Neil Young - Global Citizen Festival (2024)

EXTRAORDINARY FESTIVAL APPEARANCE FROM YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE IN CENTRAL PARK Neil Young and Crazy Horse were deep into a blistering set on Central Park s Great Lawn when Young made an announcement: We re joining forces up here for you. Dave Grohl and Dan Auerbach then took the stage with their guitars to tear through a ten-minute version of Rockin in the Free World, slashing power-chords while reverently watching the master take over, Young wrenching hazy, piercing, dissonant squeals from his Les Paul and shaking violently. Young s feedback-soaked set - which ranged from Powderfinger to new cuts like the autobiographical Born in Ontario and the spooky jam Walk Like a Giant was an epic finale to the Global Citizen Festival, which drew more than 60,000 people to Central Park on 28th September 2012, and also included the Black Keys, the Foo Fighters, Band of Horses, and others. Organized by the Global Poverty Project to raise awareness about extreme poverty, the concert incorporated films about malaria, polio and other tragic diseases, played between performances while speakers dropped sad statistics ( every minute we lose a child under five to preventable diseases; 300,000 women die every year of poverty ). This didn t exactly get the vast audience in the mind-set to rock, but the mission was clear. Most tickets were free, with fans earning them by sharing information about extreme poverty on social media. Young was focused on the present, playing several new songs in a set that featured only two tracks released before 1989. It began with a heavy, nearly fifteen-minute jam on Ragged Glory s Love and Only Love, with Young and guitarist Frank Poncho Sampedro facing each other, playing blistering solos with punk attack. Young quickly launched into Powderfinger, full of twin-guitar mastery. He also went acoustic for moving versions of The Needle and the Damage Done and the new Twisted Road. I m remembering the first time I ever came here for an audition, Young said of New York City before the twangy new Born in Ontario. It s a great place, even though I didn t get it.