I've been to A LOT of shows in my day and had the privilege of seeing many a legendary performer and performance. Last night's Neil Young and Crazy Horse performance in Albuquerque last night easily rates in my top 5 and may even take the top prize.
Neil holds nothing back when playing and singing. It's full force GO from the minute he steps on stage and doesn't let up until the last note. He and Crazy Horse were amazingly tight, well rehearsed and having an incredible amount of fun playing their hearts out.
I arrived to The Pavilion as gates opened GA ticket in hand and didn't expect to get that close to the stage. As luck would have it though, Albuquerque is a low stress GA environment. I easily scored a place on the rail, stage right. I may be a hardened concert goer, but I was absolutely giddy that I would get to see Neil and Crazy Horse that close.
Lights go down, crowd goes wild, but wait...They're just teasing and don't come on for another 10 minutes. When they do though...Holy Cow! Full on audio assault with an epic rendition of Love and Only Love. Every time I thought they were finished they would jam on, harder and louder, a theme for the evening. Every song seemed to go on forever and there was not a single complaint about it!
Powderfinger was next, followed by not one but 2 brand new songs, Ontario and Walk Like A Giant!
Neil then picked up an acoustic guitar as Crazy Horse left the stage. He began with a really beautiful version of The Needle and the Damage Done. Then, yet another new one, Twisted Road, about the first time he heard Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone. Flashing a peace sign to the crowd, Neil racked the acoustic and Crazy Horse joined him for several more new tunes as well as crowd favorites Cinnamon Girl and Hey Hey, My My.
If you're wondering about songs from Americana, they only pulled out one, Jesus' Chariot, in the encore.
The evening ended with Roll Another Number.
Crazy Horse is back and damn happy about it!
