May 13, 2023

Come Together: Neil Young’s Harvest -May 12, 2023

Come Together: Neil Young’s Harvest was more than just a run though of a classic album, it was a celebration of one of our greatest living songwriters by this country’s finest musicians.

My my, hey hey, this is a band that came to play.

Come Together: Harvest Led by Jol Mullolland and powered by the guitar playing of Brett Adams, Samuel Flynn Scott (Phoenix Foundation), Dianne Swann, Adam Hattaway, Jon Toogood, Matthias Jordan, and James Milne (Lawrence Arabia) performed what very well could be the ultimate Neil Young set (or sets).

The evening began with Harvest, an album that, I dare say judging by the age of the crowd, everyone in the house knew the running order.

So there were no surprises but plenty of excellent performances.

Sam Scott sang Out On The Weekend, Dianne followed with Harvest, keyboard player Matthias Jordan (Pluto) gave us A Man Needs A Maid, Jon Toogood sang Heart Of Gold and young whippersnapper Adam Hattaway sang Are You Ready For The Country proving that anyone with talent and appreciation to Neil’s music can sing his songs convincingly.

The album closes with Words and the blistering guitars played (mostly) by Brett Adams gave us an indication of what was yet to come this evening.

Diane sang, and the guitars wailed…an early highlight.

“That’s Harvest done” announced Dianne after 40 minutes. But the best was yet to come.

Indeed, it felt like Harvest served as the opening act for a much bigger showcase of Neil Young’s finest.

That showcase began quietly with James Milne on the piano playing and singing See The Sky About To Rain and Expecting To Fly, quite beautifully.

But that beauty quickly turned into the beast that was Cowgirl In The Sand with Brett leading the charge with another jaw-dropping guitar performance.

Time for a break.

Come Together: Harvest We reconvened with drinks in hand 20 minutes or so later to the strains of possibly the most obscure tune of the night. It was Danger Bird, from Zuma with Jol singings and guitars blazing.

Clocking in at 11 ½ minutes the band made it clear they came to play, and play hard.

Other than Brett Adams, it’s tough to pick out a performer who stood out, only because they were uniformly excellent. Maybe Jol Mulholland, the bandleader who, I assume, assembled this stunning setlist.

After The Goldrush, Ohio, Cinnamon Girl, Southern Man…the hits just kept coming.

And 45 minutes into this second set, the bar was set even higher with the one-two-three punch of Powderfinger, Hey He, My My and Like A Hurricane with the punky Sedan Delivery thrown in for good measure.

To the guy who insisted on shouting out, “Long version please!” I say, shut your mouth and open your ears.

Come Together: Harvest The one snafu during the night came during Cinnamon Girl. The fans in the front row wanted to get up and dance but security had obviously been told that was a no-no.

Then Dianne urged everyone to get up and a brief chant of “Let them dance!” was heard before the music went back to being the focus.

Like A Hurricane may have seemed like a perfect way to end the show, given the recent weather, but this band was not done rocking.

The encore consisted of Cortez The Killer and Tonight’s The Night, both over 9 minutes long and both featuring stunning guitar performances, not just by Brett, but Jol, Sam, Jon, Adam and James all proved they could crank out those riffs and solos with the best of them.

Before the show, someone asked me which was my favourite Come Together show so far, and we both agreed it was Tom Petty: Damn The Torpedoes but after hearing this band playing this music for 2 ½ hours, I’ve gotta say, we have a new winner!

Marty Duda

Click any icon to view a full gallery of the show. All photos by Veronica McLaughlin Photography