Neil Young and Crazy Horse deliver blistering show in Mansfield

Music

In a blistering 2.5 hour-set, the band — who hasn’t toured in over a decade — delivered hit after hit, in what was essentially a Greatest Hits show.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse turned Xfinity Center into Great Woods on Friday night, in all its ragged glory. 

No “Greendale” this. No moody whims. This was for the fans. It could’ve been 1995.

In a blistering 2.5 hour-set, the band — who hasn’t toured in over a decade — delivered hit after hit, in what was essentially a Greatest Hits show. When they’re on (and they were) there is no sound comparable to the unbridled energy of the Horse running with Neil at break-neck speed: that magic, that untamed near-manic energy, whinnying into the night.

Young, 78, original Crazy Horse bassist/singer Billy Talbot, 80, and original drummer Ralph Molina, 80 were joined by newly-minted Horse member pianist/guitarist/singer Micah Nelson, 33, who fits seamlessly into the band.

Willie’s son has clearly been raised in the School of Neil. Looking like a spindly young Shakey on stage — quiet, all flannel and hair in his eyes— he delivered incendiary guitar. 

One highlight: At the end of “F*!#in’ Up,” Nelson took off his guitar, held it to his face and played — or at least created some fuzzy magic distortion— by appearing to rub his head on the strings.

Nelson also played on Neil & the Horse’s latest album — a live version of 1990’s “Ragged Glory,” renamed “Fu##in Up.” The night also included “Ragged Glory” hits “Mansion on the Hill” and “Love and Only Love.”

They bolted from the gate with a “Cortez” you could feel in your bones. Ground-vibrating sonics, with Neil on his guitar Old Black, and a verse he unearthed for this “Love Earth Tour.” (Last month, Young told New Young Archives paid subscribers in a Zoom that he’d “found” some lyrics a couple days ago.”)

The lost stanza paints a vivid scene:  “I floated on the water/ I ate that ocean wave/ Two weeks after the slaughter/ I was living in a cave/ They came too late to get me/ But there’s no one here to set me free/ From this rocky grave/ To that snowed-out ocean wave.”

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Around 6:30 p.m., the temp quickly dropped and the lot was filling fast. The usual lot smells of tailgate dinners, whiffs of pot, and music. I walked into the venue with various Neils (“Tonight’s the Night,” “Harvest Moon”) drifting from car windows.

Inside, a hand-written sign guided fans to “Neil Young Eco Village” — a circle of green tents nestled in a small wooded area, each handing out info, tent-fronts labeled something you’d very much associate with Neil. (“Future Farming,” “Earth Ecology,” “Freedom Justice,” etc.)

Another sign told us we might end up on a documentary. (Amber Jean Productions is documenting the tour.)

Openers Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir took the stage at 7:50 p.m. Then techs in white lab coats moved instruments, as they did throughout the night. Before the main act, one white coat with a yellow measuring tape checked mic heights.

Around 8:33 p.m., the crowd exploded as Young, 78, stepped on stage in patchwork jeans, his signature black “Earth” tee under a flannel, and denim shirt, with a striped train conductor’s cap. He stayed to our right most of the night, with original Horse bassist/vocalist Talbot, 80 —a legend in a straight-up Canadian tuxedo — holding center stage, and a gangly Nelson — all black overalls and flannel shirt— to our left.  Original drummer Molina, 80, and his kit were all but hidden.

There were no Jumbotrons, so the focus was solely on the stage.

In the age of the Sphere — where, like something out of “WALL-E,” the hype and focus is on the distractions on the screen, not the human musicians accompanying the screensaver — it was refreshing to have just a simple black stage and plain backdrop with a silhouette of a running horse.

While Young has been here sans Horse in recent years, that alchemy that was on stage Friday night hasn’t been felt in these parts in over a decade.

“You look a little different than you used to, I see,” Young told the Mansfield crowd at one point, perhaps referring to the decade-plus dry spell. 

Young talked a bit, and smiled throughout the night, at times sipping on a beer during the electric set, and what looked like hot tea during a brief acoustic solo acoustic set with — that ol’ crowd-pleaser — Neil harmonica. 

“Cortez” led into a short and rocking “Cinnamon Girl,” and the fiery “Fu##in Up,” I mentioned above. They pulled back the reins a bit for a slower “Scattered (Let’s Think About Livin’) into “I’m the Ocean” off 1995’s “Mirror Ball” — which I’d never heard live, and fit the theme of the night. (“What’s your favorite planet?” Young asked the crowd at one point.) “Ocean” also had the three of them in one of those classic Horse huddles, guitars almost nuzzling. 

During “Roll Another Number (For the Road)” you could smell that quite a few in the crowd did. “Barstool Blues,” marked the first time the song was played live since 2014, according to setlist.fm, and which had Young grinning like a schoolboy at the end.

“Powderfinger” and “Love and Only Love” were vintage Horse power. Then Neil stepped out solo with harmonica for a short solo acoustic set with harmonica— “Comes a Time,” “Heart of Gold,” and “Human Highway” — all of which had the crowd singing.

The band returned for the final song: “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” which became near explosive by the end, rumbling you could feel in your feet.  The four bowed together, before returning for an encore of “Down by the River,” and “Like a Hurricane.” 

For a band with three members at age 80 or close to it, you couldn’t have asked for more. Young at times took his hands off the guitar. Talbot at times faced Molina on drums, the two of them in their own world. Then he’d turn, and huddle with Nelson and Young.  Young sidling back and forth in his signature bow-legged jam jostle. Some sonic moments all but sparked.

“Rock and roll can never die.” We shouted this together. We brayed into the night with them, stamping and snorting, a band of wild horses frenzied under starlight for more, more, more.   

Lauren Daley is a freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1.