NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE
Stompingground: (l–r)MicahNelson, Neil Young and Billy Talbot form a “tribal circle” arounddrummer RalphMolina
Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre, San Diego, April 25 New guitarist! New verses! But nothing to knock the Horse off course
AN almost-full moon in the San Diego sky greets the second night of Crazy Horse’s Love Earth tour of the US, Neil Young’s first full-band jaunt since before the pandemic. Much about the scene is comfortingly familiar. First, there are those cartoonishly gargantuan Fender amps that first appeared in the Rust Never Sleeps days, dwarfing the band. Then there’s Crazy Horse’s staunch rhythm section of drummer Ralph Molina and bassist Billy Talbot, who’ve been Young’s on-again/off-again musical compadres for more than 55 years, consistently giving him the raw shot of energy he can’t seem to find anywhere else. And they start the set by lurching without preamble into “Cortez The Killer”, the epic dirge that’s been a live mainstay for the group since it was introduced in late 1975. A warhorse, so to speak.