"CROSBY,
STILLS, NASH & YOUNG \ CONCERT"
By Daniel Durchholz
REVIEW - MUSIC - ROCK
Special To The Post-Dispatch
Friday, April 21, 2000
Stephen Stills says the outing may turn out to be the first step of the
band's next trip.
When Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young titled their 1999 album "Looking
Forward," it seemed an act of unwarranted optimism. After all, over the course of
three decades, the supergroup had only managed to get together for four albums. Until the
series of concerts that started early this year, they hadn't toured as a band in a quarter
century. As it turns out, their sunny outlook was correct all along. CSNY's 2000 tour came
to a triumphant close Wednesday night at Kiel Center, and the show found the band members
continuing to buzz about the future of their partnership.
"This is the last show of this tour," Graham Nash said at one point, only to
have Stephen Stills correct him, "No, it's the first show of our next one." One
can only hope. Despite the fact that CSNY has been written off dozens of times,
individually and in various groupings, they seem stronger and more focused than perhaps
ever.
Stills, who has sleepwalked through numerous CSN tours over the years, bounded about
the stage like a performer half his age. David Crosby, saddled in the past by drug abuse,
looked hale and hearty, and, thanks to recent revelations in the press, the very model of
test-tube virility. Nash, though sidelined last year by two broken legs, made himself at
home by performing barefoot. Young, meanwhile, was the catalyst that drove the band to new
heights time and again throughout the show.
Drawing on their rich catalog of group and solo material, as well as songs from two of
their pre-CSNY bands, the quartet performed 29 songs in just over three hours, and even
then it seemed that they scarcely wanted to quit.
The first set was marked by electrifying jams such as Stills' "Carry On,"
Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair" and Young's "Southern Man" and
"Cinnamon Girl." New songs, which seem stillborn on the poorly received
"Looking Forward" album, came springing to life in concert, particularly
Crosby's anthemic "Stand and Be Counted" and Young's exquisite
"Slowpoke."
After a break, the group performed a quasi-unplugged set featuring favorites "Our
House," "Teach Your Children," "Old Man," "Guinnevere"
and "After the Gold Rush," the latter tune played by Young on a vintage pump
organ. The highlight, though, was an astonishing "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," which
found Stills playing dazzling riffs on his acoustic guitar and hitting all the high notes
with his vocals.
Between songs, the foursome hugged and high-fived each other, knowing they were nailing
the songs' complex harmonies. "Have you any idea how much fun this is for us?"
Nash gushed.
The final segment found the band rocking out to classics such as "Woodstock,"
"Love the One You're With," "Ohio" and Buffalo Springfield's "For
What It's Worth." Their take on the Byrds' psychedelic landmark "Eight Miles
High" was intense enough to perhaps trigger an acid flashback or two. Young brought
the show to a close with raging versions of "Down By the River," "Rockin'
in the Free World" and the encore, a quiet, countrified "Long May You Run."
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the show was how generously and undistracted by
ego each band member behaved. After 30 years, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young seem to
have realized at last that, as a single entity, they are greater than the sum of their
parts. If all this talk of future tours and recordings is true, now is clearly the time.
Long may they run
