Neil Young Berates Audience For Clapping At Concert

Neil Young reportedly scolded his audience at a show in New York on Monday night simply because they clapped along to one of his songs.

Young is currently performing in at Carnegie Hall for four nights. However, the aging rocker was clearly in a grouchy mood as he was agitated throughout the concert earlier this week, and on a number of occasions, he turned his vitriol on those in attendance.

It’s believed that Young shouted at the crowd for both clapping and talking excessively between his songs.

Young is believed to have shouted “Wrong!” at the audience after they began to clap along to the beat of his 1970 protest song, “Ohio.” Young apparently took umbrage with the fact that they hadn’t quite timed their claps right.

“It’s something that you probably don’t know,” exclaimed Young,” but there’s a hell of a distance between you and me.”

The 68-year-old allegedly stopped playing the song after just a few bars because of the disturbance, and only continued his efforts once the audience quieted down.

New York Times’ Nate Chinen, who attended the concert, described the incident in his review:

“Neil Young was just a few bars into an indignant old song at Carnegie Hall on Monday night, chugging a terse intro on an acoustic guitar, when he abruptly threw the emergency brake. “Wrong!” he barked, waving one hand, as if to cut off a rehearsal band. Part of the audience had started clapping to the beat — but not quite on the beat, as Mr. Young complained. His tone was even, his exasperation clear. It’s something that you probably don’t know,” he said, peering into the house from the stage, “but there’s a hell of a distance between you and me.”

Young’s anger erupted later in the concert too, when he caught several members of the audience sitting high up in a balcony talking to each other while he tried to carefully tune his harmonica.

He’s believed to have looked up at the chatty attendees and stated, “No, you paid real good money to get in here, so you should be able to listen to each other.”

Young’s brief stint at Carnegie Hall comes to an end on Friday night before he moves over the border into Canada where he will play at Toronto’s Massey Hall on Sunday and Winnipeg’s Centennial Concert Hall on Thursday. He will also play in Regina on Friday 17 January and Calgary on Sunday 19 January.