Neil Young + Promise Of The Real at the O2 Arena

Neil Young + Promise Of The Real

Laura Marling

O2 Arena, 11 June 2016

At the Graham Nash show last week I met a man who was seeing Neil Young live for the first time at this O2 Arena gig and I warned him, "don't expect him to play the hits! Neil plays what he wants and that's part of what makes him so great and exciting to watch!" Well, my words have come back to haunt me because tonight Neil played many of his best loved songs, kept it easy on the new tracks and still was exciting as ever. Even giving the audience what it wants, Neil manages to still be completely unpredictable. I was so used to Neil never pandering to those who want the old hits that when he actually does it, well, it's a huge surprise and almost as shocking as when he rolls out a 30 minute feedback-filled unknown number.

The last time I saw Neil at the O2 Arena he had his old cohorts Crazy Horse in tow and of course the beauty of Crazy Horse is just how on the edge of being totally shambolic it all is: every song feels dangerously on the verge of falling apart in the most beautiful way. This time round he has a totally new and much younger band backing him, led by two of Willie Nelson's sons no less, Promise Of The Real. This may well be the reason why Neil is happy to roll out the favourites because the whole show he looks like he's having a blast with them and I suspect that if Lukas or Micah Nelson want to play Out On The Weekend, Neil is more than happy these days to give it a go.

Neil's last album was a protest album called The Monsanto Years and his new one is called Earth, so instead of having men dressed like scientists inspecting the stage like the last time he played here, this time his men are dressed like old fashioned straw-hat-wearing farmers, who scatter the stage with seeds. There's even a whole row of potted plants at the front of the stage this time meaning that those at the front probably watched the show through a spray of daisies which is rather sweet (in no way am I jealous of them though, I was utterly contented this time to be safely in my seat on the side rather than sweating it out standing in the audience). 

While watching the quirky farmers I totally missed that Neil had sneaked on stage and sat behind his piano, and suddenly there he was playing After The Gold Rush no less, all by himself. This solo acoustic opening to his show really reminded me of when I saw Neil play the Hammersmith Apollo (five times, lucky me!) back in 2008, when he played a solo set before bringing out his awesome, fully electric band. This time it didn't last quite as long but it was a treat nonetheless with Neil playing Harvest tracks Heart Of Gold and The Needle And The Damage Done (both true classics), Harvest Moon's From Hank To Hendrix (equally wonderful) and then, keeping in theme with his eco-friendly stance of late (there was even environmentally-themed stalls in the foyer), an atmospheric Mother Earth played on the pump organ.

Promise Of The Real then emerge looking every bit as earthy and real as their name suggests and keep it country and rootsy by launching into Out On The Weekend, which sounded absolutely fantastic. It was easy to tell that the band had earned its stripes by backing Willie Nelson because they sounded golden on Neil's country-esque tracks. These included a super-rare outing for Western Hero (from Sleeps With Angels), Hold Back The Tears (from American Stars N' Bars), Someday (from Freedom), Walk On (from On The Beach) and Words (Between The Lines Of Age) and Alabama (from Harvest). The latter in particular gave me chills it sounded so good, in fact Promise Of The Real sound the nearest Neil has had to his band The Stray Gators (who played on Harvest) for years I think, despite the much-missed and irreplaceable sound of Ben Keith's pedal steel. 

On top of this we were also treated to a really rare performance of  If I Could Have Her Tonight from Young's debut album, so rare in fact this is only the second time he's played it since 1968 and it sounded absolutely amazing. Every Neil show seems to give a little treat like this and this in no way disappointed.

At this point I really thought the show was going to be a showcase for the country-side of Neil but then he of course changed gears again and suddenly pulled out the grunge and distortion for an epic Love To Burn, complete with its squealing guitar solos and Neil lunging about the stage with Old Black his trusty Les Paul. The show was not only heavy on songs from Harvest (which was obviously a huge crowd pleaser) but also Ragged Glory surprisingly. Ragged Glory was actually the first Neil Young album I ever bought so the songs are like old friends but I must admit to have both Love To Burn and Love And Only Love, both super-long jams filled with plenty of solos, was a bit of a disappointment (partly because I was longing for Cortez The Killer) and I can't deny I missed Crazy Horse's rambling groove on those numbers too. But it's a small grumble, because really it's always a treat to see and hear Neil wailing away when he gets a groove going with whatever band he happens to be with.

This beautifully "ragged" section had plenty of delights too, a rather nicely angry After The Garden (from the underrated Living With War album), Mansion On The Hill (one of my faves from Ragged Glory), Monsanto Years (a great protest song against Monsanto and always amusing to hear Neil singing about shopping in Safeway supermarket) and new song Seed Justice, which has Neil defiantly chanting "I won't quit! I won't quit!" (fighting for the farmers rather than music that is).

Probably the highlight of the night came when Neil offered up the complete surprise of Revolution Blues. Earlier Neil and Lukas had asked the crowd for requests but acted as if they couldn't hear anything clearly through the shouts but one of the loudest was for Revolution Blues. In the past requests rarely influence Neil so I have no idea if this inspired him tonight but play it he did and boy, did it sound fantastic: dirty, grungy and mean, with snarling vocals and spiky distorted guitars. Neil played this all the time on the Trans tour back in 83 but hasn't played it since but I can't imagine it ever sounded as fresh and beautifully menacing as this. A completely wonderful surprise. Thanks Neil.

At the end there was only time enough for one encore and he kept the Ragged Glory trip going with a fantastic F*!#in' Up, which is always the sort of rousing song to get you on your feet and singing along, and tonight was no exception. It's obvious that Neil has a fantastic rapport with his new band (at one point he bumped into one of the brothers during a guitar duel and at the end he pretended to walk off the stage laughing "I'm off to get some choreography lessons!") and it feels like they are re-energising him in the best possible way and maybe even reminding him that it's okay to play the hits once in a while.

Supporting tonight was the always great Laura Marling, who I thought was an absolute perfect fit for a Neil Young show. Wearing a rather flouncy off the shoulder top and dungarees (pretty much it is 1970 again tonight) and backed by the biggest band I've ever seen her with, including two backing singers, Marling never sounded better.  With the fuller, rockier sound she gave us a rather nice overview of her career with songs from all her albums aside from her debut, as well as a new track called Wild Fire and a cool, almost bluesy cover of the Townes Van Zandt song Waitin' Around To Die (she seems to often cover the amazing Townes which is rather nice). I recently re-listened to all of Marling's albums in chronological order and it's crazy how good she's always been and how sophisticated her music has become in such a short time. I really can't wait for her forthcoming sixth album, if Wild Fire is anything to go by it's going to be her best so far.