...Rock and Roll can never die, sang Neil Young to open his performance in Knoxville last night where his solo tour touched down at the Civic Auditorium. He started out with a lovely acoustic set mixing the old and familiar with some new material (at least to me). I have a bunch of Neil Young albums and have never heard him sing and play so beautifully. And he's an even better guitar player than I knew. The sound was crystal clear and perfect.

The set moved on to electric, progressing into a master clinic on grunge. It was loud. Gut thumping, bone crunching, ear bleeding LOUD. The sonic assault was too overwhelming for lots of folks, including the Mrs., but I endured and he rocked the place pretty hard for a one (old) man band. (In an earlier review he reportedly told the audience "Hey, it said solo, not acoustic.") It was a little self-indulgent at times, but I guess he's earned it.

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He used guitar effects trickeration to produce a rich (and did I mention incredibly loud) ensemble-like soundscape. I couldn't figure out how he was doing some of it, including the deep, foundation rattling bass parts, but Factchecker figured it out and explains in his comment here.

One of my favorite moments came when he took a break from the grunge assault to sing After the Gold Rush accompanied by a peculiar looking pump organ of some sort. The melding of the lyrics with the old-timey instrument was surreal, sort of like traveling through a three century dream.

Anyway, it was a real treat to see a living legend and an American treasure (even though he's Canadian, I guess). His presence is restrained but powerful. He stalks the stage with his instruments as he stalks his memories through his songs, and it's pretty amazing to watch and moving at times. (Sorry for the sophomoric rock writer allegory. I am not a rock writer and I don't play one on the internet.)

There wasn't a lot of patter or interaction with the audience beyond some occasional appreciation for the enthusiastic response. At one point, people were hollering out songs and he said "Y'all have some pretty good ideas. Maybe we should put together a focus group."

Neil Young's solo tour continues, with more stops around the South including the Fox Theatre in Atlanta on Saturday, May 29, the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium on Sunday, May 30, and ending the following week with two nights at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. June 1 is sold out, and a limited number of tickets are still available for June 2. Warning: It's LOUD. More info here...

(Disclaimer: we attended last night's performance as guests of AC Entertainment. Thanks, AC!)