Surrounded by its new training The Chrome Hearts, Neil Young delivered to Paris this July 13, 20é5, a punch, raw and visceral concert. In a minimalist setting, the Canadian icon has chained hypnotic electric sets interspersed with acoustic breathing, between furious solos, telluric groove with a message of love to the planet.
Tonight no giant screens, no videos, no pyrotechnic effects. at the Adidas Arena in Paris. Neil Young has chosen radical sobriety: a simple curtain in the background, struck in capital letters from a “Love Earth”. Everything is said. At 78, the Canadian remains this rough prophet who, guitar in hand, preaches for a fairer world, a message between anger and tenderness. From the opening, Blues ambulance, the tone is set. In a first electric part, the sound is round, heavy, organic. The pieces, stretched over more than ten minutes, install a hypnotic tempo. The rhythmic trio – the bass player Rick Rosas, flexible and leaping like a cat, the drummer Ralph Molina, metronomic and telluric on his big case, and the guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, alternating guitar and synth – forms a compact block, on which Neil Young plays his chords and lets spinning wild and branch solos, tearing the air like a saw. His harmonica resonates in jerks, a hoarse and melodious cry, while Neil alternates the voices on two microphones. One of them, connected to a speaker who oscillates from left to right, makes the point of the singer disturbing, almost prophetic-a sound warning as much as a dramatic effect. SPOONER Oldham stops on its keyboard and sends chords that thicken the groove, as on Be the Rain and When You Dance, I CAN REALLY LOVE, two burning sound where the low -battery combined sound comes to sink the plexus. Cowgirl in the Sand and Cinnamon Girl, taken from Everybody Knows this is Nowhere (1969), take on the appearance of electric rituals. Neil Young, cap screwed on the head, sends his abrasive riffs there like an old sorcerer, while the group runs the measurements to the trance. On Fuckin ‘Up, the public takes over a raging refrain in unison, almost punk in energy.
The second part offers breathing. Alone, Neil Young returns to the acoustic guitar to Southern Man, The Needle and the Damage Done and Harvest Moon, where the silence of the room contrasts with the previous fury. Daddy Went Walkin ‘brings a country lightness, before the maestro presents his Hearts chrome – and invites the audience to a rare moment of intimacy. The last electric salvo starts again: Looking Forward (from the CSNY era) and Sun Green, tribute to the environmental activist, are all manifests. On Like A Hurricane, a keyboard slowly descends from the hangers, operates a pendulum movement, while Neil Young throws himself in an endless, heartbreaking solo, which ends in low-cost duo. The arena trembles. Just before the recall, Neil climbs on a podium where an organ for Name of Love (CSNY) sits, whispers “Can you do it in the name of love?”, Then takes the guitar for Old Man, a suspended moment when time seems to freeze. For the recall, the Songwritter grabs his black Gibson. The room explodes: Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black). “Rock and roll can never die”. The “Love Earth” curtain fades in the spirits, replaced by a certainty: Neil Young is still there, more shamanic and incandescent than ever.
Jean-Christophe Mary
Jean-Christophe Mary
Electric set:
Ambulance Blues
(Neil Young)
Cowgirl in the Sand
(Neil Young & Crazy Horse)
Be the Rain
(Neil Young & Crazy Horse)
When You Dance, I Can Really Love
(Neil Young)
Cinnamon Girl
(Neil Young & Crazy Horse)
Fuckin’ Up
(Neil Young & Crazy Horse)
Acoustic set:
Southern Man
(Neil Young)
The Needle and the Damage Done
(Neil Young)
Harvest Moon
(Neil Young)
Daddy Went Walkin’
(Neil Young)
Electric set:
Looking Forward
(Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
Sun Green
(Neil Young & Crazy Horse)
Love to Burn
(Neil Young & Crazy Horse)
Like a Hurricane
(Neil Young
Name of Love
(Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
Old Man
(Neil Young song)
Rappel :
Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
(Neil Young & Crazy Horse)
