August 23, 1993
Great Woods Performing Arts Centre
Mansfield, Massachusetts
Line Up:
Blind Melon
Soundgarden
Neil Young with Booker T & The MG's

Set List:

Review:
By Derek
A group of 6 of us arrived at Great Woods (now known as the Tweeter Center) at around 4:30 pm, figuring we'd have a decent amount of time to  prepare ourselves mentally for the show. After about an hour of serious  alcohol and marijuana consumption, I left the group to relieve myself. It was now  5:30 and it was a mere 30 minutes before my life would be complete as the show was set to begin at 6pm. As I marked my territory trying to grasp the fact that I was about to see Blind Melon, I could hear their amazing songs coming from what I thought was a car stereo in the lot. It only took about 10 seconds to realize that the music was not from a car, but inside the  venue!  THEY WERE ALREADY ON!!! I raced back to the car at a breakneck pace and in a blur of motion grabbed my ticket from my friends and sped to the gates.  Within minutes I was at my seat catching my breath and watching a black-haired Shannon Hoon prance around the giant stage with reckless abandon. They launched into "No Rain," which delighted the folks lucky enough to be there early as I sat down in the nearly empty pavilion section of the amphitheater. "Soak the Sin," was next, followed by an incredible improvisational instrumental piece and then, it was over. Two of my friends arrived as the band left the stage and my ass and spirits slumped into the seat. Another person in our group arrived a while later and informed  me that it had been announced on the radio that day that the show was going to start earlier than scheduled to give old man Young a longer set. He didn't bother to mention this, because he assumed we were all there to see Neil Young and not the warm up acts. I spent the remainder of the time walking around smoking herb, happy for the small bit o' Melon I had tasted that night, but starved for a larger bite. Soundgarden, of course sounded like shit
(great band, but they never sounded good live in the 4 times I saw them),  and Neil Young with Booker T and the MG's played a boring text book set that catered to the mostly older crowd who didn't even know who BM or Soundgarden were. I
was down but not out.

Please send questions, comments, and/or opinions to:  dnemirow@worcester.edu