Show Review

Crosby, Stills, and Nash were initially billed as a super-group. Former shining stars in seminal sixties groups the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and the Hollies respectively, CSN were once known as the sum of their parts; three great guitarists and established vocalists joined together in one band. In many ways, the trio’s original material didn’t matter as much as their presence and the interaction between the three rock powerhouses and their occasional band mate Neil Young. Thirty-five years later, Crosby, Stills, and Nash are still a super group, but for different reasons. Though the white-collar crowd at the trio’s packed Lincoln Center performance predominantly consisted of baby boomers and their twenty something children, few fans came to hear the three stars combined pre-CSN canon of over one-hundred songs. Instead, they came to experience one of classic rock’s most enduring, and surprisingly intact, units.

Opening with the Déjà Vu classic “Carry On,” CSN dove straight into their Age of Aquarius repertoire. With his naked feet clearly visible, Graham Nash narrated the three-hour concert, cracking jokes about his long-time band mates and recalling most song’s original inspiration. Once Neil Young’s chief rival and artistic foil, Stephen Stills relied on his lead guitar to express his thoughts, ripping through bridges as if he were playing arenas instead of performing arts centers. And throughout the night, the walrus-like David Crosby waddled around the stage, adding acoustic guitar and vocals, uttering the evening’s most revealing comment: “We each have roles in this band. Stills writes kick-ass rock songs, Nash writes anthems everyone can relate to, and I write the really, weird shit.”

Drawing mostly from their greatest hits collection, the trio played live stalwarts like “Immigration Man” and “Marikesh Express,” earning enthusiastic responses from most in attendance. While their former band mate Neil Young has taken a dramatically different performance approach this summer, playing his new musical novel Greendale in its entirety, Crosby, Stills, and Nash are continuing to provide fans with a “best of” show, with the polar opposite strategies leaving most audiences still searching for a healthy median. CSN’s song selection is at times predictable, and their arrangements remain akin to their album incarnations, yet their charm falls in their humble performance and acceptance as a nostalgic act. Crosby motioned to his chrome dome before his classic “Almost Cut My Hair,” and Nash joked that Stills initially switched from keyboards to guitar to get laid. At one point, Crosby even bashfully admitted that he walked onstage with his fly unzipped and that his wife needed to remind him that his flag was at half mass.

Staking claim to his rock ’n roll roots, Stills soloed his way through Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” jamming the song’s outro, and showed more strength during the electrified “Woodstock,” as well as the more, sedated, but equally powerful “Wooden Ships.” Still a viable vocal trio, CSN took some time to explore their more reflective material, playing stripped down versions of “Helplessly Hoping,” “Our House,” and a strange semi-a cappella cover of “My Country Tis’ of Thee.”

Though, where Young has produced some of his most groundbreaking material since the dawn of grunge, Crosby, Stills, and Nash have yet to follow up their Woodstock-era masterpieces. Fans took bathroom breaks during new material, like the Graceland-esque “Feed the People,” and Stills sat out of Nash’s George Harrison keyboard elegy “Lost Another One.” Crosby’s solo spot fared better, playing acoustic numbers like “They Want it All,” which addressed the recent Enron scandal, though the phrase “oldies but goodies” remained implanted on each audience members’ mind throughout the two set show.

Since their inception, CSN have hired stellar-backing musicians as their rhythm section and Lincoln Center was no exception. Longtime collaborators organist Mike Finnigan and drummer Russ Kunkel provided a solid foundation from which Crosby, Stills, and Nash built their tight, vocal harmonies and quick, gibberish solos. The trio also nodded to former auxiliary organist Booker T. Jones by covering his “Old Man Trouble,” as they did during their 2002 tour with Neil Young and Jones himself.

Closing with the audience friendly sing-a-long “Teach You Children,” it seemed apparent that Crosby, Stills, and Nash will forever be remembered as a single super group, not a collection of individual super stars.

Mike Greenhaus is a freelance writer based in Westchester, New York

Photos courtesy of Buzz Person at CSN.com.