Crosby Stills & Nash Wednesday August 31, 2011 Beacon Theatre NYC

While I was waiting in line at the Crosby & Nash concert in May (here), I heard two guys behind me talking about CSN doing a show at the Beacon.  I had not heard of this, so the next day I did some checking and found they were doing a show, but it was sold out.  I also found out they added an extra date when the first one sold out so fast, so I got a ticket for the second show.  I was happy I got tickets for the second night, because they were not doing a lot of touring and sometimes, the first night after being off for a while can be a bit bad.  Unfortunately because of Hurricane Irene, the first night got moved to November, but I found out my show was fine and was going to happen on the scheduled date.

 

One affect music can have on you is that it can change your mood.  I didn’t really feel like going to the show and I didn’t know why.  I almost wanted my show to be postponed too, but I dragged myself to the 5:50 train that got me into the city for 7:18.  Kind of cutting it close I know, but I just felt blah.  After a shuttle ride and a few subway stops uptown on the 3, I got there with about 15 minutes to kill.  I usually get to concerts too early and have to wait around for a long time.  After I found my seat, row C, which is actually 7 rows from the stage, I started to perk up.  The show started about 8:10.  The song that came on before they walked out was a Mark Knopfler song.  It’s good to see that fellow musicians like him too. 

The stage went dark and they didn’t come out for about thirty seconds so there were some cat calls.  CSN finally walked out and strapped on their guitars.  Graham Nash had a new guitar (new meaning I have not seen him play it before), it was a red Gibson SG.  Stephen had one of his old Strats on (probably from the 50s).  David Crosby did his usual “hello” and was singing a bit, most likely he does this to check that his monitors were on.  Stephen started the guitar riff for Woodstock while David was still singing “Hello.”  Stephen was a bit rough around the edges all night.  I love the guy and think he’s one of the best guitar players out there, but he has not been able to sing for a while now.  It’s not a shot at him, but it sounds like he has a combination of marbles and cotton in his mouth and just took a hit of Novocain before coming out on stage.

After Woodstock, Graham Nash thanked us and welcomed us.  He then announced they were going to do the entire show in memory of their friend Ahmet Ertegün.  Further research would find he was the former president and founder of Atlantic Records who passed away because of a fall sustained backstage at the Beacon Theatre before a Rolling Stones concert in 2006. 

After the opening lines of Military Madness, I knew this would probably be very similar to the Tanglewood show I saw 364 days prior on September 1, 2010.  I could tell this was a ‘one off’ where they were just meeting their contractual obligations because when Stephen Stills would come out to the lip of the stage and play a monster guitar solo, he was in the dark, they didn’t have a follow spot.  Don’t get me wrong, the show was amazing, but it’s these little details that not everyone notices that are what makes blogging about a concert interesting and fun for me.  Plus my public would be let down if I let things like this slip through the cracks.  Graham substituted the line he used to say about Bush for the current president, “I hope Obama discovers, what’s driving the people wild.”  Graham used to say “I hope Bush remembers what’s driving the people wild.”  There is still hope for the President.    

Stills started Long Time Gone.  Crosby sang this with vim and vigor.  He just recently celebrated his 70^th birthday, and is like Oprah with his weight.  Last year at Tanglewood, he was huge, but tonight he was healthy looking again.  Graham quipped “not bad for ninety year olds.”  That got a rousing reception and Graham got out his cowbell, so I knew Bluebird was up.  Stills and Nash sang together, Stills was a bit rough, but made up for the vocals by playing the hell out of his Fender® Strat during the solo.  His vocal solo for the bridge “look at all those blues…” was yet again undistinguishable.  He really sings with soul and energy to compensate though.  CSN, with a combined age of 205, really still have the energy for the rock ‘n roll lifestyle.  The missing lyrics “do you think she loves you…” were added, most likely an offshoot of when The Buffalo Springfield reunited for the mini tour earlier in the year.  After the final guitar solo, Stills gave the band a 1, 2, 3, 4 count to come back in.  Stephen was really on fire.

Graham announced that the first time they ever recorded as CSN was at the Record Plant in NYC in December of 1968.  David added another old age joke “which most of you know was right after the civil war.”  That got a laugh as they started a song that was brought back after a semi-retirement.  Marrakesh Express chugged along and Stephen fudged the solo a bit, maybe because it’s been over a year since they played this song?  Graham was playing his signature Martin acoustic guitar and Stills was playing his jumbo arch top he usually slings for this song.  Crosby’s son James Raymond plays the “guitar/train” sound from the record on his piano with help from his Macbook and maybe Garageband (just speculating)? 

Graham quipped that they “have so many bloody songs we could be here for a week.”  Stephen replied “that’s the plan.”  Then David remarked about how he has been ‘living’ at the Beacon recenlty.  He saw Steely Dan and he played with the Gregg Allman and then said the Beacon is one of his favorite rooms.  There was such camaraderie between the Crosby Stills and Nash throughout the evening. 

Stephen got on his signature White Falcon guitar (I own one), so I knew it was time for Southern Cross.  He did an admirable job singing the vocal line.  Some lines were slurred, but most of it was clear.  Crosby was once again too high in the mix for my liking.  James Raymond was heard singing in his high voice smoothing out any blending problems between CSN.  Stephen Stills is embarking on a solo tour while Crosby and Nash tour Europe this fall.  I got my tickets for the Tarrytown Music Hall, a really cool place in the heart of Westchester.  He is also playing the Wolf’s Den at Mohegan Sun Casino.  It’s like a small club in the middle of the casino where a lot of big names play for free.  The solo in the middle was played by Graham and Stephen and was perfect.

During the dedication for the next song, Graham said it was going out to the preacher who burned the Koran in Florida.  People were chuckling and booing and Graham said he should be booed, “20 people died because of that fucker.”  In Your Name is a little prayer about the millions of people who have been killed in the name of religion. 

CSN is still very political, Barrel of Pain was a song from No Nukes.  There were activists walking around the lobby handing out paraphernalia about the dangers of nuclear energy before the show started.  Graham commented on how they hadn’t sung this song for about 30 years (except recently at the MUSE concert, with Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt).  Next up was Long May You Run, no mention of Neil Young though.  During the verse “maybe the Beach Boys have got you down…” Stills extended his arms and pretended to be riding a wave.  It was quite funny and uncharacteristic of him. 

Déjà Vu was its usual ten minute jam session, including the harmonic solo from Graham.  Wooden Ships was up next.  You can tell they are going to play that by the way Stills starts the count off with his muted striking of the strings on his guitar.  Stephen beat the shit out of that guitar, playing a great solo in the dark (see above about the spot operator).  After Wooden Ships Graham announced they would take a 15 minute break (that was actually 21). 

After the intermission, CSN came out and played a well harmonized version of Helplessly Hoping, a classic Stills penned song.  Next up was a surprise.  Just a Song usually gets alternated with Marrakesh Express.  They rarely play both of them at the same concert.  As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of my favorite songs of all time.  At the Foxwoods concert in 2009 Graham explained that his friend bet him a 100 bucks that he couldn’t write a song before he went.  Graham wrote it and won the 100 bucks, and he said the hundred bucks was framed and hung over his toilet.  I should also mention that Graham was once again barefoot, I have yet to see him perform with shoes on. 

Stills strapped on a small acoustic guitar I’ve never seen before.  After some research I deduced it must have been his signature Martin 0-45S.  He used it to play Bob Dylan’s Girl from the North Country which has been getting a lot of play recently.  Stills then swapped the small guitar for his signature D-45 with that distinctive Stephen Stills sound to play The Rolling Stones’ Ruby Tuesday.  This got a rousing reaction from the sold out crowd during the opening lines. 

David dedicated the next song to his wife Jan for the “800^th million time.”  He didn’t know where she was sitting, but I guess she was out there.  Guinevere has never been one of my favorite songs, but it has an interesting finger picking melody line.  Next up was What Are Their Names, Graham and David got the starting note from James so they could start in the right key.  Crosby noted that the previous song was him being peaceful, but the next song was him being pissed off.  They Want It All was played in Stamford which I just found out that the Stamford Palace show will be released on DVD next month.  There was a little lyric flub from Crosby during this song.  Once again Graham “I need more cowbell” Nash pulled out the cowbell (insert SNL cowbell joke here_____). 

 

Graham walked to the piano and was about to start the next song when someone yelled out Cathedral.  Graham said, “you wanna hear that old thing?”  I think they were actually going to do Wind on the Water (the song they alternate with Cathedral).  He started Cathedral with a cold start, no intro, no Orleans or anything.  This song paints such a vivid picture in my mind of ancient times. 

Before Graham started Our House, he said “I know I wrote this for Joni, but it’s for Judy tonight.”  He started the song but stopped to check to make sure the key was correct on the piano because he said he changed it for Wind on the Water (which he did not actually play).  Crosby couldn’t let that go.  Crosby said that it’s usually him that screws up, so he was going to relish this moment.  In Graham’s defense, he usually never messes up, in fact he remembers all the words without the use of the TelePrompTer.  Crosby and Stills both have one in front of them.  They are disguised as floor monitors, but in fact are TelePrompTers (Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, Ringo all use them too).  They did the usual sing along bit where they let the audience sing a verse.

Next up was the Crosby penned Almost Cut My Hair.  Crosby was in excellent voice and Stills played hot riffs.  The line where Crosby holds the note “I feel…” seemed to be held longer than in previous shows.  That got the crowd up, and Stills launched right into Love the One You’re With.  When he started the song, the crowd didn’t seem to know what it was, but when he started to sing everyone figured it out and the crowd went crazy.  The current arrangement is in a different key and is also about half tempo of the recording.  Stills did a satisfactory job of singing, but there were lines in there that even I couldn’t distinguish--knowing the words as I do.  Graham had an “all time best fuck up ever” moment when he started singing “and there’s a rose…” where there was an instrumental breakdown part.  It was very uncharacteristic for Graham to mess up on that scale.

After this, Graham said “goodnight Beacon Theatre” and they started to walk offstage, but our cheering ‘pulled’ them back (I love forced encores).  Stills slung on a Strat and started playing the Buffalo Springfield song For What It’s Worth.  This got everyone up on their feet; I’ve never seen a crowd get so excited before.  Finally for the one zillionth time, they dedicated the next song to the underappreciated and underpaid teachers.  After Teach Your Children Graham quickly introduced the band members again, they did their bows and Graham wished us peace.  The show was really over, you can tell because the house lights come up they start playing music over the PA. 

As we were filing out, I was chatting with the lady who sat next to me and it was her first time seeing CSN.  She didn’t know much about them because early on in the show, she also asked me if Neil Young was coming out. 

I got the 11:22 and was home at 1AM and at work the next day at 7am. 

This concert was probably the best I’ve seen from CSN.  I think it was the intimacy you get in a small theatre, versus a huge outdoor amphitheatre.  Plus, I was also close, I joke that I was close enough to smell Crosby farts; David if you’re reading this, I’m just kidding.  I’ve forgiven you for ignoring us in Stamford too.

Woodstock

Military Madness

Long Time Gone

Bluebird

Marrakesh Express

Southern Cross

In Your Name

Barrel of Pain

Long May You Run

Déjà Vu

Wooden Ships

Helplessly Hoping

Just a Song

Girl from the North Country

Ruby Tuesday

Guinevere

What Are Their Names

They Want it All

Cathedral

Our House

Almost Cut My Hair

Love the One You’re With

For What It’s Worth

Teach Your Children