Crosby, Stills & Nash at the Royal Albert Hall
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Royal Albert Hall, 1 July 2009
It would be a tough act to follow Mr Young after his jaw-dropping show on the weekend but if anyone was going to give it a try then I suppose his old bandmates Crosby, Stills & Nash were as good a bet as any.
As fate would have it the trio were touring the UK a week after Neil (and both had made appearances at the Glastonbury festival, but on different days, Neil at the end of his tour and CSN at the start of theirs). Sadly though they didn't cross paths (although they are all still good friends and even toured together in the States a couple of years back as seen in the Deja Vu documentary), but the prospect of seeing these three legends of the Laurel Canyon scene on stage together singing those amazing, to-die-for harmonies was one I couldn't pass up, especially at a venue as beautiful and spectacular as the Royal Albert Hall. Plus I had amazing fourth row tickets (which, on account of being on the side and the venue being in the round, only had one row in front so felt like second row). Score.
As fate would have it the trio were touring the UK a week after Neil (and both had made appearances at the Glastonbury festival, but on different days, Neil at the end of his tour and CSN at the start of theirs). Sadly though they didn't cross paths (although they are all still good friends and even toured together in the States a couple of years back as seen in the Deja Vu documentary), but the prospect of seeing these three legends of the Laurel Canyon scene on stage together singing those amazing, to-die-for harmonies was one I couldn't pass up, especially at a venue as beautiful and spectacular as the Royal Albert Hall. Plus I had amazing fourth row tickets (which, on account of being on the side and the venue being in the round, only had one row in front so felt like second row). Score.
Despite this, I'm sad to say I missed the first song due to the phenomenally terrible traffic around Hyde Park (in retrospect I should have taken this into account) and having met someone who got hold of a set list in the intermission I saw the song I missed was Helplessly Hoping :( That said it was pretty cool to walk in and see the trio already onstage and singing, especially since I was so close to these impressive looking icons responsible for so much rock history (it amused and impressed me in particular that all three had bedded Joni Mitchell at one time or another, although Graham Nash holds the title of being one of her great loves).
Instead of paying tribute to their rock history though at the start of the show they instead paid tribute to some of their contemporaries, covering the likes of The Rolling Stones (Ruby Tuesday), their old friend James Taylor (Close Your Eyes), Bob Dylan (Girl From The North Country) and rather nicely Tim Hardin (Reason To Believe) as well as, later in the set, a rocking version of the Grateful Dead's Uncle John's Band, prompting a clap along. I actually enjoyed these covers, which were given the CSN special harmony treatment, but I overheard people after saying "I don't want to hear them playing James Taylor or Bob Dylan, I want to hear them playing Crosby, Stills & Nash songs!" Fair point but as the band is apparently currently working on a covers album with Rick Rubin (who hopefully will do his Johnny Cash/Neil Diamond trick with the trio) it seemed only natural that they would want to try out their re-workings live and to be honest, all sounded gorgeous.
Stills briefly disappeared from the stage, leaving the still slim silver fox Nash and the portly Crosby, his iconic moustache now completely white, to sing a chilling version of Guinnevere, a song Crosby wrote for his girlfriend Christine Hinton who tragically died in a car crash in the late 60s, and the lyrics appeared to still move him. Magical stuff. Stills (a little portly himself these days but unlike Crosby and Nash, still dark blonde, I bet he was impressive looking in his youth) then returned and the three-piece were joined by a band (one of whom was Crosby's son, playing keyboards) and turned up the volume for a jaunty ride on the Marrakesh Express and the aforementioned Grateful Dead cover.
After a brief intermission (I think this is a Royal Albert Hall thing rather than anything to do with the age of the bandmembers) they returned to dig deeper into their catalogue and I have to say, although the acoustic start was lovely, this was my favourite part: hearing those classic songs and letting Stills rip on that guitar. He may not have the unique looseness of Young's playing, but he's an impressive axeman, who often seemed more happy to wail away on his guitar than to sing (although this may have to do with the fact his voice is fading somewhat) and after every solo got a huge round of applause. Stills was also the only member to get a standing ovation when he was given a shout-out from Nash, and I have to say he deserved it, he was truly bad-ass, it made me sorry I missed his rare solo tour in the UK late last year because the guy still rocks with the best of them.
For a little while, despite Stills' guitar licks, it was more like the Crosby and Nash show, with Nash singing a song written for his father, Military Madness, and Crosby attempting, but sadly failing, to get the crowd to sing along to the refrain "no more war" (the sentiment was nice though, I'm surprised more of the ageing hippies in the audience, and there were a lot, didn't think so too). Then there was the pop grandeur of Nash's Cathedral and the sweet, singalong rhymes of Our House (the song he wrote for when he and Joni were shacking up). From Crosby we got the cool, 60s groove of Wooden Ships and Long Time Gone. "We all have roles in the band," Crosby told the audience, "Stephen Stills is responsible for writing kick-ass rock and roll", everyone cheered. "Graham Nash is responsible for writing anthems that the whole world wants to sing along to," everyone cheered again. "And me, well my role is write the weird shit." Everyone laughs. "Here's an example of that." And he launched into the weird, fast harmonies that begin Deja Vu, made even more cool and raw by the addition of extra distorted guitars courtesy of Mr Stills. Crosby's voice is as good as ever, I must say, just as strong and soaring as it sounded on those famous records from the 60s: it's really a pleasure to hear it in the flesh.
Just when I thought Stills was happy taking a backseat he finally took the lead for the Buffalo Springfield track Rock N' Roll Woman: a real treat, I hadn't expected to hear anything from Stills' previous band but it got even better when they also skilfully tackled the Springfield's Bluebird as well their most famous song, For What It's Worth, and I have to say hearing it with Crosby and Nash's added harmonies made it sound pretty special. Elsewhere Crosby's epic Almost Cut My Hair sounded absolutely spectacular and Stills' underrated Southern Cross also got a welcome outing. The whole thing ended with the crowd singing along to the anthemic Teach Your Children, with just about everyone out of their seats and joyfully joining into the spirit of things.
So not quite as mind-blowing as Neil on Saturday but there's no doubt his old pals still put on a hell of a show without him.
After a brief intermission (I think this is a Royal Albert Hall thing rather than anything to do with the age of the bandmembers) they returned to dig deeper into their catalogue and I have to say, although the acoustic start was lovely, this was my favourite part: hearing those classic songs and letting Stills rip on that guitar. He may not have the unique looseness of Young's playing, but he's an impressive axeman, who often seemed more happy to wail away on his guitar than to sing (although this may have to do with the fact his voice is fading somewhat) and after every solo got a huge round of applause. Stills was also the only member to get a standing ovation when he was given a shout-out from Nash, and I have to say he deserved it, he was truly bad-ass, it made me sorry I missed his rare solo tour in the UK late last year because the guy still rocks with the best of them.
For a little while, despite Stills' guitar licks, it was more like the Crosby and Nash show, with Nash singing a song written for his father, Military Madness, and Crosby attempting, but sadly failing, to get the crowd to sing along to the refrain "no more war" (the sentiment was nice though, I'm surprised more of the ageing hippies in the audience, and there were a lot, didn't think so too). Then there was the pop grandeur of Nash's Cathedral and the sweet, singalong rhymes of Our House (the song he wrote for when he and Joni were shacking up). From Crosby we got the cool, 60s groove of Wooden Ships and Long Time Gone. "We all have roles in the band," Crosby told the audience, "Stephen Stills is responsible for writing kick-ass rock and roll", everyone cheered. "Graham Nash is responsible for writing anthems that the whole world wants to sing along to," everyone cheered again. "And me, well my role is write the weird shit." Everyone laughs. "Here's an example of that." And he launched into the weird, fast harmonies that begin Deja Vu, made even more cool and raw by the addition of extra distorted guitars courtesy of Mr Stills. Crosby's voice is as good as ever, I must say, just as strong and soaring as it sounded on those famous records from the 60s: it's really a pleasure to hear it in the flesh.
Just when I thought Stills was happy taking a backseat he finally took the lead for the Buffalo Springfield track Rock N' Roll Woman: a real treat, I hadn't expected to hear anything from Stills' previous band but it got even better when they also skilfully tackled the Springfield's Bluebird as well their most famous song, For What It's Worth, and I have to say hearing it with Crosby and Nash's added harmonies made it sound pretty special. Elsewhere Crosby's epic Almost Cut My Hair sounded absolutely spectacular and Stills' underrated Southern Cross also got a welcome outing. The whole thing ended with the crowd singing along to the anthemic Teach Your Children, with just about everyone out of their seats and joyfully joining into the spirit of things.
So not quite as mind-blowing as Neil on Saturday but there's no doubt his old pals still put on a hell of a show without him.
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