Young does Young best
Concert Review:
The Neil Young Project
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
When: Thursday night
Grade: B
Was Neil Young in the house? Someone announced it as we milled about in the
Queen Elizabeth foyer.
Didn't see the legend being feted for the evening.
But I can only imagine him whincing on more than one occasion during Hal
Willner's Neil Young Project last night.
That the Saturday Night Live musical director's massive group performances are
events, not tribute homages to an artist's greatest hits, means that they are
always a mixed bag.
This show was no different.
When it worked, such as during Eric Mingus's gospel choir rave-up of "For the
Turnstiles" or Teddy Thompson's delicious countrified take of "Don't Cry No
Tears," pure magic. However, the promise of the opening choral arrangement of "A
Dream That Can Last" really only came together a few times.
Otherwise, the concert ventured far too often into mere bar-band mimicry,
offering up tame to lifeless versions of classics and more obscure tunes from
the massive Young catalogue, with plenty of opportunity to let the guitarists
wank. Trouble is, as cool as Apostle of Hustle is, their take of "Mr. Soul" with
Julie Doiron was just too spot-on to matter. Of course, fans were freaking over
a track they were really familiar with.
Or it became more about the personalities on stage than the music. "A Man Needs
a Maid" features some of Young's most precarious lyrics -- mean and vulnerable
-- but Metric's Emily Haines and James Shaw didn't convincingly deliver the
underlying malice or melancholy of the piece nearly as well as, say, Veda Hille.
People seemed more interested in how "hot" Haines is anyways. Totally not her
fault, obviously.
The two heavy hitters proved to be polar opposites as well: Elvis Costello
sauntered on stage, crooned his ditty and left. Lou Reed took ownership of
"Helpless" to such a degree that he could consider recording it. Perhaps one of
the most solidly rocking moments all night.
One thing that held true throughout was the backing band. Chris Brown and Robert
Burger -- a Willner project regular -- were awesome on keys while Broken Social
Scensters Brendan Canning, Kevin Drew, Sam Goldberg, Bill Priddle and Andrew
Whiteman were in fantastic form all night. Ditto Herculean drummer Ben Perowsky.
As guests vocalists, from Land of Talk's Elizabeth Powell to Scottish folkie
Alasdair Roberts, tried their hands at bringing something new or vital to the
Young songbook, it became increasingly evident that, unlike his earlier Stay
Awake project of Disney tunes or incredible Nino Rota release, Willner wasn't
hitting this one out of the park.
Or maybe Neil Young doing Neil Young is just the very best way it can be. At
least this was true of this show's first 90 minutes.
The second half opened with Brendan Canty's straight-up "Harvest Moon."
Certainly a beautiful tune and a fan fave, it was a nice work into the next half
if, again, a bit like a late-night open-mic singalong. Clearly, those in the
crowd milling about outside desiring more Crazyhorse weren't going to get their
wish.
But Alasdair Roberts' string trio-embellished "The Needle and the Damage Done"
was one of the evening's highlights. Then Sam Goldberg became the third member
of Broken Social Scene to come out reppin' Neil Young vocal stylings. His "Out
On the Weekend" had a solid pulse and Jenny Muldaur and Ron Sexsmith didn't let
it drop with a raw take of "Star of Bethelem" that was lovely, if -- once again
-- mellow.