Neil Young was welcomed with great applause as he stepped across the stage on Tuesday evening almost as if he was their savior from the unpleasant snowy conditions outside the Allstate Arena. In return, Young reached as far back as almost forty years to provide a set list packed with many of his classic compositions.
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Neil Young
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 Entertainment
Art
Allstate Arena
Rosemont, Il
December 9, 2008
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Although the area was not a full capacity, Young’s intensity during the opening two songs, “Love And Only Love” and the fuzz stomp of “Hey Hey, My My,” brought out a warm roar from the audience. Young’s band provided all the breathing room he needed on a stage crafted as an early 20th century movie set. Multi-instrumentalists Ben Keith (pedal steel, electric guitar, piano) and Anthony Crawford (electric guitar, backing vocals) served the songs by flushing out the rich, vibrant colors contained in each song. Bassist Rick Rosas and drummer Chad Cromwell crunched out the exclamation point during “Cinnamon Girl.” Along with Crawford on backing vocals, Pegi Young complimented her husband by adding a pop element behind songs like “Old Man” and a new song called “Just Singing A Song.”
At the age of 63, Young’s performance was part exorcist and part prospect miner still trying to reach the center of the Earth. As always, his instrument of choice—the veteran Les Paul Gibson guitar known as Old Black—filled every corner of the area with its wailing force. The kinship between Young and his guitar is one of the true rarities in music. There were several moments during “Powderfinger” in which Young played with a sonic gracefulness that seemed to elevate the song to even newer heights. The flip side to this was the naked ferocity of Young’s guitar arrangements in “Cortez The Killer,” where he wrestled with his guitar as if it were a wild bull thirsty for blood.
The show made a transition as Young stepped behind his pump organ for a solo rendition of “Mother Earth.” Young used this time to give Old Black a break and instead reach for the acoustic guitar. The timeless tale of heroin addiction in “The Need And The Damage Done” brought the crowd to a hush, just one of the several reminders of Young’s strengths as a storyteller.
Although Young experienced a few mental slips with lyrics during the closer “Rockin’ In The Free World” and an encore cover of The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life,” he still delivered his best. And while he can still revisit the past, Young showed signs of looking forward with a small collection of new songs like “Fuel Line” and “Light A Candle” placed in the set. As he tore threw his guitar strings on Old Black, Young concentrated on the lone string still strung, slapping it with his fingers. The buzz saw feedback crying from his amplifiers at the close of “A Day In The Life” was enough warmth to send the fans back winter chill awaiting outside.
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