A quick trip down on the Luas, to see 3 of a legendary 4 piece, The amazing folk rock legends, Crosby Stills and Nash. Obviously minus the ignominious Neil Young. They are a band who have been through quite a lot in 40 years as recording artists. Especially in band configuration with them going from Foursome to Duo to Trio at many stages, at one point Crosby and Nash were out touring as a Duo and Stills and Young were doing the same.

Even with Young playing as a Solo artist at Glastonbury 2009 and CSN playing too, he did not join them on stage. However Crosby Stills and Nash are still the core of this band and surely would serve up a volley of classic tunes as a treat for us Irish fans. The O2 as a venue for these kind of all seated gigs is nothing short of perfect and having seen Fleetwood Mac here only 8 months ago, i knew it had the potential to be something special.

Sitting smack bang in the middle of the O2, i wasnt overly close, though i was far from miles away. Perfect seating. The band hit the stage at 8:15 and opened with WoodStock which is a C.S.N.Y. track, in fact they played 5 songs from Déja Vu, which was a bit surprising. I thought they might avoid the Young stuff. They rocked out Long Time Gone and then Bluebird (which is a Buffalo Springfield song, a band Stills and Young were in) before breaking into a crowd pleasing Marrakesh Express. At this point i couldn’t help but admire how the harmonies really still sound great, age has not seemed to affect these men. They played a new song for us called In Your Name which they said was about anyone affected by the troubles, it’s a slow country ballad type of song. I personally thought it was really good, looking forward to the release with it on it.

Crosby was far an away the humour in the band and his banter throughout the night was brilliant, next up he said “Every show we have to work out which one of the skinny canadians songs to play, there’s only like 900 of them” which got a laugh from everyone, they then broke into Long May You Run.

The next song was Deja Vu which is another one of those C.S.N.Y. tracks they played, they really got into this one, giving an extended breakdown and solo’s to Organ player (Todd Caldwell), Keyboard player (James Raymond), Bass player (Bob Glaub) and drummer (Joe Vitale) it was extended but was perfectly done, and not too long or overbearing. Masters of their craft at work knowing exactly when enough is enough.

Nash was the orchestrator as he masterfully ran the show from start to finish, Stills giving his guitar a proper workout with some amazing solo’s and Crosby master of banter and acoustic. Legends at work the crowd sat in revernce of the show that was being put on, there was no big screen, lasers, confetti, glitter, light shows. The was Crosby, Stills and Nash, backing band and Classic Rock. They launched into Wooden Ships before taking a 15 minute break.

After the break they kicked back in with Helplessly Hoping before declaring that they had been suggested doing an album of song’s they wish they had written. They would now road test some of that material on us. What ensued was amazing versions of Norwegian Wood (Beatles), Midnight rider (Gregg Allman), Girl from the North Country (Bob Dylan) and emphatic version of Ruby Tuesday (Rolling Stones) which the crowd singing the words back to them.

The next 4 songs were the highlight for me, perfectly executed, the crowd didn’t make a peep and just watched in awe as they played an amazing version of Guinnevere then played Delta and Cathedral and finished the 4 songs which really took me aside with Our  House. I was literally blown away. The crowd sang back Our House word for word, as crosby said “proving once again, the Irish can sing”.

They finished up their set with Behind Blue Eyes (The Who) and Rock & Roll Woman (Buffalo Springfield) and finished on a C.S.N.Y. classic from the Deja Vu album Almost Cut My Hair. The band left the stage to a standing ovation, of course house lights didnt budge meaning we were surely to be treated to more.

As the band came back to the stage and readied to play, some guy shouted up “I Love You“, Crosby without hesitation replied, “I appreciate that you love me but could you get your sister to say it next time, when a manly voice saying it, it just takees me back to those prison days” as more people tried to shout you, Nash said “You know when you shout up like that, we can’t hear anything, it just sounds like Gaelic, we really don’t understand” which garnered a laugh.

The three legends then played us out with 2 of their most well known tracks. Love the one your with and Teach your children well. all in all, 8:15 start, 11pm finish. 24 amazing songs by master craftsmen. If i had one reservation about this gig its that they did not play Suite Judy Blue Eyes. other than that it completely blew me away. As they left they stage they promised they would be back, so if your reading this and have never seen C.S.N live in action, please do, you wont regret it.

Crosby, Stills & Nash Setlist The O2, Dublin, Ireland 2010, 2010 Summer Tour