{"id":4405,"date":"2012-07-28T02:17:16","date_gmt":"2012-07-28T02:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/neil-young-journeys-plays-a-limited-engagement-at-the-art-theatre\/"},"modified":"2012-07-28T02:17:16","modified_gmt":"2012-07-28T02:17:16","slug":"neil-young-journeys-plays-a-limited-engagement-at-the-art-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/neil-young-journeys-plays-a-limited-engagement-at-the-art-theatre","title":{"rendered":"‘Neil Young Journeys’ Plays a Limited Engagement at the Art Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"journeys<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

There is a town in North Ontario\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

The concept couldn’t be much simpler\u2014we accompany Neil Young on a little tour of his childhood stomping grounds in and around Toronto on the way to a solo gig that evening, and then get to see\/hear some of that show.<\/p>\n

Does that sound exciting? No? Well, it’s not. Except that Neil Young has been hella good for a hell of a long time, so when he does his thing, it’s pretty magical.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake: this is a concert film. If you’re looking for a Neil Young biopic, this isn’t it. You get a lot more insight into the man by listening to the lyrics of the songs included here than by any of his reminiscences as he follows his brother Bob on a circuitous route to Massey Hall.<\/p>\n

As for the gig, those hoping for a set heavy on “classic” Neil Young tunes will be disappointed. What we do get\u2014”Down by the River”, “Ohio”, “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)”\u2014is fantastic, but this tour was unapologetically in support of Young’s 2010 release Le Noise<\/em>, and Neil Young Journeys<\/em> almost seems like a promotional film for the album.<\/p>\n

That’s not as bad as it might sound to some. Aided by the production talents of Daniel Lanois, Le Noise<\/em> shows that Young still has plenty left in the tank. Better still, Young several of the Le Noise<\/em> tracks are actually more compelling live than on record, with the 65-year-old Young having lost nothing as a guitarist and next to nothing vocally.<\/p>\n

Neil Young Journeys<\/em> looks good, but it sounds spectacular, the sound mix tweaked just right to maximally feature the sound Young and Lanois brought to Massey Hall on this night.<\/p>\n

“[W]e both have silver hair and a little less time,” Young sings at one point during the show, “but there still are roses on the vine”\u2014a statement proven true by this show. Onscreen credits give the title and year of each song played \u2014straightforward enough, except for “Hitchhiker”, which is listed as 1975\/2010. Lacking extensive knowledge of the Neil Young catalog, I was unaware as to when this song was first released. I certainly couldn’t tell from listening to it, as its was every bit as vibrant as something that might have been produced by a Neil Young less than half the age of the man intensely hacking away onstage.<\/p>\n

That may be Neil Young Journeys<\/em> greatest achievement: documenting the durability of a musical artist whose importance to a certain branch of modern music\u2014Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Wilco, Modest Mouse\u2014cannot be overstated.<\/p>\n

Neil Young Journeys screens every day through Thursday, July 31, at 4:30PM and 8:30PM (except there’s no 8:30PM show Wednesday). The Art Theatre of Long Beach is located at 2025 E. 4th St., LB 90804. For more info, call 562.438.5435 or visit arttheatrelongbeach.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"journeys<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Neil Young Journeys<\/em> <\/em>is basically a concert film and is light on “classic” material. But with Neil Young, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":69555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4405"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4405"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}