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charlene · 11-29-2007, 12:28 AM

Let's shake again
Mike Doherty , National Post
Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2007
CONCERT REVIEW

Neil Young at Massey Hall, Toronto, Nov. 26

Neil Young performed at Massey Hall amidst his collection of bric-a-brac, including a cigar-store Indian, a red telephone, a baby grand piano and a large jumbled set of alphabet letters.
TYLER ANDERSON/NATIONAL POST

For most of his career, Neil Young has been moving forward too fast to look back. After his two solo appearances at Massey Hall in January, 1971, for instance, he shelved the recordings, thinking little of them.

Thirty-six years later, his return engagement at the same venue is giving him a rare chance to take stock of the past. He is promoting both Chrome Dreams II (a "sequel" to his unreleased 1977 album) and Live at Massey Hall, finally released this year. While the former is an uneven hodgepodge, the latter helpfully documents Young's creative watershed between After the Gold Rush and Harvest (recently voted No. 3 and No. 1 respectively in the book The Top Canadian Albums), when he was playing a raft of new material in a rather intimate venue in his hometown.

On Monday, fans eager to follow their mercurial hero made pilgrimages from abroad and even from North Ontaraye-o-- at one point, someone in Massey Hall's balcony shouted, "Thunder Bay is in the house!" Young deadpanned, "That's good--I once left some things there."

What he didn't leave there he brought with him: The stage looked like the inside of a packrat's garage, complete with a morose-looking cigar-store Indian carved out of wood, a red telephone (which Young pretended to speak into at one point between songs), a baby grand piano painted to look as if it were on fire and a large jumbled set of alphabet letters that could have been rejects from an old seaside marquee. All that was missing was an electric train.

Young also surrounded himself with acoustic guitars for his first set, and after ambling on stage to a prolonged standing ovation, he sat down to perform 1992's From Hank to Hendrix, in which he sings, "Here I am with this old guitar / Doin' what I do." It was a fitting start to a concert that seemed not so much like a snapshot of an artist in transition (as did the 1971 shows) as a career summation.

Sandwiched between all-time classics like Harvest and Old Man were obscurities such as Day and Night We Walk These Aisles (which Young explained is about Toronto's now-defunct Glendale theatre) and Love/Art Blues (a mid-'70s number in which he fretted about having to choose between the two -- clearly, with his wife Pegi on tour as background vocalist and opening act, he's since solved this problem). But even the songs that only the die-hards recognized were immediately accessible -- Young has become a much more engaging performer than the 25-year-old peering warily out of a spotlight in a darkened theatre in 1971. Even when sitting down, he shifts around, taps his feet and throws back his head to wring emotion out of his often stark lyrics.

In singing about loneliness or regret, he seemed to be not so much excoriating the past as celebrating it: He sent out the autumnal Journey Through the Past to his late Granny Jean from Flin Flon. The folksy intimacy bred perhaps too much interaction from the crowd, who whooped and hollered at lines both predictable ("I'm going back to Canada," "I'm up in T.O.") and not-so-predictable ("You're all just pissing in the wind").

Some audience members had apparently taken the new song Dirty Old Man's lyrics to heart ("I like to get hammered / On Friday night / Sometimes I can't wait / So Monday's all right"), and by the time a woman intimated that Young should Harvest her ovaries, the crowd participation had become intrusive. Despite Shakey's impressive acoustic performance, it was something of a relief when he plugged in and added a backing band for his second set.

Young drew heavily on the more predictable riff-rock from Chrome Dreams II. Again, he was in good form, wrenching out searing solos from his trusty axe, Old Black, but his long-time sidemen (including bassist Rick Rosas and stock-still rhythm guitarist Ben Keith) did little but play unassuming repetitive patterns to fill out the sound. As such, the music settled into a pleasant, head-nodding groove, lacking the nervous, aggressive edge that marks his most electric performances.

When the crowd rose at last to their feet for the encore, it seemed to galvanize the band: a snarling Cinnamon Girl led to a version of Like a Hurricane that lived up to its title. It was a churning psychedelic opus torn between sweet string sounds courtesy of a keyboard decorated to look like a dove (a holdover from 1979's Rust Never Sleeps tour) and some violent guitar-and-drum bashing by Young and Ralph Molina.

Out of the tension between these elements emerged a sound both beautiful and frightening, and the concert reached the transcendent moment it had struggled to attain.

Unlike most of his colleagues from the classic-rock era, Young tends to embrace the fact that his most vital music springs from a sense of opposition. At 62, two years after a life-threatening aneurysm, he has earned the right to sit back in a comfort zone. An archival box set scheduled for next year suggests he might continue to sift through the past. But leaving aside cliches about burning out and fading away, Young still seems to have enough fire in him to burn a few more bridges.

Let's hope that with this current tour, he's just stoking the flames.

- Neil Young plays another sold-out show at Massey Hall Thursday night. For more Neil Young tour dates, go to www.neilyoung.com/tour.html.

11-29-2007, 12:28 AM	#5
charlene Moderator Join Date: May 2000 Posts: 16,004	Re: Neil Young's Massey Homecoming Let's shake again Mike Doherty , National Post Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 CONCERT REVIEW Neil Young at Massey Hall, Toronto, Nov. 26 Neil Young performed at Massey Hall amidst his collection of bric-a-brac, including a cigar-store Indian, a red telephone, a baby grand piano and a large jumbled set of alphabet letters. TYLER ANDERSON/NATIONAL POST For most of his career, Neil Young has been moving forward too fast to look back. After his two solo appearances at Massey Hall in January, 1971, for instance, he shelved the recordings, thinking little of them. Thirty-six years later, his return engagement at the same venue is giving him a rare chance to take stock of the past. He is promoting both Chrome Dreams II (a "sequel" to his unreleased 1977 album) and Live at Massey Hall, finally released this year. While the former is an uneven hodgepodge, the latter helpfully documents Young's creative watershed between After the Gold Rush and Harvest (recently voted No. 3 and No. 1 respectively in the book The Top Canadian Albums), when he was playing a raft of new material in a rather intimate venue in his hometown. On Monday, fans eager to follow their mercurial hero made pilgrimages from abroad and even from North Ontaraye-o-- at one point, someone in Massey Hall's balcony shouted, "Thunder Bay is in the house!" Young deadpanned, "That's good--I once left some things there." What he didn't leave there he brought with him: The stage looked like the inside of a packrat's garage, complete with a morose-looking cigar-store Indian carved out of wood, a red telephone (which Young pretended to speak into at one point between songs), a baby grand piano painted to look as if it were on fire and a large jumbled set of alphabet letters that could have been rejects from an old seaside marquee. All that was missing was an electric train. Young also surrounded himself with acoustic guitars for his first set, and after ambling on stage to a prolonged standing ovation, he sat down to perform 1992's From Hank to Hendrix, in which he sings, "Here I am with this old guitar / Doin' what I do." It was a fitting start to a concert that seemed not so much like a snapshot of an artist in transition (as did the 1971 shows) as a career summation. Sandwiched between all-time classics like Harvest and Old Man were obscurities such as Day and Night We Walk These Aisles (which Young explained is about Toronto's now-defunct Glendale theatre) and Love/Art Blues (a mid-'70s number in which he fretted about having to choose between the two -- clearly, with his wife Pegi on tour as background vocalist and opening act, he's since solved this problem). But even the songs that only the die-hards recognized were immediately accessible -- Young has become a much more engaging performer than the 25-year-old peering warily out of a spotlight in a darkened theatre in 1971. Even when sitting down, he shifts around, taps his feet and throws back his head to wring emotion out of his often stark lyrics. In singing about loneliness or regret, he seemed to be not so much excoriating the past as celebrating it: He sent out the autumnal Journey Through the Past to his late Granny Jean from Flin Flon. The folksy intimacy bred perhaps too much interaction from the crowd, who whooped and hollered at lines both predictable ("I'm going back to Canada," "I'm up in T.O.") and not-so-predictable ("You're all just pissing in the wind"). Some audience members had apparently taken the new song Dirty Old Man's lyrics to heart ("I like to get hammered / On Friday night / Sometimes I can't wait / So Monday's all right"), and by the time a woman intimated that Young should Harvest her ovaries, the crowd participation had become intrusive. Despite Shakey's impressive acoustic performance, it was something of a relief when he plugged in and added a backing band for his second set. Young drew heavily on the more predictable riff-rock from Chrome Dreams II. Again, he was in good form, wrenching out searing solos from his trusty axe, Old Black, but his long-time sidemen (including bassist Rick Rosas and stock-still rhythm guitarist Ben Keith) did little but play unassuming repetitive patterns to fill out the sound. As such, the music settled into a pleasant, head-nodding groove, lacking the nervous, aggressive edge that marks his most electric performances. When the crowd rose at last to their feet for the encore, it seemed to galvanize the band: a snarling Cinnamon Girl led to a version of Like a Hurricane that lived up to its title. It was a churning psychedelic opus torn between sweet string sounds courtesy of a keyboard decorated to look like a dove (a holdover from 1979's Rust Never Sleeps tour) and some violent guitar-and-drum bashing by Young and Ralph Molina. Out of the tension between these elements emerged a sound both beautiful and frightening, and the concert reached the transcendent moment it had struggled to attain. Unlike most of his colleagues from the classic-rock era, Young tends to embrace the fact that his most vital music springs from a sense of opposition. At 62, two years after a life-threatening aneurysm, he has earned the right to sit back in a comfort zone. An archival box set scheduled for next year suggests he might continue to sift through the past. But leaving aside cliches about burning out and fading away, Young still seems to have enough fire in him to burn a few more bridges. Let's hope that with this current tour, he's just stoking the flames. - Neil Young plays another sold-out show at Massey Hall Thursday night. For more Neil Young tour dates, go to www.neilyoung.com/tour.html.