F@!*in' Up
Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Rod Laver Arena
March 15, 2013
My dad was good enough to save The Age for me yesterday for the article on Wilco. My heart sank when I saw Michael Dwyer's name at the top. Flicking further through the paper, it sank again when I saw that he was the one they sent along to review Neil Young and Crazy Horse's show at The Plenary on Wednesday night. I wasn't there, but true to Dwyer's cynical form, I got no sense of what it would have been like if I was. Yes, Neil Young does have a kind of split personality - folk troubadour versus screeching guitar master. It's OK to not like a direction someone chooses to take musically, but whether or not you do, was it a good show overall or not?
Today I was trying to fill in some blanks for the setlist from last night's show, and managed to find this gem, sugarmountn.org, which amazingly has Neil Young's setlists going as far back as 1970. This Alchemy Tour is pretty special, largely because it sees him reunited with Crazy Horse (Frank "Poncho" Sampedro, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina), who he has recorded about 20 albums with over nearly 35 years. Their sound epitomises classic garage rock, with Young's characteristic guitar out front. As he pointed out last night, some of their songs are older than many of us in the audience. It's only very recently that I actually sat down and watched Rust Never Sleeps, filmed back in 1978 at a gig in San Francisco. I'm grateful I did, or many of the similarities between it and this current tour would have been lost on me. There are obvious nods to the original, such as an eerily similar backdrop of oversized amplifiers, the use of The Beatles' A Day In The Life to open the show, and the costumed roadies doing much more than simply hovering behind the scenes. The inclusion of numbers like Welfare Mothers, Sedan Delivery and Hey Hey My My, also seems to form a direct link back to that show from 35 years ago.
It's funny that last night was the loudest show I've ever been to, and the average age of the band is close to 65 years. Unlike his last tour here in 2009, this isn't just about Neil Young, this tour is riding on the back of his last two records with Crazy Horse, Psychedelic Pill and Americana. Good bands can be described as tight, but the rapport between these guys is off the scale. You don't have to have awesome seats to see how much they're enjoying themselves and playing together. It sounds cheesy, but it is a joy to watch how easy they are with each other. Any footage of Neil Young playing live usually seems to be of him grimacing in concentration, but last night there were also smiles. Also, irrespective of whether you like its characteristic screech or not - seeing him play guitar reminds me of watching Ravi Shankar play the sitar - it's as if the instrument is an extension of him. I tried learning guitar during high school and it's a bastard of an instrument to play. Hence my glorification of anyone who can play it well.
Keeping tabs on setlists, there's generally very little variation on Neil Young's tours from one night to another. On stage, he appears more or less oblivious to the audience, with only the occasional quip here and there. Hence, no matter how many times the guy a few seats away yelled out for Down By The River, it was never going to get a look in if it wasn't already on the list. No matter what Dwyer says, seeing Neil Young sing Heart of Gold on his own was enough to give anyone good cause to have a bit of a blub. The (much) newer Ramada Inn and Walk Like A Giant were epics, each clocking in at about 15 minutes, with plenty of feedback and guitar fuzz thrown in. Even the bounce in Born In Ontario made it so much more enjoyable live than it is on record. Yet it was always going to be the oldies with their characteristic crunch, that went down the best with the crowd, such as the opener Powderfinger, and Cinnamon Girl and Cortez The Killer that appeared towards the end of the night. That said, it's not always the case that some songs are just so much fun (especially with the volume cranked right up) that it doesn't really matter whether or not you've heard them before or not, such as Prisoners of Rock n' Roll and F@#!in' Up. Right now, I'm also still chuckling at the two guys on the motorbike riding down Batman Avenue after the show, singing "Welfare mothers/Make better lovers..."
Having my head buried in the sand in more recent times when it comes to gigs, it's very lucky that I was looking out the tram window at the right time to spot a Crazy Horse tour poster on High St late last year. One of many things to be grateful for these days.
Rod Laver Arena
March 15, 2013
My dad was good enough to save The Age for me yesterday for the article on Wilco. My heart sank when I saw Michael Dwyer's name at the top. Flicking further through the paper, it sank again when I saw that he was the one they sent along to review Neil Young and Crazy Horse's show at The Plenary on Wednesday night. I wasn't there, but true to Dwyer's cynical form, I got no sense of what it would have been like if I was. Yes, Neil Young does have a kind of split personality - folk troubadour versus screeching guitar master. It's OK to not like a direction someone chooses to take musically, but whether or not you do, was it a good show overall or not?
Today I was trying to fill in some blanks for the setlist from last night's show, and managed to find this gem, sugarmountn.org, which amazingly has Neil Young's setlists going as far back as 1970. This Alchemy Tour is pretty special, largely because it sees him reunited with Crazy Horse (Frank "Poncho" Sampedro, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina), who he has recorded about 20 albums with over nearly 35 years. Their sound epitomises classic garage rock, with Young's characteristic guitar out front. As he pointed out last night, some of their songs are older than many of us in the audience. It's only very recently that I actually sat down and watched Rust Never Sleeps, filmed back in 1978 at a gig in San Francisco. I'm grateful I did, or many of the similarities between it and this current tour would have been lost on me. There are obvious nods to the original, such as an eerily similar backdrop of oversized amplifiers, the use of The Beatles' A Day In The Life to open the show, and the costumed roadies doing much more than simply hovering behind the scenes. The inclusion of numbers like Welfare Mothers, Sedan Delivery and Hey Hey My My, also seems to form a direct link back to that show from 35 years ago.
It's funny that last night was the loudest show I've ever been to, and the average age of the band is close to 65 years. Unlike his last tour here in 2009, this isn't just about Neil Young, this tour is riding on the back of his last two records with Crazy Horse, Psychedelic Pill and Americana. Good bands can be described as tight, but the rapport between these guys is off the scale. You don't have to have awesome seats to see how much they're enjoying themselves and playing together. It sounds cheesy, but it is a joy to watch how easy they are with each other. Any footage of Neil Young playing live usually seems to be of him grimacing in concentration, but last night there were also smiles. Also, irrespective of whether you like its characteristic screech or not - seeing him play guitar reminds me of watching Ravi Shankar play the sitar - it's as if the instrument is an extension of him. I tried learning guitar during high school and it's a bastard of an instrument to play. Hence my glorification of anyone who can play it well.
Keeping tabs on setlists, there's generally very little variation on Neil Young's tours from one night to another. On stage, he appears more or less oblivious to the audience, with only the occasional quip here and there. Hence, no matter how many times the guy a few seats away yelled out for Down By The River, it was never going to get a look in if it wasn't already on the list. No matter what Dwyer says, seeing Neil Young sing Heart of Gold on his own was enough to give anyone good cause to have a bit of a blub. The (much) newer Ramada Inn and Walk Like A Giant were epics, each clocking in at about 15 minutes, with plenty of feedback and guitar fuzz thrown in. Even the bounce in Born In Ontario made it so much more enjoyable live than it is on record. Yet it was always going to be the oldies with their characteristic crunch, that went down the best with the crowd, such as the opener Powderfinger, and Cinnamon Girl and Cortez The Killer that appeared towards the end of the night. That said, it's not always the case that some songs are just so much fun (especially with the volume cranked right up) that it doesn't really matter whether or not you've heard them before or not, such as Prisoners of Rock n' Roll and F@#!in' Up. Right now, I'm also still chuckling at the two guys on the motorbike riding down Batman Avenue after the show, singing "Welfare mothers/Make better lovers..."
Having my head buried in the sand in more recent times when it comes to gigs, it's very lucky that I was looking out the tram window at the right time to spot a Crazy Horse tour poster on High St late last year. One of many things to be grateful for these days.
posted by yossarian | 9:02 PM
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