Neil Young in Concert 9/24/2000
Oct 01 '00 (Updated Feb 20 '01)
Whenever you attend a Neil Young concert, you can’t be exactly sure what you’ll hear. Indeed the audience at Desert Sky Pavilion in Phoenix was an eclectic collection of mankind ranging in age from 10 to 60 and older and dressed in T-shirts of various music groups – AC/DC, Van Halen, Santana, The Cult, the Beatles, and hoards of Neil Young and C.S.N.&Y. I did see a few mullets also.
The opening act was no small local group either. Just a few minutes after 7:30, Sheryl Crow stepped up to the microphone and announced “I’m your opening act.” Accompanying herself on acoustic guitar along with guitarist Tim Smith on a bare stage that had a dark plastic cover over Young’s instruments, Crow proceeded to sing all her numerous hits for an hour plus a few others, opening with “My Favorite Mistake.” Her voice cut through the early evening on other notable hits with extended versions of “Leaving Las Vegas,” “If it Makes You Happy,” and “All I Want to Do.” She also covered “American Girl” with her ethereal voice and steady guitar rhythm and was quite well received during her hour-long set.
But this was a crowd gathered for Neil Young, and Crow supplied some great opening entertainment while many in the crowd were getting up and heading for the beer stands in the outdoor venue.
About 9 PM Neil Young and his entourage took to the stage to a thundering standing ovation that would continue during much of his 2 hour set. Young has toured with a number of musicians over the years and played in styles ranging from folk to country to hard rock. This time, Young would be rocking, but nothing like the concerts you’ll hear on the Crazy Horse tour with continual distortion and feedback. There would still be some of that, but his band would consist of great musicians who do know how to rock but play within themselves.
Young even had his wife and sister singing backups. The handful of other musicians accompanying Young all recorded Silver and Gold with him. On drums was Jim Keltner who’s been recording since the 1970’s while Spooner Oldham played the keyboard and Ben Keith played steel guitar. The highlight for me as far as the backup musicians was seeing and hearing Rock Hall of Fame bass player Donald “Duck” Dunn, who played for Booker T. & the MG’s and once laid down basslines for the Stax/Volt label.
Unlike Sheryl Crow this was not a Neil Young greatest hits night, but it didn’t matter because his true fans were there right in front cheering everything he did, no matter how obscure it was, and rightly so. There was no denying the artistry and musicianship that Young provided that cool Phoenix evening. He opened with a moderately rocking and deliberate “Motorcycle Mama” and proceeded to sing two songs from his new album before going back to 1970 with a slow “I Believe in You.” Young then sand an even older song from Buffalo Springfield that roused the more casual fans from the back, especially when he played the harmonica for the first time.
While most of the evening saw an electrified Young playing in his characteristic spread legged style with his right leg steadily keeping the beat, he switched to an acoustic guitar to play “Razor Love” off his new album, a song about relationships and life on the road in a rock band. Neil could do no wrong this night, as every song received a tremendous response and the crowd up front was often standing throughout with a few people grooving to everything he did. He may have done this song to either give himself a break or to give a few of the audience a chance to recharge.
The second portion of the concert saw a few more of his older songs. I was happy that he did one of my favorites from the Harvest Moon album – "From Hank to Hendrix" -– and he did an acoustic version of the title track from that album complete with an image of a full moon on stage.
For me the highlights were when Young and his band went into jazzy extended renditions of two songs that demonstrated the great musicians that were there. By far the most unique experience that night was hearing legendary bass Donald Dunn go at it on the Harvest song “Word.” Deservedly that performance got the longest and loudest cheers of the evening. Also incredible was the encore number that saw them improvise their way through “Cowgirl in the Sand” for at least 15 minutes. It could’ve gone on for an hour and none of us would have left.
We continued cheering and refused to leave. Finally Young and his band returned to do quick “Tonight’s the Night,” thank us, and leave the stage.
If you go to a Neil Young concert, don’t expect him to do a greatest hits concert off his Decade album, or do “Like a Hurricane” like many of the audience were screaming at him to do. What you will see is a legendary musician playing some great music with some other great artists and having a great time.
While others were debating and thrashing Floopy that evening, I'm glad that I went to see Young and Crow. If Neil Young is playing near your area, I’d suggest going and going with the flow of the evening. It’ll be worth the investment.
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janesbit1
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Member: John Nesbit
Location: Phoenix, Az.
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Watching movies and baseball, now reviewing at oldschoolreviews.com
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