from these five groups (and twice that number would attend the shows at Garden State Arts Center and Jones Beach). Before the initial notes were sounded, there was a palpable anticipation fueled by a self-selectiveness that I would not experience with such intensity until the first Bonnaroo.

I would go on to write a book called Jam Bands and accompany it by founding a website, called Jambands.com. I firmly believe that my perception of a particular musical constellation first crystallized during the course of that evening in Portland, Maine.

John Popper, the Blues Traveler frontman and driving force behind the event, is reluctant to take credit for this. “That’s the thing I always debate: Are you doing the shaping or are you being shaped by your generation? It’s hard to tell. I think that H.O.R.D.E. was more about discovering the world around you. In a way H.O.R.D.E. brought you a glimpse of that in a shot but you’d have gotten there yourself. Or do you think you never would discovered the ARU if it wasn’t for the H.O.R.D.E.?”

Here’s hoping that I would have but let the record show that I did discover them that day in Portland, Maine, during their opening set that culminated most majestically with a full-band segue into Widespread Panic. There was something happening here and H.O.R.D.E. not only manifested it but gave it new form as well.

How that all came to pass began with a meeting in the Bill Graham Management’s New York office on a Sunday night four months earlier. Widespread Panic’s John Bell, the Spin Doctors’ Eric Scheckman, Col. Bruce Hampton of ARU, John Popper and a couple of his Blues Traveler bandmates and all the members of Phish came together, with no managers or agents allowed, as they discussed a plan to join forces with the hope that these five club bands could generate a collective interest that would allow them to move into amphitheatres for a few dates…

John Popper: We all met in a room in Bill Graham’s office and there was a certain reverence. If you’ve ever been in Bill Graham’s anything there’s a rock and roll reverence: “Oh that’s Janis Joplin’s tambourine, just hanging out right there.”

John Bell: That meeting up in New York was a gas. I’d never seen that before. Everything else now is promoters, agents, managers. They cook up the scenarios or you just fit yourself into something like Jazz Fest or Bonnaroo, which is great, it’s well-organized and put together. But we’d been playing with each other for the past couple years opening for each other in different territories and this was young band guys getting together and having their own ideas of what was going on. It wasn’t coming from the management, so it was really hip.

Mike Gordon: I remember managers weren’t allowed in the meeting although there were a couple hovering outside.

John Popper: Fishman wanted to stage a little skit. He said, “I’m going to run out screaming and you guys drag me back into the room so that everybody will be like, ‘What the hell are they doing in there?’ Well he got really into it with his “No, no, don’t take me back,” and he ripped the door off the hinge.

Bruce Hampton: I remember everybody was real idealistic and we all wanted to do the festival for a ten buck ticket which was unheard of.

John Popper: Then Trey [Anastasio] stands up and goes, “Why don’t we finally just make it something where it’s five different bands, equal billing, equal money everywhere no matter what the audience says.” And we’re all like, “Yes, let’s do this!”

John Bell: Then Mike Gordon brought out a jar of Vaseline and we all shook hands after ceremoniously dipping our hands in the Vaseline.

John Popper: I still have that jar of Vaseline.

Eric Schenkman: The other thing that came out of that meeting was the idea of the H.O.R.D.E. sword. Popper had someone make a sword, like a Merlin double-edged, huge knight sword and every band got one.

Left to themselves during that Sunday night meeting, the musicians devised an idealistic, egalitarian solution but then Monday morning arrived and with it came the realities of the music industry.

John Popper: The next day Trey called me and goes, “I talked to my manager and we just can’t do that.” And I understand why he couldn’t. They have to eat, they have people to pay. They would have been giving up quite a bit had they done that deal of a five way spilt. You can’t expect them to do that. My next call was to John Bell and he said, “I understand but then we have to do the same thing down south.” So then suddenly everybody’s coming to their corners.

John Bell: Bruce approached music and the whole way we apply ourselves on stage and with each other musically in a different way. And it really came at a good time where it would screw with everybody’s sense of self. At an early time in your career that’s a good thing and I think the band really embraced that. None of us were too entrenched in thinking we needed to be bigwigs. What Bruce was doing was adding a theater of the absurd but creating an environment that was a self-reminder of having good intentions when you go out there and playing with intention…and keeping your ears open and trying to keep your ego at bay, you’ve got enough members in the band.

John Popper: They had the reverence of all the musicians. They did kind of embodied the spirit of the H.O.R.D.E. movement, at least among us. They were an empire within an empire.

Oteil Burbridge: That whole time was so surreal because the ARU was the first time that we purposefully started a band with no hope, and therefore no intention of doing anything but scaring normal people away. We certainly never expected in our wildest dreams to get a record deal or be invited to be on a big tour. The people in those bands were so kind to us. They were our saviors. They flew our flag far and wide and took us under their wings. For them to believe in the absolute madness that we staked our entire lives on moves me in a way that I can’t really put into words.

John Popper: H.O.R.D.E. was laden with mitzvahs and you got them done back to you. There was such good will on that tour.

With some of the preliminaries resolved, the next action item became finalizing the name of the tour itself. John Popper’s suggestion demonstrated his unique perspective on what this would all represent.

John Popper: I was into Attila The Hun, so here’s my fantasy. For some reason it’s got to be a town in the Midwest because that’s how big our armies would be. A storm comes rumbling from the East and here comes Blues Traveler’s fans…and from the West come Phish fans…and from the South it’s Widespread fans…and from the North it’s Spin Doctors fans. So the town is converged upon by a hippie gang. All the food in the area gets eaten up by these people. I wanted it to sound like some sort of Mongol horde. It was originally going to be Horizons of Rock Developing East Coast because that seemed to be an identification of a scene but Eric Schenkman wisely said it should be Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere. And sure enough the next year we started using band like the Samples from Colorado and that would have sucked if we had to make an alteration letter. Decorum is everything.

Not everyone was sold on it, however.

Page McConnell: In a lot of ways Popper was driving the boat in terms of arranging the meeting, putting it together and even the name H.O.R.D.E. Mike [Gordon] came up with a slew of hilarious names and he read out some of them at the meeting. He’s got a knack for funny names and I can remember a couple off the top of my head from 20 years ago: Rock Donkey Dunkle and East Coast Rock-a-Sooey.

After Gordon returned home he drew up an extended list that he circulated sent via fax. The options also included: The Farm-Fresh Banana Festival, The Sir James Isaac Newton Summer Jam, East Coast Diner Poached Egg Music Fest, Seven Hours of Noise, Saltwater Taffy Twisting Machine Festival, Marshmellow Music, Five Bands That Stink, Summer Glacier Meltdown and Big Big Spinach Rock Party. One last minute addition was The Clifford Ball. The name appears with an asterisk and a note on top that explains, “Clifford Ball’s name was on a plaque in the airport. We saw the plaque while finding a phone to call John Popper. ‘A Beacon of light in the world of flight.’ We can get more info on this guy and recreate his world.” Still, recreating the world of Clifford Ball was not exactly what Popper had in mind. John Popper: They were at some airport and they just read these facts about this pilot and they wanted it to be the entire theme of the tour. You gotta give it to them for abstract. I suppose there’s something special about the Clifford Ball that put the hook in them. Widespread Panic circulated its own list that included such names as: Deli Tray, Trust Fund Hobo Fest, Cavalcade of The Large, Corn Dodgers and Summer of Flesh. The group also threw its support behind some of the Phish suggestions as well as ARU’s We Aren’t The World before concluding, “Widespread Panic does like The Great American HORDE, without shame.” Still, there was something so special about the Clifford Ball that manager John Paluska, sent one final fax making a case for the name, with an accompanying piece of artwork created by Jim Pollock.

Page McConnell: I don’t think we wanted to take it so seriously and Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere…But it was fine. We weren’t up for a fight. We were happy to be part of it and we enjoyed hanging with all those guys. With the name resolved, the other lingering issue was who would pay the upfront costs for renting trucks, production and all sorts of requisite gear.

Dave Frey: Nobody wanted the risk, everybody just wanted to be paid to show up like they normally would at a gig. Blues Traveler said no and the people at Bill Graham Presents said no. So John and I said yes and we started a company to become the place where the rubber meets the road.  While they were somewhat late in the game in terms of securing summer amphitheaters, the H.O.R.D.E. core eventually convinced 8 promoters to commit (four in the north and four in the south). So on July 9, the H.O.R.D.E. Tour finally kicked off with a performance by Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit that was equal parts visual spectacle and musical virtuosity or perhaps it was visual virtuosity and musical spectacle.

John Bell: It wasn’t like you were listening to songs, it was like all of a sudden you became immersed not only musically but visually. You’re hearing this music which is basically rock and roll format but it was turning into jazz that could go anywhere at any time and improvisation at its highest and the next thing you know Col. Bruce is body slamming Oteil the bass player and you go, “Wow that just happened but the music is still seamless…”

Oteil Burbridge: That was so cool, I thought. I still have a photograph of one of those moments [at Garden State Arts Center]. I think Popper was sitting in with us at the time too, so we really had three bands onstage. It’s always fun to mix things together like a gumbo. And we’re all huge fans of everything New Orleans. That was the spirit of that whole tour, the mindset. In retrospect it was so cool to be able to make your own rules, let your imagination go a little more. That is something that I think jambands have excelled at. Just being open.

The evening continued, with the Spin Doctors, now enjoying some unanticipated mainstream recognition with the success of their single “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong,” followed by Blues Traveler and then Phish. All three of these sets offered standout moments and the night had served the larger purpose of demonstrating the collective draw of such a bill while allowing the acts to perform on a larger stage.

Mike Gordon: I think that was our first arena gig, which was sort of a nice way to do it. With Phish we always cruised slowly. So even though we normally didn’t team up with other bands to do tours, getting our feet wet in an arena and seeing what it was like without  having to carry the show by ourselves, that was a good opportunity for us.

Chris Barron: It was big. We tried to set up close to each other. Our crew set us up in proportion to the stage and we were like, “No, put us back close together.” It’s weird being that far apart. And our drummer pointed out that Led Zeppelin did that. No matter how big the places they were playing, they always set up the way they would in a club. I definitely remember feeling a little agoraphobic and naked and exposed on this great big stage but getting used to it and enjoying the freedom, enjoying having a little bit of room.

As the H.O.R.D.E. traveled west, Portland proved to be the lone show of the first four not to sell out. The bands traveled to Empire Court at the New York State Fairgrounds on through blow out nights at the Garden State Arts Center and Jones Beach. The GSAC show featured a gag that spawned a sequel the next year. John Popper: We set up a trampoline that was rigged to break when Phish does “You Enjoy Myself” and they jump on the trampolines. They start playing the song, they bring out a third trampoline and then I come out. “Oh my God, Popper’s going to do the trampolines with them.” So then I jump through it and it breaks and I walk off all dejected. It was a nice gag and it came off without a hitch. We’re pros, I’m honored to be part of a Phish sketch and everybody for the rest of the year is going, “Popper I saw that show, don’t worry man, those trampolines are fragile.” They thought that I really was going to do it and it broke. They didn’t know that it was rigged to break, so that bothered me for a whole year.

So the next year I’m a wheelchair because I broke my leg and we get a giant yard trampoline rigged to break and we get a dummy and dress him in my clothes and we get a wheelchair and dangle it from the ceiling. We’re in Richmond, Virginia and we’re running low on time. At the very end I’m playing off stage with wireless mic as they lower what looks like me from the ceiling swinging from this line in my wheelchair playing. Then the cord gives way and I fall though the yard trampoline. But as it happened we were just out of time so the lights came on as soon as I fell through the trampoline and it looked like something really horrible has happened and I’m off stage going “I’m alright, it’s okay, oww, oww…” It was the only time I ever made Trey laugh with like snot coming out of his nose. I was very proud of myself because I was trying to impress Phish with my skit abilities and for many years it was, “I was at that Richmond show are you okay?”

Geoff Trump (Tour Manager): We incorporated these twirling dancers into the audience. We asked them to dance in the aisles so that the members of the audience wouldn’t feel so restricted and they’d get up and dance too.

Shortly after its inception, H.O.R.D.E became something more than just a platform for five bands to appear in amphitheaters. The H.O.R.D.E. Concourse presented a variety of social and environmental awareness groups. However, at the Garden State Arts Center and then Jones Beach, three of these organizations, NOW, NORML and Planned Parenthood were banned, due to a purported policy regarding political advocacy groups on public parks. After H.O.R.D.E. gained leverage for its second year, these conflicts abated. Any such drama eluded the musicians as they settled in. John Bell: The dressing rooms were nicer, catering was existent but the best element was that we as Widespread Panic were young enough to want to be out and involved and co-mingling with all the other musicians in a social way as well. Kind of like what you would see in some of movies of the ‘60s and ‘70s that were trying to document behind the scenes at rock and roll events. People were just getting together and spontaneously playing songs with each other, doing press together. And we were young enough that we weren’t trying to protect our personal time or anything. Everything was wide open.

Chris Barron: The Colonel was always somewhere prognosticating and prophesying and I really liked him a lot. He was such an interesting guy. [Blues Traveler bassist] Bobby Sheehan was such a ubiquitous presence. He was everywhere at once and a magnanimous host. I also remember Phish had a dog on their bus and I thought that was really neat. The different band cultures were really interesting. Like we never would have had a dog on our bus but those guys did and it was cool. There was also just really cool music everywhere. On stage and back stage people comparing notes and playing guitars. It was neat. I wish I had the gumption to try to write with a lot of those people. I wanted to ask everybody, “Hey, let’s try and write a tune” but I was too shy.

Eric Schenkman: I remember spending some time with Mikey [Houser, Widespread Panic guitarist]. There wasn’t the Internet and all that, so here’s this cat from Athens speaking the same language as me. I was just really interested to talk to the other guitar players, talk that language and there was a lot of cross-pollination in that.

Mike Gordon: I still have pictures of us hanging in the hotels.

The first leg concluded at Jones Beach, which featured a bonus full band segue as the Spin Doctors’ performance led into the Blues Traveler set, something they had done previously at Wetlands Preserve but never before so many people.

Chris Barron: It was really neat to be on stage and then out comes John Popper. “Oh, that’s really cool,” and then out comes Chan. “Holy shit, what the hell?” Then you have two bass players, two drummers… “Wait a minute, both of these bands are on stage playing!” It was a really cool thing to be part of and to do it at Jones Beach at the H.O.R.D.E. was pretty classic.

John Bell: When we did the southern run with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, we were like, “Holy crap, there are other bands that embrace this Aquarium Rescue Unit kind of mentality. To watch the Wootens, the combination of technical ability and improvisational and intuitive skills was just off the charts. It was great to be able to play your set and then watch this stuff go down. It felt really good.

Chris Barron: I got a huge kick out of Futureman because every night before they would go on he’d be taking that thing [the drumitar] apart. They’d be just about to introduce them and he’d have the thing in pieces. He’d have it on him but he’d have a screwdriver and the cover would be off it. Bela was like, ‘He does this every night. He always seems to get it together by the time to go on but every night he has the thing apart…”

John Popper: That harmonica player Howard Levy, he was just a freak. He is I think the best harmonica player on earth on the blues harp. I saw him do something that I never saw anyone else do on a harmonica. You know how someone has a left hand on a piano and a right hand, he can do those independently of each other. We did a jam together and I had to go where he wasn’t because what do you when someone can play chromatically on a blues harp and I can’t. I had to go rhythmically so I was being more of a percussion instrument and he was doing a melodic thing, so I could go places he couldn’t go. It was a great little dance back and forth.

Bela Fleck: I remember jamming backstage with Matt [Mundy, ARU mandolin player] and the most epic jam ever on the last night at Merriweather Post. We all got out there, and John Popper said “This is called E!” Then we went wild for 20 minutes on E.

Of course, there was more than just that validation. Chris Barron: For all those bands it was a moment to look around and say, “Hey, we’re not just standing on a cliff somewhere screaming out into any empty canyon. There are people out there who want to hear this kind of music. There are other bands that want to play this kind of music and we’re not just these Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman disciples banging our heads against the wall in the dark somewhere. This is actually something that has a place and an opportunity for us to take the music down the road a little further in our own way.

John Bell: If you look into the future the legacy took hold with things like Bonnaroo. I give the Bonnaroo guys full credit for just knocking it out of the park right off the bat. I know what we were feeling when we were doing the H.O.R.D.E. that was embodied in the Bonnaroo situation. And there are a number of other festivals around the place that are cultivating the same vibe.

Page McConnell: I don’t know if the term jamband was really thrown around much before then but  it did somehow solidify the genre in people’s minds—if not in my mind, then at least in people’s minds. And in my mind it was recognizing that yes, there’s something going on out there that’s bigger than us.

John Popper: My favorite moment that first year is a weird one. After the show in Lakewood Ampihteater in Georgia. I’m leaving and I haven’t eaten yet, so we hit a Burger King and they’re out of food. That to me was one of the best moments of HORDE. You come into a town and their fast food joints are empty. That was as close to the reality and the imagination coming together in my bizarre Attila the Hun fantasy, that Burger King in Georgia.

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Post-Punk H.O.R.D.E.

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In the attitude-conscious world of summer pop-music festivals, the H.O.R.D.E. tour has always been stamped as Lollapalooza’s uncool cousin, a big, friendly, white-man’s-blues affair that attracted jam bands and Deadheads.

All of that is changing. In this season’s crush of package tours, as Lollapalooza loses ground to such newcomers as the Lilith Fair and Warped, H.O.R.D.E. is veering away from its comfortable old identity and vying for bands on the cutting edge.

In its sixth year, the 30-date festival--which comes to Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre today--has embraced groups with a post-punk flavor: from the saxophone-driven mood-rockers Morphine and piano-based pop eclectics Ben Folds Five to the hot-jazz revisionists Squirrel Nut Zippers and avant-punks Primus. Even Beck will step in to play a few dates later in the summer. Though headliners Neil Young & Crazy Horse have been known to suspend their share of notes, H.O.R.D.E. isn’t just about long jams anymore.

Primus’ leader Les Claypool needed some convincing before he joined H.O.R.D.E.’s caravan. “My perception of it was an older, leftover Grateful Dead crowd or something,” says the singer and bassist. “Then they came back with [the current lineup] and we said, ‘That sounds like a good tour to be on.’ ”

H.O.R.D.E., which stands for Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere, was founded in 1992 by John Popper, singer and harmonica player for the New York-based rock band Blues Traveler. The group, immersed in its own tour, will be absent from H.O.R.D.E. for the first time, though it will pop in on a few dates. The bill also includes Soul Coughing, Widespread Panic, Kula Shaker, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Leftover Salmon and Big Head Todd & the Monsters.

Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of Pollstar, a trade magazine that tracks the concert industry, thinks that the presence of a big-draw headliner is a bigger change for H.O.R.D.E. than its new embrace of alternative acts.

“This year they have a true headliner,” he says. “It’s kind of like the Neil Young tour instead of just an aggregation of acts.” Still, Bongiovanni doesn’t predict instant success: “The only other model to look at would be last year’s Lollapalooza tour, which became the Metallica tour, and that didn’t perform as well as people had expected.”

Indeed, H.O.R.D.E., which had carved out a cozy niche for itself, is risking its old audience with the more adventurous bill. Last year, with headliners Rusted Root, Lenny Kravitz and the Dave Matthews Band, it provided fierce competition for Lollapalooza. In contrast,this year’s initial ticket sales have been disappointing. Only about half the tickets for the Irvine show have been sold.

“I’d like to be selling better,” says H.O.R.D.E. marketing director Lewi, perpetually hopeful of a big walk-up gate on the day of the

festival. “Are our ticket sales as bad as others? No. Are we going to come out smelling like a rose? I think so.”

H.O.R.D.E. this year is offering a computer “videowall,” affording fans a chance to chat with band members resting backstage. A Lionel Trains switching yard was brought to the festival with electric train buff Young’s encouragement. Col. Bruce Hampton will oversee the Workshop Stage, where artists come together for spontaneous, free-for-all jams.

“The whole idea of H.O.R.D.E. is kindness,” Lewi says. “Everything we’re doing is for more interactivity. So many things this year are designed for people to be part of the show and not just at the show. . . . We bring a human element.”

H.O.R.D.E. critics, however, complain that the human element is decidedly white and male. Only one woman, Squirrel Nut Zippers singer Katharine Whalen, will take part. “That’s no fault of ours,” Lewi counters. “All of the major female acts we went after are doing Lilith. . . . Festival competition made it hard to get black or female acts on H.O.R.D.E.”

The festival may be lacking true diversity, but everyone is hoping that one defining aspect of the tour--its down-to-earth friendliness--will remain intact.

“To me what sets the H.O.R.D.E. Festival apart is that it’s just basically bands that write good songs and play well, and that’s the primary criteria,” says Glen Phillips, singer and guitarist of Santa Barbara’s collegiate folk-rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket.

“I know people who’ve been on the tour and said that there was a lack of cattiness, a generally relaxed feeling. I get around people that are cool and I start feeling like a high school nerd again. I don’t think I’ll be having too many panic attacks on this tour.”

The H.O.R.D.E. Festival, with Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Primus, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Morphine, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Squirrel Nut Zippers and others, today at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive, 4 p.m., $27 and $17. (714) 855-4515.

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Neil Young – HORDE Workshop Stage Acoustic Compilation, 1997

NEIL YOUNG 1997 H.O.R.D.E Workshop Stage Acoustic Compilation compilation by Steven Swatsworth (Soldier Steve)

Download FLAC: Google Drive

• Intro-> Welcome to The HORDE O’ Culture Stage Mountain View, California 1997-07-11
• Buffalo Springfield Again Mountain View, California 1997-07-11
• Comes A Time Clarkston, Michigan 1997-07-27
• Cripple Creek Ferry Phoenix, Arizona 1997-07-18
• Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere Cincinnati, Ohio 1997-07-29
• Everybody’s Alone Park City, Utah 1997-07-15
• Give Me Strength Somerset, Wisconsin 1997-08-01
• Heart Of Gold Park City, Utah 1997-07-15
• Homefires Cincinnati, Ohio 1997-07-29
• Homegrown Tinley Park, Illinois 1997-08-03 w/ John Popper Harmonica
• Horseshoe Man Irvine, California 1997-07-17
• Long May You Run Mountain View, California 1997-07-11
• Needle And The Damage Done Mountain View, California 1997-07-11
• On The Way Home Portland, Oregon 1997-07-13
• Out On The Weekend Park City, Utah 1997-07-15
• Pocahontas Somerset, Wisconsin 1997-08-01
• Roll Another Number Tinley Park, Illinois 1997-08-03 w/ John Popper Harmonica
• Slowpoke Mountain View, California 1997-07-11
• Someday Mountain View, California 1997-07-11
• Sugar Mountain Portland, Oregon 1997-07-13
• This Note’s For You Tinley Park, Illinois 1997-08-03 w/ John Popper Harmonica
• Throw Your Hatred Down Columbus, Ohio 1997-07-30
• Too Far Gone Columbus, Ohio 1997-07-30 w/ fan in audience Harry Franey
• Unknown Legend Park City, Utah 1997-07-15 w/ fan in audience Bonus Tracks….
• Look Out For My Love Phoenix, Arizona 1997-07-18 w/ Crazy Horse
• Helpless Mountain View, California 1997-07-11
• Ohio Somerset, Wisconsin 1997-08-01
• Southern Man Live Oak,Florida 1997-08-23
• From Hank To Hendrix Park City, Utah 1997-07-15

original compilation cds > eac > flac frontend

flac transfer and seeding on ezt by mr-soul

thanks to Steven for this compilation

This is the actual Neil tree on http://www.hempsall.com

Administrator notes:

Hello, i put together a compilation of Neil Young playing on the H.O.R.D.E Workshop Stage on the 1997 tour. It’s 2 cdr. This compilation is the afternoon acoustic sets. On Disc 2 i added the acoustic songs that were not played during the afternoon sets,but were played in the evening set.

Thanks goes out to all the tapers. You are the ones who make these compilations possible.

And especially Thanks to Neil!

enjoy the compilation

share the music ñ never encode to mp3 or similar ñ trade freely

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2 thoughts on “ neil young – horde workshop stage acoustic compilation, 1997 ”.

Thanks for all the great Neil shares.

This looks amazing! Thanks for sharing this comp Mat!

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The Green One's H.O.R.D.E. info