Carry On

   

Forty–one years ago this summer, a trio of young musicians performed at a music festival in rural New York. Although each of the three had enjoyed success as members of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Hollies, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash had never performed together. Four decades later, after creating some enduring music, CSN recently performed at one of their favorite venues, Red Rocks.

Seeing a CSN concert at Red Rocks was something Mrs. Rogue and I had wanted to do since, well, we became us. It just never seemed to work out, until this past week. Earlier this spring, while I was away on business, Mrs. R had scored a pair of 19th row seats to the show. We marked the date on our calendar as the kickoff to summer.

Things have changed at Red Rocks since I was a kid. It used to be that all of the seats were General Admission and if you were a slug, and I was/am, you could get to the amphitheater early, bring a cooler, and enjoy 8 hours in the hot sun before the concert. Now the gates don’t open until 6:00 pm, and the only GA seats are at the top. This is actually a good thing if you are gainfully employed and your boss is not a music fan.

With this in mind, we decided to arrive promptly at six, tailgate in the parking lot, and then head on in for the show. Mrs. R made some delicious wraps that were reminiscent of the sandwiches she made for our first date, at this very same place, 31 years ago. We sat in the parking lot, drinking our diet sodas and eating wraps and organic grapes (hey, when a person gets to be my age, you have to make some concessions) and began one of our favorite pastimes – people watching.

Some of the highlights from the evening included the chain-smoking anorexic 50 year-old sorority mom wearing her daughter’s sickeningly cute pink sorority sweatshirt, several people who may not know that the 60’s are over, and the couple with the perfectly feathered 70’s style hair who may not know that the 70’s are over…

Oh, and one other thing. To the guy sitting behind us – I did not come to the concert to hear you sing. I realize that you’re the best fan ever because you know all of the words to all of the songs, but the other 7999 of us came to hear the guys who actually wrote those songs sing them. Save it for the shower dude…

Okay, the snarcasm switch is now off…

One of the recent, unfortunate trends is for rock ‘n roll (and country) bands is to develop elaborate productions for their live shows, including giant stages, pyrotechnics and a host of other gimmicks. CSN went old school, with three mics at center stage, two keyboard players, a bassist, and a drummer. To begin the show, they simply walked onto the stage, sans introduction. It was very cool.

The crowd arose in unison, and CSN dove into a revved-up version of “Woodstock” with Stills laying down some scorching guitar licks, the first of many to come.

It was an electrifying opening to the show, and things only got better. Right from the outset, it was clear that CSN had their harmonies dialed in, and the acoustics of Red Rocks made it that much better.

The first set included amplified versions of “Long Time Gone,” and “Southern Cross;” then closed with “Wooden Ships.” Mrs. R and I looked at each other, we couldn’t find the words to describe what we had just seen, and heard.

The second set opened with just CSN, the rest of the band was off-stage, and the trio worked through several acoustic songs, including some well-done covers of “Norwegian Wood,” “Midnight Rider” and “Ruby Tuesday.” That last one proved a little confusing for a woman sitting nearby – she just “didn’t remember The Beatles ever doing that song.”

One thing that struck me was the respect Crosby, Stills, and Nash have for each other when on stage. At various times throughout the show each of the different performers was featured, be it singing, or playing guitar or keyboard. The other two would simply step back and let the third have his moment. Wow…

The highlight of the evening for me was when Crosby and Nash performed “Guinnevere.” Guinnevere is not one of my favorite songs, but I have never witnessed a more beautiful, heartfelt performance. Except for the music, the amphitheater was dead quiet during this song. At the end of the song, there was no sound; it was as if the audience couldn’t believe what we had just heard. Suddenly the crowd broke into loud and sustained applause. David Crosby patted his heart, thanked the audience and said “This is so much fun!” There weren’t very many dry eyes in the crowd at that point.

CSN closed out the second set with their classic “Almost Cut My Hair,” putting the rock in Red Rocks…The encores included “Love the One You’re With” and “Teach Your Children” and CSN encouraged the audience to sing along to both. I figured I was safe as one voice among 8000, so I threw caution to the wind and joined in.

The show finally ended and we headed for the car. As we were walking down the long ramp, Mrs. R said “it's not just that you see and hear them perform, it's that you feel their music someplace deep inside.”

It was The Best Night Ever at Red Rocks…