Neil Young & Crazy Horse at Hyde Park

   

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

The National

Tom Odell

 Hyde Park, 12 July 2014

It's always interesting listening to people's reactions after a Neil Young show and his latest headline slot at Hyde Park was no different. "Neil was clearly phoning it in! It felt like the opening night where the band were finding their feet!" one fan moaned to his friend. "That was incredible, his guitar-work is mind-blowing!" enthused another. "I wandered off before the end, it was so dull: so many tedious guitar solos," I hear another complain as he rejoins a friend, while someone else in front of me exclaims "He was so inspired tonight, even better than last time he was in London!"

One thing's for sure, after 50 years in the music business Neil Young sure knows how to divide opinion but here's the thing that makes him such an exciting and unpredictable performer even though he's close to 70 now: he doesn't care what you think. More than that, he never has. In fact during the show he half-jokingly calls the crowd "sad bastards" before telling us to "stop crying and complaining" presumably for the pissed-off faces he sees in the audience thinking they were going to get acoustic renditions of Old Man and Heart Of Gold and instead getting three 20-minute, feedback-infused guitar jams of songs like Love And Only Love, Goin' Home and Love To Burn to start off the show. What others found ponderous and maddening, I found quite simply electrifying and everything that I wanted to hear from Neil playing with his old comrades and most faithful backing band, Crazy Horse: loose, grooving and completely raw and alive.
It is a magical thing to see him perform with a band that he has so much chemistry with: he may be a lone wolf in his career, but on stage with Crazy Horse he is definitely part of a team and it feels like there's some kind of electrical current, an invisible bond if you will, that holds them together and lets each member of the band feed off each other. Although bassist Billy Talbot had to sadly pull out of this tour due to suffering a mild stroke (thankfully he's expected to make a full recovery), Rick Rosas, who has played with Neil for many years, is actually a more fluid player than Talbot and makes an interesting replacement. More importantly you can tell these guys have had years of experience playing with Neil and following him wherever he wants to go. It really can be a wonder to see especially as within one song things can flow beautifully one minute and then teeter on the edge of completely falling apart.

Neil does eventually take pity on those who want to hear the hits. "This is for the sad bastards out there," he says with a smile, treating us to a tender yet uplifting version of Only Love Will Break Your Heart that sounds spectacularly soulful today perhaps due to the added vocals of his talented backing singers (a new welcome addition to the band). Then, to even more cheers, he finally does get out his acoustic guitar, as Crazy Horse leave the stage, and gives us a faithful cover of Blowin' In The Wind that sounds more like classic Dylan than Dylan does these days. Funnily enough this song is the one that gets the biggest and most enthusiastic reaction from the crowd, with people all around me singing along. I guess some people there are happier hearing Neil play Dylan than his own songs. Maybe sensing this he follows it with Heart Of Gold, probably his biggest ever hit and the song Dylan himself felt was Neil doing Dylan better than he was at that time. Naturally it gets a tremendously positive response from the thrilled crowd and there's no doubt the acoustic interlude does make a lovely contrast to the powerhouse jamming.

There was also a couple of nice surprises in the set, the first being a rare outing of Separate Ways, which he seems to have dug out for the European tour. The song, maybe one of Neil's most scathing (and clearly about his breakup with Carrie Snodgress, the mother of his first child) was supposed to have been on the ill-fated 1975 Homegrown album and the whole shelved record is said to be included on the forthcoming second volume of Neil's Archives project. I hope it is because Separate Ways is perhaps Neil at his most bluesiest guitar-wise while the lyrics are bitter, lonesome and incredibly poignant. Live it sounded fantastic. Also sounding good was a full band version of After The Gold Rush and an absolutely rocking Barstool Blues, which I've never heard live before.

The final two songs of the main set were absolute barnstormers with the brutal but beautiful riffage of Cinnamon Girl and the rousing singalong of Rockin' In The Free World with Neil screaming halfway through "Who's gonna stand up to the oil man! Who's gonna tell him he's had enough oil" and wailing his way on guitar through about five fake endings. It was hands in the air, life-affirming stuff for sure. Afterwards Neil, obviously in a really great mood, didn't seem to want to leave the stage even when Crazy Horse was long gone, standing at the front of the stage in his backwards baseball cap (again, Neil doesn't care if you think he's too old to do this and this will always make him cooler than any of us) and pointing at his t-shirt that boldly proclaimed "EARTH". It seems this isn't just Neil making another cool fashion choice, he has something he wants to share with us and he does just that by strapping back on his guitar (this time a Telecaster) and launching into a fantastic new song with a clear message called Who's Gonna Stand Up And Save The Earth? which is as powerful as it sounds and surprisingly rocking.

After this Neil does leave the stage but after enough coaxing from the crowd is enticed back on for one more number: a long and atmospheric version of Down By The River. Knowing it would be hard to beat that he and the band finally take their leave. There's no doubt that there will always be people out there who attend a Neil Young show expecting something they are never going to get: a nostalgic greatest hits show, with perfect performances that sound just like the records. There are those of us though that love his rawness, his unwillingness to compromise and knowing that, he hasn't let me down yet. What a joy that he's still out there doing his thing, following his heart and his muse and not caring what anyone else thinks. It's what makes him Neil Young and thank god for that.

Although, for me, this show was all about seeing Neil Young & Crazy Horse again (especially after he cancelled the second O2 show last year when guitarist Frank "Poncho" Sampedro hurt his wrist - he was actually wearing a t-shirt with an x-ray of his hand on it tonight), as one of the annual music festivals in Hyde Park there were obviously lots of other acts playing. When we arrived Tom Odell was on the main stage and sounded pretty rocking I must say, I was surprised. It definitely made me think he may be worth checking out on record although I did only see the very end of his set. There was an indoor theatre set up and I could hear the wonderful Caitlin Rose playing through the thin walls but unfortunately there was really, really long queue of people waiting to go in which pretty much ruled that out. I did see her after though wandering around with a friend presumably trying to get a good position to see The National, who were playing next (she did after all cover their song Pink Rabbits).

I was also vying for a good spot to watch The National and I think one of my strongest and most treasured memories of the day will always be weaving my way through the crowd, over picnic blankets and past dancing fans, while hearing and catching glimpses of The National playing Afraid Of Everyone. I had wondered what they would be like live but it turns out Matt Berninger is a pretty electrifying performer. With his shirt and waistcoat and dark sunglasses he looked like a debonair crooner who has woken up after a night of drinking and Berninger does croon in his own unique way in that almost monotone baritone voice of his. Ten years ago when I first heard The National I would have never thought it would sound so powerful in a setting like this, on a field, on a stage made to look like two huge trees but strangely it did. When the band played England and Berninger sang "You must be loving your life in the rain, you must be somewhere in London", it just felt like a perfect moment (and funnily enough it did rain too not long after). 

Caitlin Rose must have been happy because they played Pink Rabbits, maybe just for her but it sounded like it was for everyone, it was that good. The best moment though came at the end during Terrible Love when Berninger jumped down off the huge stage and then over the barrier into the crowd and with the long lead of the microphone trailing behind him actually sang the rest of the song in the midst of the people. For a while not even the cameras could see him. It made a fantastic end to their set and now, more than ever, I understand why so many people fall in love with The National: their live performances are really something to capture your heart.