Neil Young, Chicago Theatre, Chicago, Illinois

A Monday evening in Chicago would mark the third occasional of me seeing Neil Young, each time as a different iteration of his music, including with his band Crazy Horse in 2003 and with Buffalo Springfield last year. This evening’s performance would be just him on stage. I guess I’ll still need to see him play with Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Our seats were not as good as previous shows that we’ve seen at the venue and would be our first time sitting in the balcony instead of the orchestra. Fortunately, we were fairly low down in the balcony so we still had a decent view of the stage.

Neil had quite a diva setup with him on stage. I’ve never seen so many instruments for a single performer. His initial set up included 8 acoustic guitars, a banjo, a pair of pianos, an organ, and an array of harmonicas. At one point a keyboard was also brought out for him to briefly use as well. I was trying to count how many of them he actually ended up playing. I’m pretty sure he played most of them, though not all. It was a bit difficult to keep track as a stagehand would occasionally rearrange them. The two pianos definitely had a different tonal quality to them, one a more modern grand piano, the other an old upright piano with a more old-timey sound. The same can be said for a couple of the guitars as well, though the majority sounded pretty similar to me. However, several had stories associated with them though, including one given to him by Stephen Stills and another that used to belong to Hank Williams.

The show was quiet and reflective. He did quite a bit of talking – sharing stories, song lyric meanings and contexts, and other thoughts and experiences. The audience seemed like they were happy to hear more. He also made up a little beat poem about Chicago. It ended abruptly, so upon finishing he just waved his hand and everyone cheered. It must be fun to be able to do that. I absolutely love the sound of his voice. It is unique in that it’s relatively high for a man, though not falsetto. It’s not a beautiful, classically trained voice, but there’s just something about it. Furthermore, he’s not a technically superior musician either. Nothing he plays is that complex. His true gift is as a songwriter, and he has many iconic songs to show for it.

He played two, ten song sets followed by a single song encore. Overall the setlist was quite good, a mix of popular songs and rarities such that he mostly played what I was hoping to hear, but there were also several songs that were unique to this show. There was no opening act, so the evening was just one man on stage for a bit under two hours total, including a 20 minute set break which is on the long side, but it wasn’t too bad because the venue was seated. It was definitely a good show to stay seated, the first time I was glad to be in a chair for a show in a while.  He played a few good covers, though I find it interesting that he mostly plays covers for a different reason than most musicians. Most play a cover to give you something familiar to hear or a new interpretation of another’s song. Neil uses his status to bring attention to somewhat forgotten artists that he loves and wants to introduce to his audience.

For better or worse, it was another show for which we were asked not to take pictures. Several times throughout the performance, audience members would yell out a random comment only to be immediately shushed by the rest of the venue.

Set 1:
From Hank to Hendrix
On the Way Home (Buffalo Springfield song)
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Love in Mind
Mellow My Mind
Reason to Believe (Tim Hardin cover)
Someday
Changes (Phil Ochs cover)
Harvest
Old Man
Set 2:
Pocahontas
Cortez the Killer
A Man Needs a Maid
Ohio (CSNY song)
Southern Man
Mr. Soul (Buffalo Springfield song)
If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot cover)
Harvest Moon
After the Gold Rush
Heart of Gold
Encore:
Thrasher