Music
Neil Young and Promise of the Real
SSE Hydro, Glasgow
Russell Leadbetter
five stars
NEIL Young's cohorts, past and present, speak highly of his creativity and restless energy. "Most people turn a corner – Neil ricochets," Crazy Horse guitarist 'Poncho' Sampedro observed last year. "He's a nuclear reactor", enthuses one of his current guitarists, Micah Nelson. Watching him over the course of this two-and-a-half-hour-long show, you realised what they mean.
The set-list reflected not just Young's prowess as a songwriter but also the different styles he opts for, from acoustic and mellow to heavy and electric, to borrow Nelson's words. Young opened with four solo songs: After the Goldrush, Heart of Gold, Comes A Time and Needle and the Damage Done. His new backing group, Promise of the Real, including guitarists Micah and his (kilt-wearing) brother Lukas, sons of Willie Nelson, came on to take part in some more Young classics – Peace of Mind, Alabama and Winterlong among them.
Young strapped on his trusty ‘old Black’ Gibson guitar for a long, pulverising version of Down by the River, a song that first saw the light of day in 1969. It has been a regular live highlight of Young’s whenever he has been partnered by Crazy Horse. Here, if anything, it was even more thrilling, Young and Promise of the Real feeding off each other’s energy. The new, younger band seem to have propelled Young to greater heights.
A raucous Mansion on the Hill, Western Hero, After the Garden, and Monsanto Years and Wolf Moon, both from Young’s most recent album, preceded an incendiary, near-25-minute long take on Love and Only Love, the prolonged interplay between Young, the two Nelsons and bassist Corey McCormick being particularly thrilling to watch. Young may have turned 70 but he shows few if any signs of flagging. Nuclear reactor, indeed. The band departed just before 11 before performing an encore, F***** Up. Finally, and only then, were they done.
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