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Neil Young Rocks Australia
Monday, February 09, 2009
Neil Young shows no signs of slowing down, according to Marty Jones who attended Neil's Brisbane and Melbourne shows. Photos by Andrew Kidman.
Pic: A.Kidman
NEIL YOUNG LIVE
Brisbane Entertainment Centre – January 21, 2009
Just when you think you know what Neil Young is going to do next, he confounds you. That is one of the secrets to his longevity. Young having toured an electric set last time he visited Australia with Crazy Horse, and being backed by the core of the band that played on the Heart Of Gold concert DVD this time around, I expected a more acoustic/country flavoured set. While there was an element to that at his headline show at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, the first headline show of his Australian tour, it certainly wasn’t the dominant flavour, with classics like ‘Hey Hey My My’, ‘Cinnamon Girl’, ‘Cowgirl In The Sand’, ‘Powderfinger’ and, oh!, ‘Cortez The Killer’ all presented in panoramic Crazy Horse-like workouts.
But back to the confounding. Having written an album like Living With War, and a song (‘Looking For A Leader’) with lyrics like “Someone walks among us, And I hope he hears the call, And maybe it's a woman, Or a black man after all,” you’d also think that Young would have made some comment on Obama’s inauguration. But he almost conspicuously ignored politics both musically and personally this time around – the most he ever spoke was when prompted to respond to stuff ups like a faulty banjo jack blurted noise in the introduction to 'Old Man' or his own falter in the introduction to set closing epic ‘A Day In The Life’ (sounds cheesy, but needs to be seen to be believed, Young’s ‘Old Black’ Les Paul somehow conjuring the volume and presence of an entire string orchestra).
It was left to opening act My Morning Jacket (who gradually smouldered into an explosion as the arena filled) to comment on America’s gaining a new President.
And, finally on that confounding nature of Neil (and then I’m done), though stage props and lighting were minimal, there were two notable on-stage elements that were bizarre, and remained unexplained. Above the stage was arranged a jumble of seemingly random letters and numbers, illuminated in what amounted to little more than coloured canteen-style light bulbs. At one point they spelled out NEIL, but the rest of the letters and numerals remained cryptic.
Second, there was a guy towards the back of the stage, painting on canvases on an easel the whole time the band was playing. Again… no explanation for his presence! Subsequent research has revealed said painter to be Eric Johnson, a member of Young’s crew. The paintings are live interpretations of Young’s music and are sold to raise money for the Bridge School charity.
It seems Young had rehearsed up a rockin’ set for his Big Day Out shows and he was pretty much sticking to it. I would have thought that this line-up, including Neil’s wife Pegi, guitarist Ben Keith, bassist Rick Rosas, drummer Chad Cromwell and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Crawford, would play the acoustic and country stuff better. And they did. They lent a country stomp to ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’ early on (introduced by Neil as “a song from recent memory – for old people”) and then really stepped up on ‘Oh Lonesome Me’ eight songs in, and then later on ‘Harvest Moon’ and ‘Get Back To The Country’. The acoustic set half way through also included ‘Old Man’ (Larry Cragg fixing his banjo in the nick of time) and a potent solo rendition of ‘Needle And The Damage Done’.
Though the soulless, cavernous Brisbane Entertainment Centre did the band no favours, Young managed to fill every inch of the place with his gigantic personality and inspirational energy. Can you believe this man is 63 years old? His voice sounds almost the same as it did when he first started, and his guitar playing is never anything less than inspired. Young gave yet another lesson in expression through simplicity and distillation. With very few sound effects, mostly just Old Black and a couple of Fender amps, Young coaxed whispers, whimpers, crunches, choirs, roars, string orchestras, and finally, apocalypse out of that old Les Paul – falling over on his arse (literally) more than once in the process.
And Neil’s showing no signs of slowing. There was a bunch of new material introduced tonight: ‘Light A Candle’, ‘Just Singing A Song Won't Change The World’, ‘Sea Change’, and ‘When Worlds Collide’, the latter three performed in a block.
BRISBANE SET LIST:
Love And Only Love / Hey Hey, My My / Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere / Powderfinger / Spirit Road / Cortez The Killer / Cinnamon Girl / Oh, Lonesome Me / Mother Earth / The Needle And The Damage Done / Light A Candle / Harvest Moon / Unknown Legend / Old Man / Get Back To The Country / Just Singing A Song / Sea Change / When Worlds Collide / Cowgirl In The Sand / Rockin' In The Free World / A Day In The Life
Pic: A.Kidman
SYDNEY MYER MUSIC BOWL-MELBOURNE
January 27, 2009
Yes, it was hot on Wednesday night and down in the bowl beneath the roof it was sweltering with no breeze to help cool us. But think of poor ol’ Neil Young! How hot would it have been under those stage lights?
If, at 63 years old, Young was feeling the heat, he didn’t show it, (even though this show didn’t start so hot, someone forgetting to turn Neil’s vocal microphone on!) launching into another unrelenting set packed with many of his more rocking hits dependent on demanding vocal and guitar work from the old fella.
In fact, having attended the Brisbane show, it was clear which show Young enjoyed more, a genuine grin spreading across his craggy face a number of times as he stopped to behold the masses of waving hands stretching to the horizon of the Kings Domain.
So which was the better show? Personally, I think the Brisbane set list was a little stronger, though they were pretty similar. He certainly played less songs in Melbourne, though I think some of the extended jams went for longer, ‘Cortez The Killer’ and ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ in particular.
There were certainly fewer brand new songs, and I have to say that ‘Singing A Song Won’t Change The World’ didn’t impress me any more second time around, Pegi’s lead vocal part in particular letting the side down.
Young seem to have chosen more of a connoisseur’s set for Melbourne, playing less obvious gems like ‘Waiting For Me’ and ‘Words’ (two treats I really didn’t expect) instead of ‘Powderfinger’ (Brisbane), and ‘Four Strong Winds’ (with Pegi out front on guitar and vocal harmonies, oh!) and ‘One Of These Days’ instead of ‘Harvest Moon’ and ‘Old Man’. I’m just glad the sets were different enough to give those who made the effort to see more than one a substantial reward.
The other point of difference was the sound – it was always going to be thus. Barry Patten (or someone advising him) knew what he was doing when he designed the Music Bowl, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered terrible sound there. I’m not sure what it was like up the back on the lawn, but down the front, everything was rich and clear without being too loud; perfect. I was staring straight into Young’s amplifier stack and every heartfelt, tone-rich note (both vocal and guitar) went straight to my core where they’ll resonate for years to come.
The ‘A Day In The Life’ didn’t have quite the same impact as the Brisbane version. Maybe it was just because the surprise factor wasn’t present second time around, but it sounded like the chaos/structure balance was more tipped in favour of chaos in Melbourne. It wasn’t helped by Neil forgetting the entire last verse!
Again, my only real quibble would be that, although the set list was a crowd pleaser, Young wasn’t playing to the strengths of this particular band. It’s more of a country band than a rock band and although they were perfectly capable of rocking (though Ben Keith occasionally appeared at a loose end), they really shone on the more country-flavoured stuff where harmonies and pedal steel ruled. 
Pic: A.Kidman
MELBOURNE SET LIST:
Love And Only Love / Sea Change / Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere/ Waiting For Me / Spirit Road / Cortez The Killer / Cinnamon Girl / Mother Earth/ Needle & The Damage Done / Light A Candle / Four Strong Winds / Unknown Legend / One Of These Days / Get Back To The Country / Words / Just Singing A Song / Rocking In The Free World / A Day In The Life
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