Neil Young & Crazy Horse Kick Up A Rock n' Roll Storm During Rainy New York Show

Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Love Earth tour, their first trek in a decade, rolled through New York City's Forest Hills Stadium on Tuesday (May 14) for the first of two shows at the charming outdoor venue.

Unlike almost every rock legend from his era, Young doesn't rely on fireworks, lights or even video screens to captivate audiences. The iconoclastic rocker and longtime Crazy Horse collaborators — who also include co-founders Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot — take the stage with nothing but bare rock n' roll (not to mention some of the greatest songs ever written ) to kick the crowd on its ass.

“What is your favorite planet?” Young yelled several times during the show, prompting the fan to call back, “Earth!” Perhaps as a tribute to one of her most vocal supporters of rock n' roll, Mother Earth provided some visual theater for Young and Crazy Horse's outdoor set, creating dramatic storm clouds that looked straight out of a JMW Turner painting. Of course, nothing better complements the tumultuous “Like a Hurricane” than an angry sky.

Young said the band rehearsed for 23 days before the tour, and it clearly paid off. Musically, Young and Horse were as compatible and incendiary as ever, laying down acoustic odysseys like “Cortez the Killer” and “Powderfinger,” piercing the blunt beat of “Cinnamon Girl,” and feeding off each other during dismantling the oil industry. Vampire Blues”. (Speaking of “Cortez,” the new release from Young and Crazy Horse, Dumeis a 1975 reissue Zuma using material from those sessions, Young paid tribute to that album's producer, the late David Briggs, during the show, saying: “We like to think of him – he kind of tickles us.”)

It's almost shocking to see Young, who survived a brain aneurysm in 2005 and turns 79 this year, sounding just as ferocious and deft on guitar as he did on recordings from the '70s. Close your eyes on the Love Earth tour and you could almost believe you're listening to 1979 Live Rust. Hell, if you open your eyes (and ignore the numerous black and white heads) you could mistake it for that era – after all, Young and Crazy Horse are still kicking around the same giant amps from Rust never sleeps season at every show on this tour.

The rain didn't put a damper on the evening, but unfortunately, some sound issues did. During Young's solo acoustic part towards the end of the set, the sound cut out completely during “Human Highway”. when he returned, Young playfully restarted the song, only to abandon it again. He made the right choice to go ahead, bring out the full band and tackle “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” — but alas, the sound issues persisted. As the sound faded in and out on this cataclysmic rocker, it was almost like listening to a vinyl record using a sound system on the fritz. one moment the noise level hits you, the next all you can hear is the tiny sound of the needle jolting over the record groove.

Undeterred, Young and Crazy Horse returned for a no-fuss encore that treated the audience to a frenetic “Sedan Delivery” and a cathartic “Rockin' in the Free World.” It's been a long time since Neil was young, but with Crazy Horse by his side, you can almost believe him on “Powderfinger” when he sings, “And I just 22.”