NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE: LIVE
AKA Greendale: The Musical
Yesterday, I went to go see Neil Young and Crazy Horse at Merriweather Post. My hopes were high, as I hadn't been to a real concert in over a year and I have been a Young fan for more years than I can remember. As the concert date approached, I grew increasingly eager to see one of rock's living legends live on stage.
When we arrived at Merriweather, I was immediately impressed. It was my first trip to the venue, and the overall atmosphere heightened my excitement for the show. We got our $5.00 sodas and our $7.50 beers and headed for our seats. The opening act for the evening was Lucinda Williams, a country/folk/rock singer with whom I wasn't very familiar. The show, scheduled to start at 7:00, didn't actually get underway until closer to 7:30 (which sort of pissed me off; the last four concerts I've been to all started on time). Lucinda played her set, complete with covers of Tom Petty and the man himself Neil Young, for almost an hour and was received warmly by the crowd, including myself. Overall, it was a good way to start off the evening.
Finally, at around 8:30, Mr. Young and Crazy Horse took the stage. He opened with a song off his new album Greendale, complete with actors onstage acting out the lyrics. As this was going on, I was thinking, "Wow, this is a cool idea. I like this show already." As the song ended, the actors stayed on stage. "What are they doing?" we all wondered. Ol' Neil stepped up to the mic and explained that he wanted to tell a story, a story about the town of Greendale. For the next hour and a half, Young proceeded to play every song from the yet-to-be-released album, each song acted out by an entire cast of actors. This wouldn't be too bad of a thing, but for the first hour and a half he played only this! There was no "Old Man", there was no "The Needle and the Damage Done", and there was no "Down by the River". All there was was the story of the fictional Green family from the fictional town of Greendale.
I guess Ol' Neil had a purpose for all of this. The entire story was symbolic of the state of affairs in the world, of the declining values of America. The show was complete with videos of Iraq, a protesting hippie, the Devil, and a billboard stating: SUPPORT OUR WAR. Of course, this billboard was greeted with a mixture of cheers and boos (mostly cheers) to which Young replied, "Go ahead, tell me what you think. I don't care, it's just a billboard." He, of course, blasted the media with lyrics such as: "They can take a lot of bullshit And turn it into gold," and "The only good thing about tv Is shows like Leave it to Beaver".
However, there was sort of a mixed message being delivered to the audience. After the "Support our War" billboard and other such stuff, the Greendale story ended with the entire cast, including Young, police officers, and people dressed in combat fatigues, flashing the peace sign at the audience. As the actors walked off stage, we were all expecting Neil to break out the accoustic and play some of his old stuff; but much to our dismay, the band walked off with the cast.
After the stage cleared, the audience burst into cheers as the words "RUST NEVER SLEEPS" were projected onto the back screen, complete with old performance footage from Crazy Horse. The band retook the stage, sans actors, and immediately broke into "My My Hey Hey". They played two more songs before leaving the stage again, only to return a couple minutes later. For the second encore, they played an amazing 10 minute rendition of "Rockin' in the Free World", which I unsuccessfully tried to record on my cell phone. After a Hendrix-esque ending, the band left the stage for the final time.
"A lot of people think that hippies are good and cops are bad, but there's really a lot of grey area there . . . but I don't know much about that, of course." Throughout the concert, Neil showed a great sense of humor in addition to his musical abilities. His guitar playing was incredible, and he even stopped to play the organ once. The most tragic part of the show, however, was that he only played one accoustic song. Young's accoustic songs are some of the most haunting I've ever heard, and hearing them live would be amazing. Disappointingly enough, the band played only four songs that anyone in the audience had ever heard before, and the first three-quarters of the show would better be desribed as a musical than a concert. I'd have to say, though, that the music was incredible and if I had never heard a Neil Young song before, I would've walked away more than pleased. But I want to hear "Southern Man", I want to hear "Ohio", I friggin' want to hear "Cinnamon Girl". This show, although disappointing, will not change my opinion of Neil Young. I might just have to check him out live again, this time when he's playing a solo accoustic show.
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