Neil Young Stretches Out on Both the Electric And the Acoustic
Nov 09, 2007
Yesterday night at sold-out Northrop Auditorium, guitar god Neil Young performed 1992’s “From Hank to Hendrix” as his opening number.
Neil’s songs speak of loneliness and longing, He opened the concert with obscure tunes but came up short on his big hits.
The Hall Of Famer has been known for presenting quirky shows. In 2003, for instance, he offered a hippie stage musical with actors, sets, and songs. He has toured alone, surrounded by a semicircle of acoustic guitars. The rock star has done ear-splitting rocking concerts, with roadies dressed as aliens and the stage dressed with cartoon amplifiers.
A most appropriate quirk was unveiled at Northrop. One electric and one solo acoustic set with a 4-piece band. The formula fit his career, during which he has been the melancholy folkie and the great rocker with equal success. Yesterday’s concert was a fan’s dream, filled with plenty of obscure and seldom-performed compositions, but it was also a casual fanatic’s disappointment if they were hoping for lots of well-known hits.
In all, it was a rewarding but a bit disappointing evening, short on consistent vocal passion and soaring highs Neil Young has provided in the past years.
The opening eleven-song, one-hour set was very even keeled, with his vocals almost as bland as the clothes he was wearing. The true fans ate up the obscurities like “Mellow My Mind” on a banjo, “Sad Movies,” and “Ambulance Blues,” as well as Nixon-era tune with the line “I know a man who tells so many lies” that resonated in these Bush times.
