Update. Its all over but the rolling now. I hit them first with spinosad, waited and watched for a couple days, it may have slowed them a little. then i hit them with the neem oil, and a second round of spinosad, this def slowed them more, but still not eradication at all. for the last round i mixed the neem oil, the spinosad, and a few drops of soap with warm water. after that application the bugs were pretty well crushed. i let the plants sit for near 2 weeks to finish up and try to process/recover. and i saw a few aphids show back up. chopped that night.
My method was to point my spray bottle up from the floor toward the plant top, and fan the leaves up with one hand and soak the bottoms of ALL leaves, you also end up with some incidental bud coverage. then get the leaf tops. then i would do a general covering spray over everything.
I have heard folks talking about neem oil leaving a wicked bad taste, but i dont really notice a lot. i didnt use loads of it, and i tried to avoid the buds especially with the neem, but it did get there.