SANTA BARBARA BOWL
Neil Young + the Promise of the Real took over the Santa Barbara Bowl on Saturday, October 10, and gave the show of the summer, if not the entire year. Returning to one of his favorite historical haunts and aided by the catalytic Promise of the Real (with Willie Nelson’s sons Lukas and Micah),Young seemed to have the energy often (69-year old) men. Young and crew performed for over three hours straight; finishing with the in-your-face, rollicking Ragged Glory cut F@*cking Up (the24th song of the evening). Rebel Content Tour indeed. Given the energy expended at the Bowl (and on all the other nights of his tour), it’s hard to believe that Young will turn 70 next month Long live Neil Young!
The show featured songs spanning virtually the entirety of Young’s career, and opened with Young on solo piano and singingA fter The Gold Rush, updated to lament Mother Nature still being on the run “in the 21st Century.”
Throughout the night Young’s signature harmonica playing would particularly strum the heart-strings of the audience. The crowd-singing was also impressive here and on the subsequent, still-stirring My My Hey Hey and Helpless. Introducing the elegiacMother Earth(which he played on pump organ), Young exclaimed “Welcome to California ladies and gentlemen!”
ThePromise of the Real then joined Young on stage, and they performed a full-band set of acoustic songs that included favoritesHold Back The Tears, Out on the Weekend, Unknown Legend,Only Love Can Break Your Heart, and the newWolf Moon.
Thereafter, it was all electric, all the time, and all electrifying. Young and crew kicked off this segment with an emphatic, damning Words (Between the Lines of Age). With his white Gretsch in hand,Young has never sounded better (early-on his vocals reflected his lines of age). And the Promise of the Real sang scintillating harmonies while playing with aplomb throughout the night (along with Nelson, brother Micah Nelson on guitar/keyboards, drummer Anthony Logerfo and bass player Merlyn Kelly were on fire the entire set). Lukas Nelson traded organic and invigorating riffs with Young throughout the night, and Young seemed to gather much from his young cohorts, frequently circling with them to compound the sound. They followed up with a slamming Alabama before Young yielded the stage toNelson on solo piano to beautifully sing September Song, theKurt Weill chestnut that his father, Willie,made famous again.
And then Young brought outOld Black(his famous Les Paul electric) and the band tore into captivating activist songs off of the new, political albumThe Monsanto Years. Give Young credit; while many have given up, he’s still fighting the fight in songs, deeds and seeds (which he handed out later, while decrying the new California “three-mile seed transport rule”). In the process,Young called out Monsanto, Starbucks, and Clarence Thomas, among others. Even if you don’t agree with his politics, you’ve got to respect his energy and commitment to causes. The Promise of the Real was in full flight during this segment, cavorting and jumping around the stage, and rallying Young to new heights. The best summation of the night might be the title of Young’s self-rallying song, I Won’t Quit. That song sang volumes about Young this night.
Included within this segment was as rocking a version of Down By The River as has ever been heard, followed by the roadhouse-styled rockerTime Fades Away, and a timeless and affecting Everybody Knows This is Nowhere. Somewhere along the way,Young handed out personally-packaged (“I recognize that handwriting; what a wonderful girl”) organic seeds from his “magic basket.”
As usual, Young ended by tearing the roof off the joint but also the strings from Big Black. That’s when you know a Neil Young show is over. It was a show for the ages and will be remembered forever by all who attended. Again, long live Neil Young!
A version of this review was also published in The Lefort Report.
