CSNY - Saratoga Springs, NY 8/19/2006

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

CSNY came to town with their "Freedom of Speech" tour. I'll be honest, I'm really only there to see Neil. Sure, I like the well known CSN hits like "Our House" and "Carry On", but I wouldn't have gone if Neil wasnt there. But I'll give credit to the others for putting their game face on and laying it down. They all performed with great energy and enthusiasm.

The show kicked off at 7:30 and people stayed up on their feet until the final screech of feedback at the end of Rockin' in the Free World at 11:00. They played just about all of Neil's new album, "Living with War:", and I felt the songs were even better live and with the CSN harmonies. And the people all seemed to be really familiar with the new stuff, which is a rarity these days. "The Restless Consumer" was the highlight, with Neil screaming lyrics like a man possessed. I thought he might slow down after his near death scare a couple of years ago. Boy was I wrong.  Stills and Young traded guitar licks and tore the place down with such agression. A couple of times every note fell into place just right and that special thing happened and I got goose bumps. It was that kind of show, where music takes on an almost miraculous quality, like some cosmic power had a hand in it.

Crosby was in great voice for his solo numbers, which featured the usual tired ballads like Triad. Stills played a song called "Old Man Trouble" that I really enjoyed. Nash was great on Chicago and Immigration Man. Yeah, this was a helluva show.

When they got to "Ohio" the concert reached a new level. As they repeated the closing refrain over and over at the end of the song and Crosby started screaming "Why?" , it totally blew my mind.

Then they delivered the knock-out blow. I have heard "Rockin' in the Free World" preformed many times with many different bands supporting Neil, from Crazy Horse to Pearl Jam, and for me the greatest rendition ever was the time he played in on Saturday Night Live. Hell, that might be the greatest performance anyone ever played on television.  For me, that perfomance had never been touched.

That is, until last night.

They launched into the riff and it was like a runaway freight train that chased me through the auditorium, cornered me, had it's way with me,  ran over my genitalia, backed up, and ran over them again. It was like walking into a hurricane. It was that powerful. The crowd  went nuts, to the point that I thought I would begin seeing people's heads exploding from the onslaught of guitars. We expect this from Neil, but CSN were right there with him hammering their guitars without mercy and climaxing simultainously in an orgasm of pure feedback and chaos. The song ran for what felt like 10 minutes, ending with Neil's guitar howling like the angry souls of a thousand dead soldiers demandind justice.

The 11 o'clock venue curfew denied an encore of "Woodstock", but we had had enough anyway. Rain drenched and exhausted, we navigated the foul smelling crowd and back to the car. One hell of a show and surely ranking in my top 5 of all time.

[cta]

Sounds killer Bubba.   CSN&Y were probably the biggest band to lay down radio-friendly songs with protesting undertones.   Supposedly, that sort of thing is becoming "buzz" lately, kicked off by Green Day's American Idiot...but much kudos is owed to CSN&Y in that respect.  And man, I've seen them too.  They ARE LOUD!