NEIL YOUNG TRIBUTE (VariousArtists) and 78 Saab @ TheHopetoun Hotel, 12/01/07

Sun 21st Jan, 2007 in Gig Reviews

In all of songwriting history, there can be few winning streaks to match that documented on the Neil Young compilation Decade, which collects the cream of his 1966-76 output. By turns passionate, reflective and rocking the best moments (Cinnamon Girl, After The Gold Rush, Only Love Can Break Your Heart and Sugar Mountain) standing as veritable country-rock towers of song. All this is before you get to the second disc, which is even better. Tonight, an all-star cast of Sydney’s indie community has gathered to pay tribute to this work and to raise funds for this city’s best radio station, FBi fm.

With such a stellar lineup, a support band barely seems necessary but happily the accomplished 78 Saab fill that role tonight. Rarely spotted on the live scene of late, Ben Nash and company play a polished set, bringing enthusiasm and power-pop smarts from start (No Illusions) to finish (Come On). The influence of the subject of tonight’s tribute is apparent throughout, and their lush guitar sound remains alive and well. With a new album set to be recorded in a matter of weeks, 78 Saab could well return to the levels of exposure achieved when their songs supplied the melancholia to soundtrack the lives of a certain group about St.Kilda twentysomethings.

The tribute sets begins with songs from the mega-selling Harvest, and specifically with an assured Ohio, featuring Wes of Devoted Few fame and Jason Walker on lead guitar. Then there’s a plaintive, stripped-back ‘Soldier’ and a real treat: diminuitive Red Sun Band vocalist Sarah wrapping her smoky, almost Old Man.

It’s a remarkable song, Young sounding so thoroughly world-weary that it comes as a shock to realise he was only 27 when it was released. The Harvest section is rounded out by a dramatic reading by Peabody’s Bruno Bayovic which brings out both the vulnerability and drama of a song often derided as sexist, A Man Needs a Maid, Paul Andrews of Lazy Susan provides a relaxed version of the titular song and the brothers Holt of The Camels having the plum job of singing Heart of Gold. It’s one of Young’s simplest songs – the chord progression is one many novice guitar players gravitate to, but it’s also one of his most moving songs, and the harmonica part, faithfully rendered here, aches with pure yearning.

Moving on to songs lifted from the dark, personal Tonight’s The Night record, a nervy Laura Imbruglia provides backing vocals for Star of Bethlehem. Thankfully she recovers speedily and surely, taking the reins for a moving solo rendition of The Needle and The Damage Done that is so successful that I momentarily forget I’ve always found this song overwrought and overrated. Also very fine is the somewhat overlooked Tired Eyes, one of the best examples of Young’s ability as a storyteller, matching Springsteen’s Meeting Across The River as a snapshot of desperate youth and petty crime.

The recently re-released On The Beach is also well represented, Errol J.M proving a logical choice for the critic-baiting Walk On, fashioning the song in the mould of their own amiable power-pop. Toby Burke of classy Melbourne outfit Horse Stories takes the mic for For The Turnstiles, initially a b-side, it begins intimate and languid and evolves into its expansive beauty. Beautifully done. Just as pretty is Love is The Rose with Paul Andrews returning to provide the harmonies and Bruno and Ben of Peabody delivering a stirring, pulse-racing blitz on Like a Hurricane.

Somewhat less compelling is the interminable Cortez The Killer. Young’s guitar solos were once cruelly likened to a pensioner drifting away from the party on a nursing home outing, a description that is more memorable than it is accurate. As Cortez grinds on (and on) , however, you’re wondering whether there might be something in it. In the home stretch, the crowd is silenced by a pretty, pastoral Campaigner and Sam Shinazzi brings warmth to his version of Long May You Roam. Almost everybody is back on the Hoey’s small stage for a barnstorming, crowd-pleasing Rockin’ in the Free World and that’s it: ten years of genius condensed into one sparkling night.