Okee dokee folks… Legendary folk-rocker, Neil Young, brought his new band, The Chrome Hearts, and his Love Earth Tour to the Bank New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford on Thursday, August 21, for the only New England date of the tour. Young debuted the Chrome Hearts at last year’s Farm Aid concert in Saratoga, NY. The band is remnants of The Promise of the Real-Corey McCormick and Anthony Logerfo and regular collaborator, Micah Nelson with the addition of legendary session keyboardist and songwriter, Spooner Oldham, to round out the line-up.
Out on the concourse of the pavilion there was the Neil Young Global Village that consisted of several booths that distributed information about climate and social justice causes. Young’s own merch incorporated messages of social and climate issues.
The night was beautiful and folks were enjoying beverages and food outside of the pavilion so the show started about 15-20 minutes late to allow more of the seats to be filled for the StopShopping Choir with Reverend Billy. This set was truly inspirational. Reverend Billy leads the group in a gospel, revival-esque sermon and performance that focuses on loving the Earth. He decried “Earth-lelujah": several times in his “earth-evangelist” manner. It was quite entertaining as well as uplifting.
Young and the Chrome Hearts took the stage around 8:40 and began the show with the lengthy “Ambulance Blues”, The crowd cheered at the ending refrain “You're all just pissin' in the wind”. They went right into “Cowgirl In The Sand” from his second album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. This song demonstrated that the 79 year old Young can still jam. After the song Neil said, “It’s a great place you have here” and then kept it rocking with “Cinnamon Girl”. I’m glad that you’re all here to take care of each other” he exclaimed after that song. The crowd cheered.
Young TRIED to tell the story of how he received a phone call about a guitar that he had when he was in the band The Squires but had sold it in the 60’s. Someone rudely yelled “play music” and a seemingly frustrated Young went into “Mr. Soul”. I researched the story and found that the guitar he was indeed playing during “Mr. Soul” was THAT guitar, a natural, hollow body Gretsch, he started to talk about.
The show was filled with fan favorites and some deeper cuts such as “Sun Green” from the Greendale album. That song featured Neil singing through an oscillating megaphone. The two hour set included other numbers such as “Southern Man”, “Like A Hurricane”, “New Mama”, “Daddy Went Walkin’”. The set wrapped with the apropos, “Old Man”. After the obvious ovation that followed and a group bow around Spooner’s keyboard they played “Hey, Hey, My, My”. As the notes from the guitars resonated in the speakers Neil and Micah tore the strings from their guitars and set them down to ring out and feedback. He commented, “Take care of each other, especially now”.
The Chrome Hearts band is a great fit for Neil Young with the youthful energy of Micah, Corey and Anthony and the legendary keyboard playing of Spooner. At 79 years old Neil is showing no signs of slowing down. He can still folk and rock. His voice can be a bit rough at times but it always was. His guitar playing shows that he is still one of the best around. The band recently came in from the busy European leg of the Love Earth tour that began in mid June and doesn’t conclude until the end of September. Neil may be an old man but he is still young at heart! Ba-da-boom!
That’s it for now. You can listen to my podcasts at motifri.com/rootsreportpodcast and find my concert photographs (photos from the Neil Young show) at motifri.com/fuzeksfotos. Thanks for reading and listening. johnfuzek.com
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