Rockphiles' roving reporter Paul Neve recently attended Stephen Stills' concert in Sheffield. Stephen is on the tag end of a series of European dates. He turned in the following review.
"I was disappointed to see that the upper balcony was
completely empty and that the lower balcony was only half full. The audience,
which I estimated at no more that 1400, largely comprised the expected mix of
50-somethings, one sporting the obligatory Hawaiian shirt, several promoting
vintage CSNY wear, but first prize must surely go to the guy in the plain white
tee with the words Barack’n (roll) written neatly in black!
At 7:45pm Stephen and his band took to the stage. The guitar
tech brought out his white and gold Gretsch Country Gentleman double cutaway
and they launched into Helplessly Hoping.
Stephen’s vocals were weak on this as I mentally compared it to his much
younger Youtube version I had watched only a few hours earlier at home, so I
felt extremely anxious that this was going to be a disaster. As it turned out,
my fears proved groundless and for the rest of the evening his voice was
faultless.
The other band members then left the stage, together with
the Gretsch, to leave Stephen alone on stage, attired formally in a dark suit
and polo shirt singing a range of acoustic songs played on at least three
different Martin guitars. Boy, can he make those guitars sing! The tonal
quality of this masterpiece has to be seen and heard live to be believed.
He wasn’t particularly effusive with the audience and tended
to rattle off his acoustic set numbers one after the other. He introduced Treetop Flyer, clearly one of his
favourites, as “Friends of David Crosby and runners of weed across the border
from Mexico before Americans had learned how to grow it themselves! “ Dylan’s North Country Girl was performed with
real feeling after which he remarked that he had done “something nasty” to his
finger nail. He then wryly commented that he had considered
retitling 4 + 20 to 3 + 60, to
reflect his age, and he had “great difficulty singing this song, these days,
with a straight face!”
Before playing Johnny’s
Garden, we learned that he had lived in southern England for 5 years in a house with a big garden (actually Ringo Starr’s former 14-bedroom
country house in Surrey). As the lyrics
suggest, he noted these were the “happiest times of his life.”
After introducing Suite
Judy Blue Eyes as a “step into the abyss,” he launched into a blistering Latin
arrangement before being joined on stage by the rest of the band for the final
chorus. His “See you in 20 minutes and we’ll do some rock ‘n roll, “ended the
first set at about 8:30pm. He was a little subdued when he left. Perhaps his
finger hurt, or maybe he was just disappointed that the house was smaller than
anticipated.
True to his word, he returned with the rest of the band,
this time dressed casually in jeans and a suede jacket and armed with the first
of his two Strats. Isn’t it About Time
was a bit too loud and heavy on the tremelo but at least it set the mood for
the all-electric second set. The Buffalo Springfield’s Rock ‘n Roll Woman was outstanding and my personal favourite track
of this set. His take on Tom Petty’s The
Wrong Thing To Do was good also.
Wounded World, a songwriting collaboration with Graham Nash,
to memorialize children leaving home to go to college, morphed into a version
of Rocky Mountain Way that Joe Walsh
would have been proud of!
At this point, off came Stephen’s jacket and he launched into
Latin-flavored Make Love To You which
featured a keyboard solo from Todd Caldwell. This was followed by Buffalo
Springfield classics Bluebird, and
protest anthem For What It’s Worth,
the final song in the set, and the song for which Stephen Stills will likely be
best-remembered. Both were blistering renditions and the audience gave the band
a well-deserved standing ovation.
Before commencing the anticipated encore of Love The One You're With, he introduced
the band – long-time sidekick Joe Vitale on drums and percussion (an effortless
octopus all evening who made it look so easy!), as well as Todd Caldwell on
keyboards and Kenny Passarelli on bass.
As other reviewers have noted, there seemed to be something
missing, but I’m glad I went. Stephen has a melancholic air, but perhaps he
always did. He can still sing and play well but, though he longs to be free and
probably hates his legacy as the guitarist with CSN (and his Springfield compatriot Y), to me and many
others, that’s who he is. I know this was the Stephen Stills Show but I missed
the trademark vocal and guitar harmonies from other band members. I think it’s
another case of the whole group being more important than the sum of its parts.
Commercial success and artistic preference do not always go hand in hand so if
CSN (and Y) ever re-assembles anywhere, any time, (and provided I win the
lottery!) I’ll be on the next plane!"
[Editor’s note: For
what it’s worth, I’m hoping for the Springfield reunion – they’re all still with us.
Stephen was part of that before he was part of CSN. Probably as likely to happen as a Hollies
reunion, or a Byrds reunion.]
Acoustic Set List
Helplessly Hoping; Treetop Flyer; North Country Gir;l Change
Partners;4 + 20;The Blind Fiddler; Johnny’s Garden; Daylight Again/Find The
Cost Of Freedom; Suite Judy Blue Eyes
Electric Set List
Isn’t It About Time; Rock And Roll Woman; The Wrong Thing To
Do; Wounded World/Rocky Mountain Way; Want To Make Love To You; Bluebird; For
What It’s Worth
Encore:
Love The One You’re With
More info here at Stephen's official site.
