The Godfather of Grunge transformed into the Master of Mellow right before our eyes.
More than once.
That was no surprise, though. After all, this was a Neil Young concert.
The mercurial singer-songwriter, whose 34-year career has run the course from folk and
country to hard rock and idiosyncratic music defying
description, gave the Santa Barbara Bowl crowd a diverse sampling of his broad musical
palette -- though playing probably fewer of his big hits than expected -- during a
2-hour-and-10-minute concert Wednesday night. It was the first of two Young shows on
consecutive nights this
week at the 4,500-seat outdoor amphitheater that he kiddingly said he thought was a
bowling alley when he first heard about it.
With a playful smile he added: "I was just seeing if you were listening, that's
all."
It was one of the telltale signs that Young, who is hardly so anymore at 54, is still just
a big kid on the inside, rocking in the free world and loving it. His hair is thinner and
considerably grayer but remains shoulder-length and tending toward wild. Dressed in a
scruffy light-blue blazer, blue jeans, a black "Route 66" T-shirt and low-cut
hiking boots, his body swayed in constant motion to the rhythm of his guitar-driven tunes.
Opening the show with "Motorcycle Mama," a raucous tune heavy on electric
guitar, Young cranked it up yet another notch on the second number,
"Powderfinger."
Then he seamlessly turned the clock back three decades to play "Everybody Knows This
is Nowhere," from his 1969 album of the same name.
When he launched into a non-acoustic rendition of "Unknown Legend," with a
signature harmonica accompaniment like the studio version, it was a portent of his
impending transformation. About 30 minutes into the show, Young surrendered his electric
guitar and picked up his acoustic six-string for the first time, delivering three songs
from his laid-back and folksy new CD, "Silver and Gold."
The audience warmly responded to the country-tinged "Razor Love" and to
"Buffalo Springfield Again," a nostalgic ode to late-'60s group of which Young
and Stephen Stills were founding members. The former song, while it appears for the first
time on the new CD, was actually written in 1982, as was the title track.
Soon to follow in the show was a third new song, "Daddy Went Walking," which the
Canadian-born Young dedicated to his father, who still holds down the small family farm in
Ontario. "Daddy" has a plucky, infectious style that is somewhere between
bluegrass and country,
much like his tune of eight years ago about a beloved hound dog, entitled "Old
King."
Strategically wrapped around the new offerings were several from that remarkably
like-sounding and widely popular 1992 album, "Harvest Moon," including an
acoustic version of the title track performed 90 minutes into the concert by Young and his
hand-picked tour band. After
his "Moon" set at 9:15 p.m., Young once again embraced his electric axe and
half-jokingly warned the capacity audience: "We're entering a part of the program
called the Curfew Rock phase."
It was a not-so-oblique reference to the 10 p.m. cutoff time stringently imposed on all
Santa Barbara Bowl performers out of consideration for surrounding residents.
Young showed he's no one-instrument talent, too, by switching to piano for a compelling
rendering of "Tonight's the Night," an eerily mysterious song about the toll
taken by drug addiction. He moaned and wailed its lyrics to the beat of a vaguely bluesy
bass guitar riff skillfully laid down by
Donald "Duck" Dunn (of Booker T. and the MGs fame), which carried the song
between slide-guitar interludes by Ben Keith and keyboard support from Spooner Oldham. The
backbeat of studio legend Jim Keltner's masterful drum work was nearly inconspicuous on
that number, but not so on the multitude of harder-edged tunes, including an intense
version of "Words (Between the Lines)" that garnered thunderous applause.
Providing surprisingly solid backup for Young on vocals was his wife, Pegi, and sister,
Astrid.
The loudly appreciative Bowl crowd couldn't seem to get enough of Young and his talented
entourage. Few in the audience opted to leave before the band, three separate times,
briefly left the stage only to return for one-song encores -- including high-voltage
renditions of Bob Dylan's
"All Along the Watchtower" and Young's infamous 1969 single, "Down by the
River."
Before the final number, Young declared with characteristic irreverence: "Curfew Rock
continues."
His forehead beaded with sweat but looking only slightly weary, he finally departed the
stage for good at 10 p.m. --
or so.
Preceding Young on both nights was one of pop music's shining young stars, Beck, who
performed highly listenable acoustic sets that both contrasted and complimented Young's
eclectic style.
So good to see it: Neil Young rocks