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Neil Young with the Promise of Reality
Summer Festival of Quebec City, Quebec
Priced Friday
Once an artist reaches a certain age, one does not get stuck. do not expect many things to do. At 72, Neil Young did everything and saw everything.
But on Friday in Quebec, on a gigantic stage overlooking a vast public that extended as far as the eye could see along the historic battlefield of the Abraham Plains, the legend of Canadian rock seemed just as fanned that young noses his support group, Promise of the Real. This is the group formed by singer-songwriter Willie Nelson, Lukas Nelson; On Friday, another son, Micah Nelson, joined the training.
Collaboration with the offspring of his old friend is not new – Young recruited them about three years ago to serve as a support group and they have already recorded a handful of albums together. They knew the idiosyncrasies of their boss, obviously as a result of a mantra that forced them to play hard and keep an eye on the ball.
For Neil, the full show was a departure from this summer's solo tour. As usual, he dug early and focused on the music, not showing much emotion except for the pleated forehead under his hat framing a look of intense and deliberate concentration. In a plaid shirt and jeans, he looked at the microphone, attacked his guitar and stomped on the pedals as he crushed insects. Towards the end, however, once he knew that they had made their mark, Young began to show some signs of relief.
"It's my first time here, I can not believe it," he said, quickly adding a warning of personal disapproval. "Either that or I do not remember not (because) I'm too old. "
No, Neil, you're right: In the 51 years that the Quebec City Summer Festival has devoted to the provincial capital for a period of 10 days, Young has never honored his stages, among them the Rolling Stones, Metallica and Elton John, to name but a few of the international superstars that have allowed the festival to grow to the point where it has grown. It now attracts more than a million visitors each year.
(When a crowd of 50,000 people is considered "small", you know it's a festival that makes the Bluesfest of Ottawa, for example, was a little weak, for example, and Friday's attendance was estimated at more than 80,000, probably more than the first four days. Combined.)
However, it was high time for Young to take a tour of the largest self-supporting stage in North America, and he took the opportunity to weave a message for all of humanity. He and the boys jumped in on the occasion with a fierce version of Like an Inca, from his often overlooked 1982 Trans album. With his insistent chorus, he reads as an edifying narrative, topical at the time of Trump: "Why should we worry about a little pimple / Being pushed by someone?" that we do not even know about? "
F-kin's Up, who wore such a visceral growl that he might as well have been dedicated to the American president, even though it was not the case. It was the same for Cortez's new urgency for the killer and his sweet and sad reflection on the destruction by a man of a people and his land.
The heroic Rockin 'In The Free World' unfolded, appropriately enough, in front of a thousand points of light emanating from the official FEQ pins worn by almost everyone in the crowd . The hillside twinkled with dots of red light as the group snuggled against them and Young insisted on a phrase from the third verse, "Keep Hope Alive."
Switching to the Acoustic Guitar, Young made his most obvious political statement of the night, not to rage angrily for a change but with the sweet and melodic I Am A Child, dedicated to families separated under Trump's immigration policy. "Here's a song for all kids," says Young, "all kids in cages everywhere."
This melody is found in Lotta Love ("It's going to take a lot of time to change the way things are") in front of Willie's boys everyone had a chance in the honor.
Lukas sang his song, Turn Off The News, which suggests building a garden instead of watching the news, while Micah indulged in his triumphant The Ocean.
The last part of the show – which took us to 23:30, after the curfew in Ottawa – featured a thorny Down By The River, with Micah on a weird keyboard and wonderful swaying on the rafters. -Busting Like A Hurricane, an angry world and the classic Hey Hey My My. By then, it was clear that the torch had been passed from Crazy Horse, Young's support group, to the next generation. With Promise of the Real on stage, rock'n'roll roll is indeed unlikely to die.
(POTR also proved itself in an opening set in the early evening that showed the band's range, striking straight-up, rock-driven guitar tunes, with a blanket of Paul's diamonds Simon on the soles of his shoes found Lukas picking afro-pop guitar lines cascading with a sure hand).
Back at the main event, where the reminder was the acoustic Harvest Moon, Young's shredded harmonica sliced the autumn freshness in the air, followed by the singalong pothead , Roll Another Number (for the road).
On the giant screens that frame the scene, you could see Young's smile against the powerful reaction of the crowd. "Crazy shit," he said, at least twice, before tying his arms to his comrades, and bouncing with them all with delight.
Obviously, the thrill of delivering an epic show – in its own words – never goes away.
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