Review of Crosby and Nash at Vicar Street 27/09/11
The always intimate Vicar Street played host to veteran folk rockers Crosby and Nash on Tuesday night. The two great friends and founding members of dysfunctional super-group Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) turned in a captivating and stunning show full of passion and verve that belied their age.
The concert kicked off strongly with the Byrds’ psychedelic anthem Eight Miles High and with more solo works from both artists, newer tracks from their most recent releases and several diamonds from their late 60’s and 70’s chart-topping peak it was a show that had something for everyone. Crosby and Nash’s trademark hippie activism was also to the fore throughout with genuinely angry and passionate introductions to songs dealing with topics such as nuclear waste, saving the whales, corporate greed, the distribution of wealth, and war.
As a whole, the two and a half hour show the featured some near flawless performances. The two starts were ably backed by four excellent musicians, including Crosby’s son James Raymond on keyboards. The between song bantering between Crosby and Nash was also terrific, a real highlight. They played off each other wonderfully and they come across simply as two great friends who enjoy making music with each other, even after forty odd years together. Crosby bringing up the Black and Tans to slag the Englishman Nash and Nash forcing Crosby to admit to having a body shaped like an avocado were just two of the funnier wisecracks from the pair, who were in really good form throughout.
And the songs. Classics such as a hard rocking Long Time Coming, a wonderfully eccentric Marrakesh Express, an extended Déjà vu including a rare harmonica solo from Nash, Our House with a funny stat about women losing their virginity to it from Crosby, a delicate acoustic duet on Guinnevere, Cathedral and Military Madness just some of the highlights of a fabulous show. The great thing about this concert was that Crosby and Nash saved their best for last, blowing everybody in the audience away with the closing four songs. No one in the audience was sitting down by the end of this gig, people were getting lost in the amazing occasion.
First of the four was Almost Cut My Hair with that distinctive throaty Crosby vocal showing he’s still got it was the highlight of the evening for me. The raw power of the song really had an impact and got people standing. They followed this with a similarly powerful version of Wooden ships which the band really rocked hard before they then left the stage to huge applause. After a short break the band returned for an encore starting with a version of Chicago sounding every bit as powerful as it was when first released 40 years ago before Crosby and Nash closed the show with a lovely version of Teach Your Children which had everyone singing along, bringing us all down gently and letting us float off into the night on the back of an amazing experience.