Review: Neil Young at the Academy of Music

The second set of the second show of Neil Young's two night stand at the Academy of Music on Thursday night served as an object lesson on the perils of the intermission.

Which is to say that after a first half that was absolutely sublime, the magical vibe went missing during a 25 minute bathroom break, and for the final hour the 68 year old Young was inconsistent, rambling and only intermittently brilliant.

According to the back of a bootleg T-shirt on sale on Broad Street, these two sold-out nights were the the 36th and 37th times that Young has played Philadelphia (or Camden) since a 1970 gig at the old Electric Factory at 22nd and Arch which he remembered on as consisting of "a half hour of tuning, and then we left the stage."

On Thursday, no tuning was necessary. Strolling on stage in jeans and a flannel shirt, Young played most of the solo acoustic show seated, with seven guitars and banjo within his reach. Not to mention a grand piano to his left, an upright to his right, and a pump organ behind him, which he got to for "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)."

There was an elephant in the impeccable sounding 157 year old room. Since the news broke last month that Young filed for divorce from his wife Pegi after 36 years, his fans have been put in the awkward position of reading about the crusty Canadian (and apparent new girlfriend Daryl Hannah) in the gossip pages.

Young never addressed his personal life head on, but he didn't run from it either. He opened with "From Hank To Hendrix," from his 1992 album Harvest Moon, and sang, "I always loved your smile, now we're headed for the big divorce, California style." Fans sneakily used smart phones, which they had been strictly forbidden to turn on, to check if the lyrics were altered for the occasion. Nope, they're in the original.

A gorgeously spare "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" followed shortly, and it was tempting to hear Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" ("I don't know where we went wrong but the feeling's gone and I just can't get it back"), which Young recorded on his low-fi 2014 album A Letter Home, through that same autobiographical prism. And a song from Young's orchestral album, Storytone, due next month, was an open-hearted celebration of new love, called "I'm Glad I Found You."

Early on, Young moved from strength to strength. A beautifully phrased cover of Tim Hardin's "Reason To Believe"; a banjo-plucked ragged-but-right take on "Mellow My Mind," from 1975's Tonight's The Night. "A lot of technical musicians didn't like that one," quipped the proud primitive. "They couldn't play out of tune if they tried." The set peaked with the chunky chords and soaring chorus of "Old Man."

The second half had plenty of fab moments, too: An opening one-two punch of "Pocahantas" and "Heart of Gold," and the rarely played encore "Thrasher," for which Young donned a cowboy hat.

But along the way, focus was lost. The audience could not stop themselves from shouting out during between-song silences. This did not improve Young's mood. The singer got testy when camera noise distracted him during the less than impressive new "Plastic Flowers." And a cry of "CSNY!" after a terrific rendition of the 1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young protest song "Ohio" was greeted with the curt reply "Never again!"

Poor song selection and rambling commentary was also to blame. Politically, Young railed against conservative lobbying group Citizens United ("Corporations aren't people") and also expressed dismay over the environmental record of President Obama.

The latter patter led into "Who's Gonna Stand Up?" a would-be eco-anthem off Storytone. It's a blunt force broadside in the tradition of forced march salvos like 2006's anti-George W. Bush tirade "Let's Impeach The President."

Young's affection for the natural world is well established. "I really do love this planet," he said earlier on. "I love the animals, and the birds," adding, less convincingly, "I like the people, too."

He stayed on that message with "Mother Earth," an awkward composition which at least had its gloriously surging pump organ tone going for it. And returned to it again with the 1970 set closer "After The Gold Rush." "We got Mother Nature on the run in the 21st Century," he sang in a cracked, keening voice, thankfully opting to express himself with poetic grace on the third try.

Previously: Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Nominees Announced Follow In the Mix on Twitter