Neil Young Fulfills Deep Cut Promise At Hollywood’s Ford Theater (SHOW REVIEW)

When Neil Young announced his 2023 solo “Coastal” tour, he specifically told people he’d be doing lesser-known songs. This includes ones Young has not played live over his six-decade career but has wanted to. Unlike the full electric shows with Crazy Horse and Promise Of The Real, where he fills the sets with more familiar choices, Young fulfilled that promise at the Ford Theater in Hollywood, California. The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer had four shows scheduled at the intimate outdoor venue and Glide was there for the July 1st show.

This is his first tour in nearly four years and his first live performance since he played at his old buddy Willie Nelson’s 90^th birthday party at Hollywood Bowl at the end of April. The Ford Theater, with a 1200-person capacity and no seats more than 95 feet from the stage, is a departure for Young. For the sold-out crowd, it felt like they were watching a friend playing guitar in their backyard. The audience was unusually quiet for most of the show, almost in reverence to the setting and Young’s toned-down performance. He commented several times during the show about the beautiful venue and responded “love you too” after someone in the audience shouted out their devotion to the musician.

In spite of his insistence that the set list would be rare cuts, Young could not help himself – he mixed in a few well-known songs and broke out two electric guitars that offset the mostly mellow, acoustic, lesser-known songs. He performed the CSNY classic “Ohio” with his trusty Falcon, a gorgeous blonde, hollow body electric Gretsch guitar. “Throw Your Hatred Down” and “Prime of Life” was played with Old Black, the electric Gibson Les Paul that Young has used for many recordings. For “When I Hold You In My Arms,” he kept the Gibson over his shoulder as he sat at a nine-foot Steinway grand piano, while his keyboard, harmonica, and guitar tech, Bob Rice sat in the shadows playing an upright piano. Young performed a slow, pleasing guitar solo with Rice’s accompaniment. Rice also played vibraphone while Young was at the Steinway for “My Heart.”

Over the course of the hour-and-a-half show, the legend moved across the stage which was set up with the grand piano and upright piano, plus a pipe organ, vibraphone, acoustic guitars, a painted teepee-shaped stove, a model train set (one of his non-music hobbies) and a lit-up “LOVE” sign. That pipe organ, which he bought years ago in a junk store on Main Street in Redwood City for about 800 bucks, filled the air with amazing sounds as Young played “If You Got Love.” One of the biggest ovations came later when he went back to the pipe organ for the classic Buffalo Springfield track “Mr. Soul.” For that song, Young slowed down the usual tempo a bit and the thundering resonance of the organ provided a dramatic, surreal effect.

Before closing out the show Young quipped, “Nice place, huh?” He started to play his only number-one U.S. hit single “Heart of Gold” with one of his acoustic guitars and a harmonica. However, just a few notes in, he stopped and said “Oh, shit, this is wrong” and swapped out the harmonica for another one. The audience laughed and went nuts as he successfully launched into the song. Of course, the crowd sang along during the song and gave a standing ovation as Young said thanks before leaving the stage.

He came back out quickly and told the crowd he was going to play “Love Earth,” the first single from the Neil Young and Crazy Horse album World Record which was released in November 2022. “You don’t know it, but it’s easy to sing.” It was just the second time he had played it live overall and the audience helped out with the chorus. There was another funny screw-up at the very end of the show. His guitar tech Bob brought out a 12-string guitar that Young immediately found to be out of tune. He swapped it for a six-string and as soon as he started playing the Ian & Sylvia song “Four Strong Winds” he realized that he was using the wrong harmonica, tossed it away, and yelled, “Holy shit!” before switching to another harmonica for the nice, mellow song that matched the overall mood of the show. 

After Young finishes up the remaining shows at the Ford, he’ll wrap up the West Coast tour by moving on to bigger venues in other California cities as well as Washington and Oregon. While we hope to see a Crazy Horse tour at big arenas, stadiums, or festivals in the future, it was an entertaining change seeing Young in a stripped-down setting. He expressed his deepest feelings through the lesser-known, but close-to-his-heart songs and performed them with the passion and talent we have appreciated for decades.