CUYAHOGA FALLS – Neil Young, a two-time Rock Hall inductee, and his band, The Chrome Hearts, performed a two-hour show at Blossom Music Center on Friday night, bringing songs from 57 years ago and solidifying his status as one of the most reliable live rock and roll performers.
With unadulterated enthusiasm and fire, youthful and his youthful band performed a 17-song set of hits and fan favorites. Along with his guitar skills and folksy harmonica, Young’s voice—always a distinctive and instantly recognizable instrument—was in excellent shape as he opened with the sparse Ambulance Blues from On The Beach.
The iconic statement “You’re all just pissing in the wind” attracted applause. “I never knew a man could tell so many lies,” the song’s last stanza reads. “He had a different story for every set of eyes. How can he remember who he’s talking to?” Originally written about Richard Nixon and Watergate, “Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you” elicited additional whoops and indignant applause from the enthusiastic, nearly sold-out, Boomer-heavy audience.
The Chrome Hearts are a great musical group that Young recorded his 49th album, Talkin’ To The Trees, which was published in June. While guitarist and keyboardist Micah Nelson (Willie’s son) skillfully dipped and dove, commenting and praising Young’s guitar playing, drummer Anthony LoGerfo and bassist Corey McCormick locked into the rockers’ grooves and gave the softer songs a sympathetic pulse.
Keyboardist Spooner Oldham, an 82-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and studio veteran for the Muscle Shoals, kept his contributions straightforward, groovy, and necessary.
The band, with whom Young has occasionally performed and recorded for ten years, seems to be energizing him. Young frequently formed a mid-stage jam triangle with Nelson and LoGerfo during his solos. The band’s overall sound is rollicking and ragged-edged, much like Young’s longstanding backup group Crazy Horse. Cowgirl In The Sand, which featured Young’s trademark lyrical and jagged guitar solos, swiftly increased the volume and rock quotient after the gentle beginning.
The audience started singing and dancing after a series of hits. The band demonstrated their vocal harmony abilities with a proto-grungy Cinnamon Girl, Southern Man, and the whirling Buffalo Springfield smash Mr. Soul.
From the front of the pit to the back edge of the crowded lawn, a furious, fist-pumping sing-along quickly broke out from a hard-grooving rendition of Ohio, which Young hasn’t performed in Northeast Ohio since 1992.
The only new song, Silver Eagle, a heartfelt dedication to the tour bus that was suggested by his bus driver, was part of Young’s acoustic set, which followed that musical and emotional peak.
People were swaying and singing along to Harvest Moon, one of Young’s most straightforward and lovely love songs, as couples danced on the lawn and held hands in the shed.
Rockers Sun-Green from Young’s eco-concept album Greendale and a fierce rendition of “Like A Hurricane” closed out the event. Young then sent the joyful throng home with the crowd-pleasing Hey Hey My My (Into the Black), followed by another sweet song, the ethereal CN&Y track Name of Love, and the thoughtful Old Man.
Young is obviously not burned out and doesn’t seem to be fading away anytime soon. Young turns 80 in November. Many modern pop concerts feature well planned spectacles and performers that use self-aggrandizing film montages, numerous costume changes, and audio/visual assaults supported by an army of svelte dancers to ask audiences to share their journeys or enter their lives.
Ersatz Broadway jukebox musicals, which are quite widespread these days, with several acts and different themes, as well as voice-overs about tenacity and self-love, are obviously not inherently bad. Young audiences and music lovers also enjoy feeling as though they have been allowed inside the personal and professional lives of their favorite musicians.
Young has dabbled in the idea of using a concert as musical theater. The full CD, supplemented with movies and performers on stage in between songs, was part of his environmental-themed Greendale musical novel and its accompanying tour back in 2003.
However, Young and his Chrome Hearts let the music speak for itself, allowing audiences to travel through the tunes that have become ingrained in their lives on their own. Just five outstanding musicians dedicated all of their musical enthusiasm and energy to making sure the songs conveyed the feelings that were woven throughout the lyrics and melody.
Nelson played an unusually ornamented organ that was lowered from the rafters during Hurricane, but there were no extravagant allegorical props.
There was very little SHOW, no costumes, and no pyrotechnics. Just a collection of excellent tunes performed by a singer-songwriter guitarist and his sympathetic band, who all still care more about performing with emotion than projecting an air of authenticity and flawlessness.
Simply put, Young & The Chrome Hearts had one of the greatest performances of the blossom season this year.
