Member's Concert Review: Neil Young

BackstagePassDirect member Steve O e-mailed this to us:

My apologies for the lateness in sending this out.

Last week, I had the incredible good fortune of having backstage passes to L.A.'s Dolby Theater for the first of a four-night stand of the legend, Neil Young. Backstage before the show, I wanted to give him props for all that he had done but all I could say was “Welcome back to LA, Neil!”.  What a dummy I am!! Sitting across from me, he smiled and said “Yeah, it’s good to be back in L.A.”

The show started slowly. After roaming between instruments for a few songs, which include “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and “Love In Mind,” Young began to open up to his audience. After barely speaking for the first 30 minutes of the performance, Young offered a few anecdotes. “This song is not by me. It’s by somebody I think is a lot better than me,” Young said to precede a cover of Phil Ochs’ “Changes,” a number he performed standing with his guitar off to one side of the stage. “When I was younger, I saw a lot of great songwriters. This songwriter I’m going to tell you about was one of the best songwriters I ever saw.”

After he’d finished the song, which appeared to go off without a hitch, Young looked amused. “OK!” he said. “So some songs are so good that I write songs that are a lot like them and sometimes I even forget which one I am playing and start playing another one in the middle.”

The performance was divided into two parts, split by a 30-minute intermission, and it was by the end of the first hour that Young truly seemed to have come around. Sitting amidst his many guitars, the singer began to recount the stories behind the instruments, much in the same way one might explain the significance of a household item to a grandchild who’s come to visit. After he’d run through “Harvest,” off his 1972 album of the same name, Young lifted the guitar he’d just used up toward the crowd. “This is a guitar I got from a friend of mine,” he recollected. “His name is Stills. He gave me this when I joined CSNY. He gave one to everyone, including himself.” The musician, clearly now ready to allow stories to spill from his memory, added, “There’s a lot of things about this that reminds me of stuff.” He pointed out a dent in the guitar left by a high heel. “I don’t know how that got there.”

Young pulled out another guitar. “I’m going to tell you about this one now,” he said. “This guitar was given to me by a guy by the name of Stephen Stills.” The audience, eating up every moment of this storytelling, laughed. The musician, encouraged, continued to explain that this guitar was home to a story that may or may not be true, that once a shot was fired at the folk singer playing the guitar, piercing through the instrument and leaving the musician unharmed. “I think that happened in Denver before weed was legalized,” he noted. “They’ve come a long way.”

The first half of performance concluded with “Old Man,” which resonated more openly than earlier numbers, perhaps because Young had himself opened up to the crowd. The second set opened with “Goin’ Back,” from 1978’s Comes a Time, leading into “A Man Needs a Maid,” which Young performed on his grand piano with the help of a keyboard.

“A long time ago songs brought people together in a different way,” Young said at one point before launching into a rowdy rendition of crowd-favorite “Ohio.”  He looked reflective, a moment of solemnity pervading his usually cheeky narration. “It did something different than what it’s doing now. Music is great no matter what you do. But music had a big moment.”

Young is clearly aware of the nostalgic power he wields, particularly at a performance like this one, in a room that requires a certain level of pay grade to attend ($400 a pop for tix). Although the audience was diverse in age, with some younger couples seated in the (relatively) cheaper seats, much of the crowd was clearly longtime fans, having experienced his career unfold in real time. His choice of covers, from Ochs to a version of Gordon Lightfoot’s 1970 tune “If You Could Read My Mind,” centered on a certain time period, one that to Young – and to many fans – represents a golden age in music.

Young is, of course, aware of the influence he has had on so many. As his set began to wind down, leading into the inevitable two-song encore, the musician said, “Now I’m gonna do a couple of my big hits.” He added, jokingly, “You might not recognize them because now I sing them in a different language.” The final numbers, “After the Gold Rush,” “Heart of Gold,” “Thrasher” and “Long May You Run,” each earned standing ovations and the first sing-alongs of the evening. “I like to be as predictable as possible, especially near the end,” Young acknowledged, wandering between his many instruments as he drew the two and a half hour performance to its conclusion.

Set list (I think):

From Hank to Hendrix
On the Way Home
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Love in Mind
Philadelphia
Mellow My Mind
Are You Ready for the Country
Someday
Changes
Harvest
Old Man
Goin' Back
A Man Needs a Maid
Ohio
Southern Man
Mr. Soul
If You Could Read My Mind
Harvest Moon
Flying on the Ground Is Wrong
After the Gold Rush
Heart of Gold
Thrasher
Long May You Run

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