Neil Young
At the Air Canada Centre
In Toronto on Thursday
Neil Young is lighter than when we last saw him, not that he's dropped any pounds. But he comes to the first of two shows at Air Canada Centre without the heavy agenda and historical baggage that marked his previous drop-bys. His myth-shrouded Massey Hall concerts just over a year ago were trumpeted as a homecoming, with the release of new material ( Chrome Dreams II) and archives ( Live at Massey Hall 1971) demanding his performances be judged in the context of a bowing overview. Before that, a tour with harmony heroes Crosby, Stills and Nash heralded Young's politically insurgent Living with War album. And remember his brush with death in 2005 (a surgically fixed brain aneurysm), which made us grateful he was even upright. Now, today, at age 63, the hard-rock troubadour carries nothing but songful noise. Loud rock and gloomy ballads used to be enough. Are they again?
In With the Old
The crowd-rousing country-rockers Wilco had done what wild-haired front man Jeff Tweedy called "the most Canadian thing on Earth," opening for Neil Young in a hockey arena. The intermission music (moping, shuffling Jimmy Reed blues) had run its course. Lights go down, an audience woops, and here comes the Winnipeg émigré, in jeans and a paint-splattered brown blazer. His sideburns are prominent and white; what's left of his hair is swept back long to the neck. Love and Only Love, a grungy, romantic rocker from 1990 is followed by an overwhelming, rust-caked Hey Hey, My My, with Young's wife Pegi deftly handling the peeping "Johnny Rotten, Rotten Johnny" bit. Her husband purposely stutters the line about it being better to burn out than to "fa-fa-fade away," a nod to the Who's My Generation. The concert has only begun, but Young dominates already.
Out with the New
Spirit Road, sort of a Pearl Jam-meets-Eagles thing, is the lone selection from Chrome Dreams II (an album that just earned a Grammy nomination). With an industrial fan blowing away, Young leans against the wind, as if he's on a ship deck playing amidst a storm. Perhaps he is. Later, a trio of new and unreleased songs is heard. The Crazy Horse-styled Just Singing a Song Won't Change the World advertises Young's determination to develop a gas-less automobile, while Sea Change, with Ben Keith on slide guitar, is peppy like a Sheryl Crow. Something with a chorus of "strange things happen when worlds collide" is a slow blues stomp, marked by unexpected chord changes.
Keep on Rockin' in the Free Fall
The high-voiced, down-on-a-frown singer is as broodingly majestic on solo acoustic pieces ( The Needle and the Damage Done) as on mammoth electric numbers ( Cortez the Killer). His rack-harmonica playing is melodic ( Unknown Legend) or mournful ( Heart of Gold). Mother Earth, with Young on a vintage organ, is a solemn lament. His haywire guitar is loud and blustery, but not without a rough-cut poetry to the note-hitting. Fists obliviously pump along to the chugging Rockin' in the Free World, even with the "free world" outside in disarray. A filthy, grand cover of the Beatles's Day in the Life has the line "I heard the news today, oh boy," which seems pretty damn current, doesn't it? These are ugly times that call for diversions, which Young stunningly supplies. Even naked of his legend, the man thrills, still.
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 (cover)
Mother Earth
The Needle and the Damage Done
"Lighting a Candle" (untitled, new)
Unknown Legend
Heart of Gold
Old Man
Get Back to the Country
Just Singing a Song (new)
Sea Change (new)
When Worlds Collide (new)
Cowgirl in the Sand
Rockin' in the Free World
A Day in the Life (encore, cover)
Neil Young plays the ACC again Friday night.
