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Thursday, March 07, 2002

By Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Pop Music Critic

Their reputation may be based on pristine vocal harmonies, but by the time they got to Pittsburgh, decades down the road from Woodstock, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were more impressive for the way they rocked their way through much of last night's hit-filled set at the Mellon Arena.

Three songs in, Graham Nash confided with a smile that just before they hit the stage, "Neil turned to us and said, 'Now, don't forget. Pittsburgh's a great rock 'n' roll town.' "

While I'm sure he says that to the fans in every city, they certainly seemed to be chasing the rock 'n' roll vote, thundering through "Carry On" like Crazy Horse in heat to set the stage for an opening set that found them rocking hard on everything from "Southern Man" to "Almost Cut My Hair" (with an impassioned David Crosby on the mike) to the rollicking version of "Cinnamon Girl" with which they brought the first set to a close.

By "Military Madness," two songs in, Neil Young was terrorizing his guitar, but no one would have known it if they hadn't seen him flailing wildly on what might as well have been an air guitar. The man was nowhere in the mix until much later, after which it was at least a little less impossible to hear what Stephen Stills was drowning out.

Young blamed a faulty cable, joking, "Does Madonna have a cable problem? No. Then, why do we have one?"

The harmonies were better on the quiet stuff, but even then, a few notes would have had to get by on the Neil Young "Ragged Glory" defense. Either way, the unplugged set with which the group returned from intermission was a treat, from "Helplessly Hoping" to Young's "Old Man" to Nash retiring to an upright for a charming tour of "Our House."

After an unplugged set, Even when the band (which featured Booker T. on keys and M.G. bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn) returned, they eased back into rocking, with Young on harmonica as Crosby led the band in yet another ballad, followed by an absolutely breathtaking version of "Harvest Moon" with delicate, achingly beautiful vocals from Young. It was by far, the prettiest the group would sound all night.

But there was still plenty of rocking to come, including Young's "Let's Roll," a "Fame" by way of "Last Child" groove he wrote in response to Sept. 11. By the time they got to "Woodstock," they were rocking even harder than they had on "Southern Man." I never knew that song could rock with such abandon. But it did. And they followed it up with "Eight Miles High" and "Rockin' in the Free World."

If the voices were cleaner and sweeter and tighter at Woodstock, fans would be advised to bear in mind a line that rang truer than ever in a stirring yet ragged performance of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes": "Don't let the past remind you of what we are not now."