"When we come back to the Freshwater Amphitheatre it's gonna be great," the ever acerbic Neil Young said at the beginning of the encore at Toronto's Budweiser Stage.

The legendary Canadian rocker was clearly poking fun at the venue on Sunday (8/17) who leased its naming rights to the American beer giant.

He then broke into "This Note's For You," the controversial, award-winning tune he released in the late 1980s condemning musicians who took corporate money. It's title was a direct attack on Budweiser's "This Bud's For You" motto at the time.

The show opened with “Ambulance Blues,” the melancholic plodding ode of nostalgia that gives loves to, among other things, the Toronto rooming house he stayed in along with bandmate Rick "Super Freak" James lived in for a stint.

Then he kicked into classics like “Cowgirl in the Sand,” “Be the Rain,” “Cinnamon Girl,” “Southern Man” and “Mr. Soul.” Later in the night, he worked in “Tumbleweed,” a rarity on this run, and delivered beautiful versions of “Ohio,” “Harvest Moon," and "Old Man."

The Chrome Hearts, Young’s current band, features Micah Nelson on guitar, Corey McCormick on bass, Anthony LoGerfo on drums and Spooner Oldham on keyboards, alongside Young on vocals and guitar. The group, which came together in late 2024, released its debut album Talkin to the Trees in June.

Of the 19 tunes he played Sunday, just one, "Silver Eagle" was from the new record.

As solid as the regular set was, to hear “This Note’s for You” followed by “Rockin’ in the Free World" as the encore must have been a shock for those in the crowd as Neil hadn't played "This Note..." since 1997 when he was on the Year of the Horse Tour with Crazy Horse.

"This Note’s for You" is the title track for the 1988 album recorded with the Bluenotes, the shortest-lived band Young was ever in. A horn-driven blues cut, satirized '80s artists from Michael Jackson to Whitney Houston for doing beer and soda pop ads.

The single reached #16 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, while the album itself peaked at #61 on the Billboard 200. Respectable, but no world beater.

And yet the song became one of the edgy rocker's most talked-about tunes that year after MTV banned its video for blasting (its) advertisers ("I ain't singing for Pepsi / I ain't singing for Coke") and ridiculing top pop stars.

Young, on brand, fired back with a letter blasting the network as “spineless twerps.” After the video took off north of the border on Canada's Much Music, MTV ultimately relented.

The video soon went into heavy rotation and shockingly went on to win the 1989 VMA for Video of the Year.

The song's bold, idealistic statement helped clear the way for Young's resurgence despite the onslaught of '80s New Wave, spandex hair metal, and hard rock trends.

It paved the way for Freedom that he put out the following year whose lead single "Rockin’ in the Free World," became one of his biggest hits - decades after his debut.

Still the question remains, why did he choose Sunday to bring back the song after this long. Was it because he was playing the Budweiser Stage?

Fine, but he was there last year with Crazy Horse. He rocked Budweiser Gardens in London, Canada in 2012, and way back in 2000 he played the same venue he's performing again on tonight in TO - but back then it was called the Molson Amphitheatre. Had it finally sunk in? Would love for him to tell us what inspired it, because, it really is nice to hear it again.

The 79 year-old's remaining dates on the Love Earth Tour include stops at Bethel Woods, Deer Lake Park, Shoreline Amphitheatre, and the Hollywood Bowl.

The tour concludes September 20 at Farm Aid in Minneapolis, where he joins Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and others.

Neil Young's Love Earth Tour remaining dates

Aug 21, Bank NH Pavilion, Gilford, New Hampshire
Aug 23, Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, New York
Aug 25, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, New York
Aug 27, Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, Chicago, Illinois
Aug 29, BMO Pavilion, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Sep 1, Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Greenwood Village, Colorado
Sep 4, Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, Woodinville, Washington
Sep 6, Deer Lake Park, Burnaby, British Columbia
Sep 8, Deer Lake Park, Burnaby, British Columbia
Sep 10, Hayden Homes Amphitheater, Bend, Oregon
Sep 12, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California
Sep 15, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California
Sep 20, Farm Aid 40 at Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota