Review: Neil Young concert could have used more old, less new
By BILL CRAIG | Special correspondent
Published: April 18, 2011
The typical history of rock’n’roll in America neither begins nor ends with Neil Young. But with his solo work, ranging from country-flavored to garage-band grunge, and as a member of seminal groups such as Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, his five decades of singing and songwriting have earned him not just induction into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame but recognition as one of the genre’s most influential voices.
Young celebrated his 65th birthday in November, and the cuts on his latest, 2010’s “Le Noise,” lack the staying power or just plain power of his most memorable work. But despite the lack of recent groundbreaking activity, the native of Canada is still relevant enough to entice an almost capacity Landmark Theater crowd to shell out as much as much as $200 apiece for Sunday night’s show.
In the second stop on his spring tour, Young sauntered onstage decked out in a cream-colored jacket and fedora and was greeted with a standing ovation.
He pulled up a stool, strapped on an acoustic guitar and harmonica and opened with a triple play of well-received favorites, “My, My Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue),” “Tell Me Why” and “Helpless.”
While the top of the set list indicated that the evening might be an unplugged greatest-hits parade, Young pulled from the non-hit list and shared the unrecorded “You Never Call” and a pair of the political tunes from “Le Noise” — “Peaceful Valley Boulevard” and “Love and War.”
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