REVIEW
What: An Evening with David Crosby
When: Wednesday night
Where: Royal Theatre
Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)
If you let David Crosby build up a head of steam in concert, he’ll talk all night.
He’ll play a fair bit bit, too.
There was plenty of time for the 74-year-old Crosby, the white-haired wildman formerly of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, to indulge both sides of his personality during his concert Wednesday at the Royal Theatre. In fact, he talked and sang freely over the course of two sets, 20 songs, and 2 1/2 hours of entertainment.
And his sold-out audience loved every second of it.
Prior to singing Naked in the Rain, which he co-wrote with Graham Nash, he told a story about being “as high as three kites” on LSD — so high, in fact, that he was “hunting geese with a rake.”
Perhaps it had something to do with the song, perhaps it didn’t; he never explained. But Crosby has the ability to keep his audience hanging on his every word, so it hardly mattered.
Part of the appeal of a Crosby concert, beyond the music, is the content between the notes.
He talked politics, he talked marijuana (“How many people burned one in the parking lot?” Crosby asked following the intermission) and he talked sex. He even dished dirt on Joni Mitchell, prior to singing her song, For Free. “Falling for Joni is like falling into a cement mixer,” he said. “Very turbulent.”
His time as a member of the Byrds, which was cut short in 1967, was also a topic of conversation. Triad, which he wrote about a ménage à trois, was performed well, but with a disclaimer. The sexual nature of the song was not behind his exit from the Byrds, Crosby said. “It was not the reason, I want to say that categorically. It was because I was an a--hole.”
Crosby, no doubt, can recognize his faults better than most. “I write weird freaking lyrics to even weirder tunings on the guitar. I can’t help it, and you’re stuck with it.”
The two-time member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame proved — more than once — why he’s regarded with such high esteem. The title track from 1993’s Thousand Roads was a bluesy treat, while Carry Me, a powerful song he wrote about the death of his mother, moved him to tears. “Sometimes that one’s hard to sing,” he said afterward.
Crosby is hardly predictable, which is either a source of joy (for longtime fans) or frustration (for those who favour his hits).
He sounded great on a few lesser-known gems and dug deep into some unexpected areas, running the gamut from Laughing, from his solo debut, 1971’s If I Could Only Remember My Name; to Somebody Home, his 2016 collaboration with jazz fusion group Snarky Puppy.
He closed out the evening with a trio of Crosby classics — Déjà Vu (1970), Guinnevere (1969) and Cowboy Movie (1971) — that came from his most prolific period as an artist. Each one sounded better the next, giving his fans something of substance as they headed out the door.
Setlist
1. Tracks in the Dust, from 1989’s Oh Yes I Can
2. The Lee Shore (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), from 1971’s 4 Way Street
3. Naked in the Rain (Crosby & Nash), from 1975’s Wind on the Water
4. For Free (Joni Mitchell), from 1973’s Byrds
5. Dream for Him (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), from 1999’s Looking Forward
6. Triad (The Byrds), from 1971’s 4 Way Street
7. Thousand Roads, from 1993’s Thousand Roads
8. Where Will I Be? (Crosby & Nash), from 1972’s Graham Nash David Crosby
9. Page 43 (Crosby & Nash), from 1972’s Graham Nash David Crosby
10. Carry Me (Crosby & Nash), from 1975’s Wind on the Water
INTERMISSION
11. Everybody’s Been Burned (The Byrds), from 1967’s Younger Than Yesterday)
12. Rusty and Blue (CPR), from 1998’s CPR
13. What Are Their Names, from 1971’s If I Could Only Remember My Name
14. In My Dreams (Crosby, Stills & Nash), from 1977’s CSN
15. What Makes it So, from untitled 2016 project
16. Somebody Home, 2016 collaboration with Snarky Puppy
17. Laughing, from 1971’s If I Could Only Remember My Name
18. Déjà Vu (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), from 1970’s Déjà Vu
19. Guinnevere (Crosby, Stills & Nash), from 1969’s Crosby, Stills & Nash
Encore:
20. Cowboy Movie, from 1971’s If I Could Only Remember My Name
