HE'S played here with Booker T & The MGs he's even played here with Pearl Jam. But true Neil Young fans were delighted to see him back with his spiritual compadres, Crazy Horse, and The Point was packed last night with ageing rockers and adolescent rollers, no doubt hoping for some magic from rock's fiery four leafed clover.
The Old Groaner trotted onstage with his troupe of outlaws and belted straight into My My Hey Hey, from Rust Never Sleeps, then continued with Pocahontas, another track from the same album. By the time the band went into the whimsical Roll Another Number, the middle aged rusties must have been high on the nostalgia of it all.
The four horsemen then slipped in two tracks from the new album, Broken Arrow, but since each one was about eight minutes long they hardly went unnoticed. Young utilised the time to toss off numerous guitar solos and, as the band huddled together centre stage, they looked like a ragged chain gang, swinging their pickaxes on a stretch of dusty highway and digging for treasures in the ditch.
But the most precious moment came when Young took the stage alone, strapped on an acoustic guitar and began to pick the plaintive lines on Needle And The Damage Done. A row of candles burned behind him, the pathos dripped from his voice and you just knew this was the brightest the flame would get. Young continued with the encouraging Long May You Run and the sweetly naive Sugar Mountain, and you could almost sense the wide eyed child within the grizzled rocker.
The boys came back for Cinnamon Girl, F***in' Up, Cortez The Killer and Like A Hurricane, then encored with the punky Sedan Delivery, the slow gliding Danger Bird and the thunderous Rockin' In The Free World, but the glory had become a bit ragged by then.
