THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 16, 1996 TAG: 9608160596
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: MUSIC REVIEW
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 67 lines
Here's an experiment to try at home.
Pick four Neil Young albums, say, ``Ragged Glory,'' ``Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,'' ``After the Gold Rush'' and ``Rust Never Sleeps.'' Pop them in a CD player and press random.
Bingo! Whatever plays, every song's a winner: ``Love and Only Love,'' ``Down By the River,'' ``Tell Me Why,'' ``Thrasher.''
Without question the most uncompromising visionary artist of his and - three decades down the road - this generation, Young can stick a thumb anywhere in his catalog and pull out a plum.
Same goes in concert.
With longtime compadres Crazy Horse - guitarist Frank ``Poncho'' Sampedro, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina - behind him, Young lays down a sonic boom that his studio recordings only begin to approach. And that reedy tenor, soaring through the fury . . .
Which means his concert Thursday at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater was a no-lose deal. He couldn't possibly play everything everyone wanted to hear; on the flip side, no one in the pitifully small crowd could argue with what he did.
Not to knock Jimmy Buffett, who sold out the place Wednesday, or James Taylor, who'll play to some 15,000 tonight, but it defies logic that Young wouldn't bring in the same numbers. The 8,000 who did come out were treated to the best that rock 'n' roll can offer.
Dressed in a faded T-shirt and baggy shorts, Young jump-started the evening with a torrid run through ``Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)'' and ``Pocahontas,'' both off his 1979 classic ``Rust Never Sleeps.''
After that, the sky was the limit: ``Like a Hurricane,'' ``Cinnamon Girl'' and ``Powderfinger.''
But for all their thunder, the evening's most effective moments came 40 minutes into the set, when Young picked up his acoustic guitar and, alone onstage, reached back for ``The Needle and the Damage Done,'' ``Heart of Gold '' and ``Sugar Mountain.''
There's a line in ``Big Time,'' the first single off Young's new disc ``Broken Arrow,'' that sums up where he is at this point in his career: ``I'm still living the dream we had, hoping it's not over.'' That dream came to life Thursday night.
Joining Young Thursday were Tempe, Ariz.'s Gin Blossoms and the Ben Folds Five, a piano-bass-drums trio out of Chapel Hill, N.C. The Blossoms' ``New Miserable Experience'' and ``Congratulations I'm Sorry'' provided enough radio-friendly ditties to keep their indistinguished set moving. ILLUSTRATION: Joining Neil Young were Tempe, Ariz.'s Gin Blossoms
and the Ben Folds Five, a piano-bass-drums trio out of Chapel Hill,
N.C.
Neil Young, right, lets another hit fly at his concert Thursday
night at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater. Despite the relatively
small crowd, Young and his band Crazy Horse didn't disappoint. But
for all their thunder, the evening's most effective moments came
when Young picked up his acoustic guitar and, alone onstage, reached
back for ``The Needle and the Damage Done,'' ``Heart of Gold '' and
``Sugar Mountain.''
LAWRENCE JACKSON photos
The Virginian-Pilot
CONCERT REVIEW
Neil Young and Crazy Horse, with Gin Blossoms and Ben Folds Five
Thursday night at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater by CNB