Neil Young is Back at Shoreline with the Love Earth Tour

September 12, 2025, only a couple of months prior to his 80th birthday, Neil Young plays to an adoring sold out California audience at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA.

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The nights' opener was Reverend Billy and The Stop Shop Choir. To be honest, I didn't know what to make of this band. Nothing in their set was terribly memorable other than, lucky them to open for Neil Young and be exposed to a sold out audience at Shoreline!

There has been many Bridge School benefits at Shoreline in past years and on this night Neil was back there with his new band, The Chrome Hearts. The band consisted of three members from the Lukas Nelson band, Promise of the Real. Including his brother, and son of Willie Nelson, Micah Nelson on guitar and vocals. Also featuring drummer Anthony LoGerfo, and bass player Corey McCormick. Neil had his long time organ player, Spooner Oldham. Young has played with all these musicians before in the last decade+. Spooner, the organist, played on the classic Neil Young song Harvest Moon recorded in 1992. Spooner Oldham is now 82 years old and had to be brought onstage and taken offstage by medics as he seems to not have the use of his legs. For the final band photo after the show, all the band members gathered around Spooners' organ bench and posed for photos.

Neil Young played guitar and harmonica for most of the show as well as lead vocals. He opened with an oldie from 1974, Ambulence Blues. I saw Neil Young two years ago and he played nothing even remotely recognizable (to me) but to hardcore fans it was a couple hours of a deep dive into the never played before tunes only the biggest Neil Young fans are aware of. Throughout that show the audience screamed familiar song titles and at the end of the show he announced that he wouldn't be doing any of them cause they are old and tired. Not so this time...he played many of the familiar tunes we all know and love like, Old Man, Ohio, Harvest Moon, Southern Man, Hey Hey, My My, Rockin' in the Free World, and Like a Hurricane. He doesn't talk much between songs but he was very grateful to the audience for coming out and thanked the crowd multiple times throughout the show.

The tour was called "Love Earth" which is what he has always stood for throughout his career which has spanned about 65+ years. Wow! That's a long time!

One thing I noticed at this show is the age of the attendees. Hey, we are all getting older. It's very noticeable when one goes to a 'classic rock' show where the artist has been doing their thing for more than a half a century! The audience is always in the 'older' demographic. This show was no exception. In fact I think the average age was mid 70s. So many attendees looked to be infirmed, walking with assistance of some kind. It was lovely to see the happy faces and full hearts of this older demo who more than likely doesn't get out much anymore. Perhaps many were old hippies. Neil Young sold out the show of 20,000 people. Everyone seemed to have such a great evening which really does add to my live music joy!

A note from a photographers POV...before driving down to Shoreline I was told that we would be shooting for the first ten minutes from the photo pit. Then when I arrived, they told us that we would not be in the pit but we would be photographing from further away on the upper steps, side of the stage. The photographers were perched on one step behind each other, like dominos. When Neil Young walked onstage a very large and very drunk man fell down on the photographer just behind me. When the drunk guy went down, the photographer's lens pounded me on the head and I thought my head was bleeding! Luckily it was not, I simply ended up with a had lump on my head. If the guy had fallen at the top end of the photographers' line and we all fell down, I cannot even imagine how many thousands of dollars of photo equipment would have been lost in the crash to the ground! After we got ourselves together we had 6 minutes remaining to shoot. It was an ugly ugly incident and I hope that never happens again! So there was that!

The following photos are a few of the more 'decent' shots I captured. Some were shot with my phone during the show. It was quite disappointing from a photography POV but I'm just grateful we were not hurt, nor was any of the camera gear. I also appreciate having had the opportunity to capture images of this legendary artist, and now I can include Neil Young in my future coffee table photo book. Gratitude is a wonderful thing to have!

Please check out (and subscribe) to my You Tube channel for videos from the show: youtube.com/@TheMusicSoupVideo?sub_confirmation=1

Here are a few affiliated links to photo gear and some Neil Young music: Official Release Series Disks - https://amzn.to/4mxkg9G Official Release Series on Vinyl - https://amzn.to/4nFdKOV

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