"Crosby,
Stills, Nash and Young capture still-ragged glory"
Tour provides something for everyone
By Mike Weatherford
Monday, February 21, 2000
Las Vegas Review-Journal
The new Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album may have been a little flat, both in its
public reception and its overall impact. But the live album's gonna be a monster.
At least you'd have to hope for a live album -- or DVD, or pay-per-view special,
whatever -- to preserve the first tour by David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and
Neil Young since 1974 and to capture their still-ragged glory.
The magic everyone expected was curiously subdued, if not missing altogether on last
fall's "Looking Forward" album. But the concert tour was everything you'd expect
from the occasion when it came to the MGM Grand Garden on Saturday: energetic and mellow,
nostalgic and current, comic and touching.
And there was something for everyone in the less-than-capacity crowd -- three hours
worth, divided into two sets. It was almost to the point of overkill for the baby-boomer
fans of the 50-something rockers because the baby-sitters' meters were no doubt running at
home.
The new songs -- nine out of 12 on the album -- took on an energy and immediacy they
lacked on the album. And the old songs touched upon everything the four have done apart
and together over the years, more often than not living up to their legacy.
The group kept things as simple as you'd expect from the last era before pop music
became marketed and cross-marketed. They added only two extra musicians -- veteran pros
Jim Keltner on drums and Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass -- and played on a low-key
stage trimmed with potted palms, candles and a tiffany lamp, all as mellow and casual as
their flannels and Hawaiian shirts. (This is a tour that should have considered an
in-the-round configuration, but somehow that would have been just too, well, complicated.)
Still, there was reason to fear the graying, balding and wrinkling figures on stage
would be coasting on sentiment, much the way Frank Sinatra spent his last 20 years
entertaining their parents' generation with a different set of pop standards. Those
concerns weren't alleviated by the opening "Carry On," in which Crosby, Stills
and Nash downshifted the famous three-part harmonies in the chorus to a lower key.
But the rest of the night would reveal only Stills to be of questionable voice.
"Southern Man," was a better taste of things to come, the first of many tunes to
offer bold singing and ripping guitar interplay between Stills and Young.
Crosby's forceful "Stand and Be Counted" was a new song strong enough to hold
its place with those two classics. But others were mediocre, or too reminiscent of earlier
work: Young's "Slowpoke" was greeted with a huge roar from the crowd, but only
because the opening chords sounded like "Heart of Gold." And while it rallied
near the end, the island-flavored "Faith in Me" should be kicked over to Jimmy
Buffett.
But Crosby later put it into perspective: "It's not that we don't love the old
songs, we do. But the new songs keep us alive." To which Young added, "They'll
be old someday too. Come back in 10 or 15 years and hear them too."
It was Young, of course, who made the tour an arena event commanding ticket prices as
high as $200. And it was the rare Las Vegas show to display both his electric and
unplugged sides. The ageless rocker kept the other three on their toes, animating the
stage as he bounced and bent with every electric note on the one-two punches of
"Almost Cut My Hair" and "Cinnamon Girl" that closed the first hour.
The four returned after an intermission after pledging "a bunch of acoustic
music" -- nearly an hour's worth. It was busy with quiet sing-alongs: Nash at the
keyboard for "Our House" and Young on "Old Man," and later a
pipe-organ rendition of "After the Gold Rush," with the other three surrounding
him.
New songs sounded better here too: Stills' slower, more considered verson of the jaded
"Seen Enough," and Crosby's ode to his young son, "Dream for Him,"
with Young on intricate jazz guitar.
A "seventh-inning stretch" came complete with late Cubs announcer Harry Caray
singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" on the video screens, setting up a final
hour that plain rocked. "Woodstock," "Ohio" and "For What It's
Worth" seemed to translate dated protests into a still-relevant attitude, before CS N
pretty much turned it over to Young for blistering versions of "Down By the
River" and "Rockin' in the Free World."
One brief encore of "Long May You Run" sent the crowd home with the parting
sentiment, "We'll see you down the road." Everyone on hand will hope so, since
it's a high road still full of rewards.
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