"Spirited
CSN&Y full of surprises"
By Steve Morse
Globe Staff
3/28/2000
He Academy Awards - what Academy Awards? The 16,000-plus fans at the FleetCenter
weren't tuned in to Hollywood's glitzy spectacle on Sunday, but instead to the ragged
glory of hippie survivors Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. On tour for the first time
since 1974, the quartet looked like the walking embodiment of Mount Rushmore - proud,
chiseled faces, and still singing as well as, or better than, ever, especially the
revitalized David Crosby.
This was a concert for the ages - particularly for anyone over 50, the age of the band
members and many of the fans paying up to $200 a ticket. But if there's such a thing as
getting your money's worth, this was it. Spread over three-and-a-half hours (including a
20-minute intermission), the show mixed songs from the '60s counterculture to the new
millennium.
Boston has always been a favorite of the principals - Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham
Nash, and Neil Young - so fans expected a full-blown effort, and more so because Young was
toughening up the group's sound as only he can. What fans didn't expect were two firsts on
the tour: Stills singing the moving seven-minute ''Suite: Judy Blue Eyes'' (Crosby had
dared him to do it) and Young doing the tender ''Helpless'' (replacing ''Old Man'' on
prior set lists). ''Neil just told us we were singing it,'' Crosby said to the crowd.
''He's a venturesome kind of guy, if you know what I mean.''
Such spontaneity carried over to the guitar jams between Young and Stills, which
exploded on a 17-minute ''Down by the River'' (with Young going wild on his whammy bar)
and a show-closing ''Rockin' in the Free World,'' where Stills soared on slide and Young
bashed his guitar so ferociously that he broke several strings and ended up just shaking
the instrument to create head-slamming feedback. (Normally, they exit on ''Long May You
Run,'' but there was no way they could follow ''Rockin' in the Free World'' on this
night.)
The group perhaps did too many new songs - seven from the uneven reunion album,
''Looking Forward.'' As Crosby said, ''We like the old songs, but the new ones keep us
alive.'' The loyalty to new tunes meant some classics were left out (no ''Wooden Ships,''
for instance), but it also prompted some of the night's prettiest harmonies, while
allowing band members to make their most personal statements. A nice trilogy was Crosby's
''Dream for Him'' (about the hope that his 4-year-old son, Django, will find his own
dream), Young's ''Looking Forward'' (''all that I can see is good things happening to you
and me''), and Nash's ''Someday Soon'' (''keep holding on to the love that has brought you
here and someday soon darkness will disappear'').
It's fascinating that CSN&Y can have come through the wars with such enduring
idealism, though the edge from this evening came in the contrast with the more caustic
tunes, such as the still-powerful ''Ohio'' (about four Kent State students shot during a
Vietnam War protest), Young's civil rights anthem ''Southern Man,'' and Crosby's ''Long
Time Gone.'' Rarely has a concert reached, or even attempted, such political depth.
On a minimalist stage adorned with an Oriental rug and Victorian lamp, CSN&Y was
joined by bassist Duck Dunn (of Booker T and the MGs) and drummer Jim Keltner (a studio
legend). They opened with ''Carry On'' and added a flock of classics in the first set,
including ''Marrakesh Express,'' Crosby's freak anthem ''Almost Cut My Hair,'' and Young's
churning ''Cinnamon Girl.''
The second set began with an unplugged segment (and had a few flat moments from too
many softly sung new tunes), but eventually again grabbed fans by the heart. Young did
''After the Gold Rush'' on pipe organ, Crosby bewitched with ''Guinnevere,'' and Stills
surprised with ''Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.'' Then, after a corny ''seventh-inning stretch''
(during which a recording of ''Take Me Out to the Ballgame'' was played), the set caught
fire with ''Woodstock,'' ''Love the One You're With,'' ''Down by the River,'' Stills's
''For What It's Worth'' (from pre-CSN&Y days when he and Young were in Buffalo
Springfield), and Young's punky ''Rockin' in the Free World.'' Before it, he said, ''Thank
you, Boston, we'll be back if you'll be back.'' No problem. We'll see you there.
This story ran on page C05 of the Boston Globe on 3/28/2000.
© Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.
