Description
The latest Young archival release is a 1990 show in which he and Crazy Horse were finding their way after a sluggish Eighties, with a few welcome surprises.
To warm up for the 1991 arena tour heard on Weld and its noise-mayhem sibling Arc, the band played two club shows in Northern California, and this long-bootlegged tape, from the 800-seat Catalyst in the fall of 1990, documents one of them. It’s borderline startling to hear Way Down in the Rust Bucket. Neil Young and Crazy Horse play with naturally fluid chemistry that belies the physical exertion and mental concentration they bring to bear on stage in Santa Cruz on November 13, 1990, the foursome knowing very well what an extraordinary performance they are offering. The extent to which Neil and the band stretch out on any given number is key to its relative importance, not only in this particular context but also in Young’s overall discography. One of his most venerable numbers, “Like A Hurricane,” for instance, is the second-longest cut here, edging out only “Love and Only Love,” from the aforementioned studio album just recently-released prior to this gig: both are in the thirteen-minute range.
