The Fat Angel Sings

Neil Young and Stephen Stills performed together on Saturday, April 25 at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles.They reunited on the Pantages stage a few miles east of their old stomping grounds Saturday night, delivering a short but powerful set to close out an autism benefit concert that also featured Steve Earle, Shawn Colvin and a raucous guitar auction won by Brad Pitt, whose $23,000 bid trumped that of auctioneer Jack Black and others to land him a Fender Stratocaster signed by all the performers.

Young, 69, and Stills, 70, played with chemistry and charisma, two Sixties legends who have somehow managed to reinvent themselves again and again, navigating the perils of rock stardom that felled so many of their contemporaries.
“We’ve been through some things together,” Young sang, opening the nine-song set with “Long May You Run,” the 1976 song from the short-lived Stills-Young Band. Young’s high tenor was strong, clear, melodic. Stills had more rasp in his voice, and those notes at the top of his range often proved elusive.

But when it came to their fretwork, both men were like old gunslingers showing the kids how it’s done — soloing frequently on songs that included their Buffalo Springfield hits “Mr. Soul,” “Bluebird” and “For What It’s Worth.”

Stephen Stills, widely regarded as a virtuoso, played ambitious solos with a deft precision. And yet it was Young, with his simpler runs, who more often hit the sonic peaks — summoning otherworldly growls, demons and shrieks from his battered black Les Paul. Young’s guitar vocabulary may not be extensive, but he’s hard to beat when it comes to playing with power and emotion.

Then there are the songs themselves. The lyrics these men wrote decades ago still have relevance today.

“For What It’s Worth,” a Stills song inspired by the Sunset Strip riots of 1966, might just as well have been written following the protests in Ferguson, Mo.

What a field day for the heat,
A thousand people … in the street,
Singing songs and carrying signs

The evening ended with all performers joining the stage to perform “Rockin’ in the Free World,” Young’s song that served as a bitter commentary on former President George H.W. Bush’s 1989 inaugural address and its “thousand points of light.”

Neil Young and Stephen Stills Light Up The Blues setlist:
1. Long May You Run (acoustic guitar)
2. Human Highway acoustic guitar)
3. I Don’t Know (acoustic guitar) [new Young song]
4. Virtual Here & Now (electric guitar) [new Stills song]
5. Don’t Want Lies (electric guitar)
6. For What It’s Worth (electric guitar)
7. Bluebird (electric guitar)
8. Mr. Soul (electric guitar)
9. Rockin’ In The Free World (electric guitar)

The pair reunited for a nine-song set as part of the third annual Light Up The Blues benefit concert in aid of autism. Neil and Stephen perform this classic tune as part of the Light Up the Blues – Autism Speaks benefit on April 25, 2015. Shot in HD from the balcony DFC with my Samsung WB250F, and authored by yours truly with 24-bit audio from my Sony PCM-M10(AT853 mics). The event was hosted by Stills and his wife Kristen, and also featured sets from Steve Earle and Shawn Colvin.
Light Up The Blues Benefit for Autism Speaks. This is the events 3rd year raising funds and awareness for autism.