Thanks to our location on Mother Earth, New Zealanders often get either the beginning of a tour or the tail end. Fortunately for the audience at Trusts Stadium, Crosby, Stills & Nash chose to kick off their tour here. The trio, along with their five-piece band, hit the stage running, with an impassioned version of Carry On, that, um, carried on for eight and a half minutes. It was clear from the start that this was not going to be a night of ageing rock stars going through the motions, but rather a celebration of songs, old and new.
After a sprightly version of Graham Nash’s Marrakesh Express came one of the evening’s early highlights, David Crosby’s Long Time Gone. Crosby himself was in fine vocal form, but it was Stephen Stills and his searing guitar solo that really made the performance special.
Stills seemed rejuvenated tonight. It looks like he has lost a bit of weight, his voice sounded better than it has in years and his guitar playing was on fire. His own Southern Cross was another early favourite.
CSN didn’t stick to the hits, or to their own catalogue. David Crosby turned in another strong vocal performance on Lay Me Down, a song taken from the Crosby & Nash album of 2004. They also premiered a new song, Crosby’s Radio, before playing Graham Nash’s tribute to Wiki-leaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning, Almost Gone, a tune released just last December.
Stephen Stills’ Bluebird followed the lesser-known songs. It proved to be one of the more interesting performances of the evening. When he started the song, Stills raised his hands over his head, urging the crowd to sing along. He didn’t get much of a reaction…then Nash seemed to fluff a vocal line. But Stills and Nash had a brief word with each other and the song took off, ending with another blazing guitar solo from Stills. In the end, they received the first standing ovation of the night for the triumphant performance.
Deja Vu followed, featuring some stunning harmonies, a harmonica solo from Nash and a turn from each of the bandmembers. Then came Wooden Ships to close out the first set, again, Stills led the way with another barn-burner of a guitar solo.
The second half began a bit more quietly with Helplessly Hoping. The semi-acoustic mode continued with a cover of Bob Dylan’s Girl From The North Country. It’s a beautiful tune and CSN seemed to be still working their way through the song, although there were some lovely moments.
One of the evening’s most pleasant surprises was a version of Johnny’s Garden, a tune from Stephen Stills’ 1972 Manassas album.
Crosby’s beautiful ballad Guinnevere followed. Graham Nash’s harmonies got a little too acrobatic for the delicate song, but there were some transcendent moments as well.
The three musicians then gathered around a mic to sing Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. After a nostalgic Our House came a blistering version of Almost Cut My Hair. The second set ended with a celebratory version of Love The One You’re With.
For the encore we got Stills’ Buffalo Springfield classic For What It’s Worth and then Teach Your Children sent the crowd home with smiles on their faces.
I must admit to being wary about how these guys would sound at this stage in their career, but I was hugely impressed. The last time I’d seen them was 35 years ago, and they sounded better tonight.
Someone asked me the other day why these musicians keep going when they could easily stay home collecting royalties. I think the answer was in tonight’s opening song…”rejoice, rejoice, cause we have no choice but to carry on”.
Marty Duda
Click here to view a photo gallery taken by Michael Flynn:
Set list:
- Carry On
- Marrakesh Express
- Long Time Gone
- Military Madness
- Southern Cross
- Lay Me Down
- Just A Song Before I Go
- Radio
- Almost Gone (The Ballad Of Bradley Manning)
- Bluebird
- Déjà vu
- Wooden Ships
- Helplessly Hoping
- In Your Name
- Girl From The North Country
- Johnny’s Garden
- Guinnevere
- Peace Of Mind
- Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
- Cathedral
- Our House
- Almost Cut My Hair
- Love The One You’re With
- For What It’s Worth
- Teach Your Children
trust stadium, unfortunately, is just not conducive to good music, thank god we had CSN and a whole lot of beautiful people to rejoice together in their awesomeness and make up for the lack of ambience. Stephen Stills absolutely blew me away on his array of guitars. not to detract, but to complete it all for me would have been to have Neil Young turn up unannounced to belt it out with them too…a dreamer but that would have been nirvana!
To the promoters, thanks for bringing CSN back but maybe look at somewhere like the Civic Theatre next time. Having seen Wilco there previously I know CSN would’ve torn the place down!!
I was so impressed with these guys. They performed very well. Everyone around us was right into the band, a bit quiet initially then we were all jiggling in our seats singing along. Can’t believe they have the stamina to keep the crowd entertained for that length of time. First time to this stadium. Great seats and sound was excellent.These guys were having fun on stage.Great to see.
It was simply magnificent – no pyrotechnics, no fancy light show, no big screen, just great musicians and the awesome magical power of rock and roll. Thank you CSN for one of the best musical experiences ever.
Thankyou for the wonderful observations and thoughts about this special concert… from the Kenai, Joe Ray
I thought It was a good night also, but where I was sitting (side seats) the sound quality was lacking. After the break I stayed down on the floor by the mixing desk the sound was much better down there, could hear the words. For me the highlight was ‘Almost cut my hair’ – David Crosby was in fine voice.
We went in 2007, how is it possible after five years that their sound is even better, especially Stephen Stills, his second half perfromances were masterful. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes was the Pièce de Résistance for Messers Crosby, Stills and Nash on a magical night when these gentlemen proved the spirit of music, love and peace lives in them and for all of us that bathed in their brilliance last night. Thank you for coming back to New Zealand and for being there throughout our generation.
Ditto the respect and enjoyment of the other commentators below. I was at the 2007 gig also. Overall I thought the set they played last night was far more consistent , well balanced and superior as in 2007 they did not play Love the One your with nor Suite Judy Blue Eyes and those are two very big popular CSN songs. I couldn’t believe they hadn’t played Suite JBE for 20 years until last night; perhaps preserving the demands of the song on Stepen Stills voice which still gets there albeit with understandable wind up. Superb.They balanced their energies and talents well in the lead vocal song choices and produce a great sound. I love the way they’ve turned Carry On into a big four guitar wall of sound opening. So uplifting to have seen them twice down under.
Yes what a fantastic night, it proves things sometimes get better with age. CSN are living proof, first met the music in 1969, last night put tears in my eyes and memories flooding back. If there had been a second concert in NZ count me in.
I grew up with CSN (& Y) music through my university days and out of the ’70′s. To simply have the chance to enjoy their music live on stage in Auckland in 2012 was a privilege and a real pleasure. The night was shared: CSN seemed to enjoy it as much as the audience. That says it all. Deju vu. And welcome back any time.