Neil Young, a consistent force in the music world since the 1960s and two-time Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame inductee, swung his “Rebel Content” tour through Matthew Knight Arena last night, touring in support of The Monsanto Years, an album which blatantly takes aim at corporations such as Monsanto, Starbucks and Wal-Mart.
His current backing band is The Promise Of The Real, featuring Lukas and Micah Nelson, sons of fellow music icon, Willie Nelson.
Young began the show alone at the piano with “After The Goldrush,” the title track from his great 1970 album. Next up was “My My, Hey, Hey (Out Of The Blue),” another classic Young song. Armed with an acoustic guitar and microphone mounted to his harmonica brace, Young comfortably paced across the stage, looking as comfortable as if he were at home playing in his living room.
“Old Man” also received the solo acoustic treatment, which, at age 69, has now become a retrospective song about his life. Young coolly tossed his harmonica into the crowd after completing the song and said, “I saw Elvis do that once. I thought it looked cool.”
Before Young quietly took the stage, a husband and wife farmer sprinkled seeds across the stage, but once Promise Of The Real joined him, a group of men in white biohazard suits sprayed the stage with fog, meant to represent pesticides spread from agricultural giant, Monsanto.
The set’s middle portion focused heavily on The Monsanto Years, with songs blatantly rallying against Monsanto and other corporations with involvement in genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
In the lobby of the arena, an area called “Neil’s Village,” focused on the environmental causes close to Young’s heart, where concertgoers could sign various petitions. For all the preachy elements of this tour, Young is at least standing firm with his beliefs and attempting to make a difference, which is a noble act that not everyone of celebrity stature can claim.
Onstage, Promise Of The Real and Young mesh well together. Whether performing by the books covers, or erupting into extended, Crazy Horse-style jams, they are able to match Young’s sheer love of music.
“People Want To Hear About Love” was the most effective song from The Monsanto Years. In it, Young lists many of the issues plaguing society, but repeatedly insists the reason we can’t answer the issues is because “People Want To Hear About Love,” not the miserable aspects of the world.
The major detractor of the night was that many of the jams refused to end. “Down By The River,” from 1969’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, pushed on for nearly 20 minutes and was the longest song of the night. This was a polarizing moment for much of the crowd. Most were enraptured by the song, but others couldn’t wait to see the end and headed for the exits.
One woman yelled, “Thank god THAT’S over,” after the final notes ceased. She left moments later, as did much of the crowd as 10:30 p.m. quickly came and went.
Young would play for another hour, nearly cracking the three-hour mark for the show. He is a tireless performer, coming back to the stage for a one-song encore, outlasting many of the attendees. The show ended around 11:30, but Young probably could have kept going. He never took an intermission and soldiered through the night, proving “Rock ‘n’ Roll can never die.”
Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir received an all too generous 15-minute opening slot. Dressed in a garish white suit made to resemble an ’80s style television preacher, the choir delivered a sermon about climate change, police violence and had a song called “The Devil Is Monsanto,” (not the other way around). The 12-piece group sang well, but the lyrical content felt like an awkward and ineloquent in-your-face rant in which they created a laundry list of problems, but never once attempted to tackle a solution – the musical equivalent of a bumper sticker on a Ferrari.

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Neil Young in 2009.