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Tuesday, June 17, 2003

By Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Pop Music Critic

There aren't a lot of classic rockers who could pull off what Neil Young and Crazy Horse pulled off Monday at the Post-Gazette Pavilion, staging a nearly two-hour production with dancers and props of a sprawling concept album that hasn't been released yet.

And the crowd was in their corner for the most part, cheering wildly on occasion and seeing it through to the end, at which point Young delivered on his promise to "dust off a few antiques" when they were through -- a bone-crushing stomp through "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)," a raucous punk-rock drag race through "Sedan Delivery" and an epic farewell jam on "Powderfinger."

Three songs people knew. That's all they played.

But it was brilliant -- hilarious, poignant, impassioned, eccentric and as deeply flawed as any rock 'n' roll as ambitious as "Greendale" (the name of the forthcoming album and film) is bound to be.

The story unfolds -- through songs and Young's bizarre yet hugely entertaining between-song narration -- with the tale of a small-town family whose homespun hippie wisdom ("A little love and affection in everything you do will make the world a better place") can't save them from the hell the devil raises from his quarters in the county jail (where cousin Jed winds up after killing a cop in a routine traffic stop).

It's clearly Young's intention here to use the Greens of Greendale as a narrative device with which to sound off on some bigger issues of the day -- from an oppressive corporate media to a crippled Earth in desperate need of our attention. But the "Greendale" project works best when he sneaks his observations in so that you barely notice.

When the people of Greendale rise up against Grandpa for changing the name of the Double L to the Double E, Young wryly observes that "change comes slow in the country." When the news vans hit the Double E and get in Grandpa's face for a sound bite about the killing, he tells them, "The only good thing about TV is shows like 'Leave it to Beaver,' " then suffers a heart attack "fighting for freedom of silence/trying to stop the media/trying to be anonymous."

It's after Grandpa's heart attack that "Greendale" really starts to suffer from the same "ambition" that led to the deaf, dumb and blind kid in "Tommy" becoming a Pinball Wizard/cult leader. Naming a character Sun Green is corny. Having Sun run off to "save the world for another day" with -- get this -- Earth Brown, that's just too much.

Even then, though, the music behind the ambition is classic Crazy Horse -- reminiscent of "Zuma" and "Ragged Glory," but with actors mouthing all the words.

Lucinda Williams had no props or dancers -- only songs that ranged from Parsons-flavored country-rock to Stones-indebted raunch 'n' roll with awe-inspiring leads from guitarist Doug Pettibone.