Concert review: Energized by new protest songs, CSNY rocks Concord By Tony Hicks CONTRA COSTA TIMES Outrage is a good thing. No matter how deeply some '60s musical rebels have sunk into self-parody in subsequent decades, it's always good to see a group -- any group -- rediscover its passionate voice and focus it intensely on something that really matters.
Not that David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young together (with Young, anyway) got too old in the '80s and '90s. But, at times, the foursome definitely resembled an old-timers act specializing in teaching one's children how people used to sit down, play guitars and sing those things called harmonies.
Flash forward to 2006, and, while they might be outraged if you suggested this to their faces, President Bush and the Iraqi War have been a godsend to these guys. The quartet, playing the Sleep Train Pavilion at Concord on Tuesday, was more focused, energized and outraged than they've been in a long time.
Egged on by Young's best new material in years, the recently released CD "Living With War" -- without which all the flag flying and soldier videos shown on Tuesday might have come off as shtick -- the four old friends made a passionate argument -- not just about politics but about rock music's potential as conduit for outrage.
All that passionate was, of course, balanced out some by the fact that with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, you still have four big egos all trying to sell their own records. And sometimes their show drags in the name of giving everyone their due. That's just business. It's the trade-off for being able to see these four guys on stage at the same time. You live with hearing some less-than-stellar material to get to the big moments later.
Though CSNY clearly make Neil Young better musically, Young is still the group's engine -- and that has never more evident than on this tour. They played eight of 10 songs from Young's new record, making those songs even better by adding three more voices and fully embracing the idea that CSNY can deliver Neil Young material live better than anyone else.
That they were so enthusiastic about owning Young's new songs showed not only that any past rancor between the four musicians has vanished, but that they know a good cause and good songs when they hear them.
Playing for about three hours, aside from a break, they went right into Young's "Flags of Freedom." Solid and plain visuals were on display all night. No lasers for these guys. Peace signs, world flags, videos of flag-draped coffins and soldiers fighting their way through the desert were the backdrop all night. It wasn't subtle. Nor was their point. The harmonies aren't what they once were, but that was more than made up for in the effort.
By fourth song "Long Time Gone," they were locked in a tight groove, demonstrating they can make their point while almost unconsciously building a song up, ripping it down, and building it back up with ease. This was especially so when Young's mad whammy bar guitar screeching pushed Stills to up the ante on his own playing. Watching the two of them challenge each other is almost a rock cliche, but that doesn't make it any less fun. They're like bobbing, weaving conjoined twins, locked in a family fight each night in which they can only scream and make-up with guitars.
Young's presence boosted songs like Nash's "Military Madness," which fell into the evening's anti-war theme, but would've otherwise lacked punch.
They then rocked through the first four songs of Young's new record: "After the Garden," "Living With War," a passionate "Restless Consumer," and a chugging "Shock and Awe."
There were a few momentum breakers in the show, mostly during solo material from Stills and Nash. During the concert's second half, there was so much shuffling -- with Crosby and Nash trading songs with Stills and Young. It was like watching two acts -- though seeing everyone back each other up on Nash's "Our House," and Young's "Only Love" sort of confirmed that whole brotherhood thing with these guys. But there were still a few speed bumps that they, luckily, washed out with a big finish.
Erecting a large prop microphone with a yellow ribbon, to the strains of Jimi Hendrix's version of the "Star-Spangled Banner," CSNY abandoned all pretenses toward show's end, getting back to slamming the war and the government. Young had the crowd yelling the lyrics to the oh-so-subtle "Let's Impeach the President," followed by "For What it's Worth," "Chicago/We Can Change the World," and a stomping-good "Ohio." The set ended with a huge version of "Rockin' in the Free World," including an exhausting, Young-orchestrated five-minute train wreck of noise at the end.
The encore, "Woodstock," kept the vibe and was a nice warm-down. It was like walking off the end of a hard run.
