Review of the Moment: Neil Young’s transcendent blast of blasphemous glory | therecord

Neil Young
11/10 Seattle, WA – Key Arena
Photo Gallery by Jay Blakesberg
(Click photo to enlarge)

The Concert Review of the Moment is from Neil Young’s transcendent blast of blasphemous glory | therecord by Joel Rubinoff:

Like some prehistoric beast rising from the primordial sludge, Crazy Horse — Neil Young’s distortion-drenched back-up band — didn’t so much overpower the Kitchener Auditorium Tuesday night, they oozed over it: slowly, deliberately, until every nook and cranny of the cavernous concert hall shook with their hamfisted fury.

At the helm, of course, was their flannel-shirted leader, a renegade ‘60s folk rocker turned punk prototype turned Godfather of Grunge turned, at 67, into the Glowering Grandpa of Garage Rock.

But why are they here? I wondered, gazing at the raft of 20 and thirty-something faces huddled on the floor, peering expectantly at the stage.

What could these indie-minded granola kids and post-hippie grunge rebels possibly see in this scowling geezer, whose biggest hit, Heart of Gold, was four decades ago?

And then the great lumbering beast opened fire with its first feedback-packed salvo — Ragged Glory’s Love and Only Love — and it suddenly made sense: Neil Young, a Woodstock veteran who never gave up the promise of his youth, has somehow defied the aging process.

Not physically, with his double chin, baggy eyelids and balding pate. But deep inside, where it counts. In his soul.

More on Neil Young’s transcendent blast of blasphemous glory | therecord by Joel Rubinoff.

Also, see more reviews of Neil Young & Crazy Horse at Kitchener, ONT - Memorial Auditorium.

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