CSNY 9/6 Review

CSNY @ Marcus Amphitheatre, Milwaukee - 9/6/06

If the exchange for Wednesday night's three and a half hours of music is a brief jaunt through one of Milwaukee's lesser districts...I will accept the terms every time. The tickets clearly stated that the show would start at 7:30 and, at that very moment, I was engaged in a futile effort to get directions from a gas station attendant who had clearly chased his dragon to its bitter, warped end. Following the route offered by our new brainbatterfried friend led to three consecutive dead ends...an ultimate decision to just move on in the direction that we guessed the lake would be turned out to be a surprisingly fruitful strategy.
We arrived in time to have missed about 5 songs but it is impossible to be at all angry when four icons of music are playing their songs in lieu of pooping themselves (though, in David Crosby's case, adult diapers may already be in ful use). We found what appeared to be our seats and started settling into 'After the Garden' from Neil's newest record when some old bastard told us those were 'his seats & his kids would be coming back soon.' Not wanting any trouble, we simply took a couple other empty seats at the end of the row. It wouldnt be until intermission that we learned those first seats were in fact our own and we would have to ask the aged fools to go find their own actual spots. Three more songs from that same new disc of would follow...the title track, 'Living With War, 'Restless Consumer', and 'Shock & Awe'. As is apparently the case on most stops of this tour, some attendees drank to the point of confusion where they truly believed they were commentators on a Fox News Channel program. One guy, who must have bought his ticket by somehow mistaking Neil Young for Kenny Rogers, yelled something like, "You suck Neil!", in a voice marred by chewing tobacco and a few too many Miller Lites. Older music followed with 'Wounded World' from Stephen Stills' solo catalogue, David Crosby belting out lead vocals for 'Almost Cut My Hair' for a sea of marking out retired hippies, and Graham Nash's 'Immigration Man'. The retards must have already passed out in time for another new Neil song, 'Families', as there were no slurred confused remarks made at a loud shrill pitch. Or, maybe, there was just no room for a classic jab at dissent like 'Why do you hate the troops?' after a song with lyrics like-

I'm goin' back to the USA
I just got my ticket today
I can't wait to see you again
In the USA.

The first set, and our stint in the incorrect seats, ended with a fierce run through the classic 'Deja Vu'. There would be no opportunity for booze replenishing during the break...the herd of old people in need of drink was moving at far too slow a pace to consider getting in line.

The second set was Homer epic. Incredible harmonizing on 'Helplessly Hoping'...Nash taking the piano spotlight for 'Our House' then handing off that lime for Neil Young's 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart'...Crosby and Nash turning their throats and lung remnants back to the glory days for some stellar 'Guinnevere' crooning...and Graham Nash playing 'Milky Way Tonight' for the "full moon over Milwaukee", though it's been on the setlist all summer anyway. Neil Young and Stephen Stills, still holding plenty of that old Buffalo Springfield vibe, gave their audience plenty to smoke about with 'Treetop Flyer'. There was more emotional respect for the American Soldier with more new Neil material, 'Roger and Out', and a large painting of a Vietnam-era helmet on the big screens. A run of older material flowed with Crosby/Nash leading through 'Southbound Train', Stephen Stills grabbing some heavy blues histrionics for 'Old Man Trouble', all four harmonizing for 'Carry Me' and 'Teach Your Children', and a soaring 'Southern Cross'. A somber 'Find the Cost of Freedom', with its intricate four-part harmony, played with the faces of American heroes who died in Iraq on the screens.
The four should-be exhausted rockers took a breather as a recording Jimi Hendrix's fierce Star Spangled Banner from Woodstock played to flags on the tvs. Refreshed, Neil (and his 'Presidential FlipFlops' as seen on the Colbert Report) led the band and crowd through 'Lets Impeach the President'...which is a song that doesn't sound nearly as hokey live as it does on the record. The Buffalo Springfield almni jammed 'For What Its Worth', possibly the most iconic song of the late 1960s. Graham Nash reached deep into his archives of protest for 'Chicago (We Can Change the World)'. A reminder of how much worse America can be when it wholly ignores its foundation of freedom was provided by Neil's scorching 'Ohio'. David Crosby lashed at those sad leaders in the Nixon/Cheney vein on 'What Are Their Names?' The show would reach its end about fifteen minutes later following an insanely powerful 'Rockin in the Free World' that required a new, healthier replacement guitar for Neil Young about ten minutes in. It was pure grunge fury, alive and well in this age of fog-hidden ideals.
The herd of oldsters leaving the amphitheatre was as slow as expected...and the cars leaving town moved as though the interstate was a coutnyfair mainstreet parade...none of that mattered in the glow of those three and a half hours.