Kiwis go full blast as Young guns
Raucous celebration of the joy and power of great songwriting and very loud guitars
Designed to mark the 40th anniversary of Neil Young’s classic album Live Rust, Friday night’s show at Auckland’s Civic became more than just a tribute to Young’s work — it was also a raucous celebration of the joy and power of great songwriting and very loud guitars.
A group of top Kiwi musos, including Shihad’s Jon Toogood, Liam Finn and The Phoenix Foundation’s Sam Scott, all got their chance to channel the great man — with a nice mix of fresh inspiration and accurate recreation.
Before cracking into the full Live Rust setlist, the packed-out Civic was treated to a set of Young career classics, starting in his Buffalo Springfield days.
It opened with a surprise — the lovely harmonies of Expecting to Fly, backed with a string section.
Delaney Davidson brought some early blues bite to Mr Soul, Sean Donnelly (aka SJD) reached for the high notes and vulnerability of Don’t Let It Bring You Down, Dianne Swann of The Bads delivered a heartfelt Helpless and California-born Auckland singer Reb Fountain had the punk attitude running through Revolution Blues.
There was some real-world political cut-through with Ohio —
where the line “four dead in Ohio” became “nine dead”.
Scott was the one to most embody Young’s uniquely physical style of performing. He lumbered around, wrangling the guitar’s whammy bar and nailing Young’s trademark “one-note” solos on Down by the River.
The second set followed the Live Rust template closely — down to the giant Fender-amp stage props and white overalls. The set-up was pared back for the early acoustic numbers such as Sugar Mountain and I Am a Child, with nice harmonica
assistance from Davidson.
Liam Finn, Scott and Brett Adams took on guitar-hero duties as the full band cranked into the electric part of the Live Rust show. Trading leads, they reached full flight on
Powderfinger, Hey Hey, My My, Like
a Hurricane and Cortez the Killer. Throughout the show, drummer Chris O’Connor nailed the variety of styles from country swing to all-out rock with crispness and power. Finn captured the bluesy essence
of Tonight’s the Night, ending the Live Rust set with a classic Young-style guitar wig-out, the crowd on its feet.
The band returned for an encore run through of Heart of Gold and an ecstatic Rockin’ in the Free World.
The joy all the musicians took in getting the change to live out their Neil Young dreams was contagious and the variety of performers meant the performance rarely dragged.
The fact that it was a New Zealand show added something — a freshness and vitality. Toogood brought a touch of Kiwi rock to Old Man and some down-to-earth stage banter on his 48th birthday.
In a way, it showed how the music of the great rockers could live on when (God forbid) the originals are no longer with us: A great Neil Young concert, without Neil Young.
Rock’n’roll can never die, mate.