Guest Book

Sounds like a Neil Young show is a pretty good place to be lately..... "Whether rattling the rafters or going quiet, Neil Young wows crowd" November 11, 2007 BY MARTIN BANDYKE FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER Neil Young’s concert at Detroit’s Fox Theatre on Saturday night was a career retrospective divided into two parts — acoustic and electric. Before an enthralled, fist-pumping, air-guitar playing, sold-out crowd, Young began the show on acoustic guitar and sang a heartfelt rendition of “From Hank To Hendrix,” taken from his 1992 album “Harvest Moon.” From there he went even deeper into his catalogue for an incisive take of “Ambulance Blues” from 1974’s “On the Beach.” It was immediately apparent that Young was not in Detroit for just a sentimental, easy-going evening of hits and other familiar tunes. This was a show geared toward aficionados, although even the most casual fans were easily taken in by both Young’s devotion to his craft and his iconoclastic stage design. The Fox’s stage was costumed in a retro and at times surreal style featuring what looked like illuminated letters and numerals from old movie theater marquees, back-in-the-day lighting fixtures and even a red-suited artist cranking out canvases during part of the show. With none other than Bob Seger rooting him on and giving him a number of standing ovations, Young drew some of the loudest cheers of the night in his acoustic set with powerful versions of “After the Gold Rush” and “Harvest,” with the audience joining in on impromptu sing-alongs. He kept the stage patter to a minimum, which didn’t matter a bit to the crowd as they ate up Young’s set-closing “Love is a Rose” and ever-popular “Heart of Gold.” After an intermission Young switched over to electric guitar for the most part and was joined by longtime collaborators Ralph Molina on drums, Rick Rosas on bass and Ben Keith on guitar and keyboards. During this section Young unveiled several tracks from his latest album “Chrome Dreams II,” the best being a 10-minute plus “No Hidden Path,” featuring one of Young’s patented, very extended guitar solos. Swaying his shoulders and stomping his feet, Young cranked out enough blistering, earth-shaking notes out of his guitar to actually dislodge some pieces of old confetti from the rafters above the stage at the Fox. To close out the two-hour plus concert, Young and his band did “Cinnamon Girl” and “Tonight’s the Night,” leaving the crowd utterly sated.