Neil Young and Van Morrison at Malahide Castle: Decades on these voices have never sounded better
Neil Young
Malahide Castle, Dublin
★★★★★
It would be remiss not to mention the special guest that prefaced
Neil Young
's show at
Malahide Castle
in
Dublin
, since it was none other than Van Morrison. In what seemed like something of a fever dream, Morrison stomped his way through songs like Cutting Corners, Days Like This, and Crazy Jane on God with some verve.
His voice can shift from confiding to testifying to growling in moments, and his referencing of poets from WB Yeats to WH Auden reminds us how seriously he takes language – all this while telling his stellar band to 'make it funky'.
At one point he also tells them that it's 'endgame' and given that it's Morrison you might think he's referring to Beckett's absurdist tragicomic play, but instead he launches into Summertime in England, another contrarian move, given that it's summertime in Ireland, and as he slopes off the rain starts pouring down.
Returning to the stage for an encore of Gloria, he takes us somewhere fundamental, reminding us of his ability to deal in 'not facts but truths' to borrow from Lester Bangs. Then he is gone as mysteriously as he arrived, wheezing his harmonica all the way.
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Many will recall seeing Morrison and Young in the Martin Scorsese-directed The Last Waltz, a 1976 concert that brought together the Band and several special guests, from Bob Dylan to Muddy Waters – what is striking is that decades on, their voices have never sounded better.
Van Morrison on stage at Malahide Castle. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Neil Young on stage at Malahide Castle playing his set after Van Morrison. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Young strides out with The Chrome Hearts, comprising Spooner Oldham, Micah Nelson, Corey McCormick and Anthony LoGerfo, all great musicians who can read and adapt to Young's slippery brilliance. He sets the tone with Be the Rain, and its tale of 'living in fear of the wrong decisions'. It is one of a number of Crazy Horse songs, with Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) all snarling and sad, and Cinnamon Girl showcasing what a great guitarist he is, bringing us to heavy weather on something like F*ckin' Up, and Love and Only Love.
His influence on bands from Metallica to Nirvana to Fleet Foxes is clear, and this Canadian (like fellow compatriots Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell), has impacted a particular kind of American culture to the point of becoming that culture.
Watching him root around his own history is humbling, from his work with Crosby, Stills & Nash for the swaying Name of Love, and Looking Forward's tentative beauty and talk of 'free-roamin'' souls. Every composition translates to a kind of plea for more tenderness, with Harvest Moon as its devastating manifesto, and the warmly graceful Old Man, a kind of coda.
At one point a keyboard lowers from above, a nod maybe to the celestial nature of this show, which manages to be both familiar and surprising at the same time. Rockin' in the Free World descends on to a devoted audience, and the sentiment of Beckett's Endgame seems to swirl around Young's sensibility, 'the end is in the beginning and yet you go on'. It's inspiring.
Book Club friends from Naas enjoy the view and acoustic over spill from a mound just outside the fencing for the Van Morrison and Neil Young concert at Malahide Castle. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Fans in the crowd as at Malahide Castle. Photo: Alan Betson/ The Irish Times
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