CSNY | Air Canada Centre, Toronto

Now this wasn't as anticipated an event as most of the shows I've been hitting this summer, as my dad sprung it on me a few weeks ago. I wasn't very familiar with the careers of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash or Neil Young, or any combination of the four (I'm not exactly proud of that) but Neil Young is a cool cat, so I'd figured I'd go, seeing as I didn't have to pay for anything. I'm always hesitant about old-timer acts because you never know if their motive is the music and the fans or $$$. With ticket prices around the $80-$100 range, and ugly t-shirts going for $40, I questioned if these fellas were part of the corporate greed they sing out against.

Foolishly, I left my camera in the car, because these old dudes (Stills and Crosby are so round they look like they could explode at any minute) put on one heck of a show Monday night. Blending songs from the solo and group careers of all four men, the first hour rocked hard with songs from all four men, including several from Young's new album "Living wih War," seeing as this tour was entitled the "Freedom of Speech Tour '06." The first hour was heavy with blues/country/rock, the guitars raging and sounding most excellent. After a short break, the group came back with a few acoustic favorites, including "Our House," "Deja Vu," and "Teach Your Children." The group then resumed rocking the place for the rest of the three-hour set.

Besides the ticket and t-shirt costs, my only complaint was the general idea of the Freedom of Speech Tour. None of the guys said anything directly about the war, but of course many of the songs were politically charged. Besides the songs from Young's new album (which were accompanied by a desecrated peace sign hangning in the background), about halfway thought the set a video featuring the faces of soldiers who died in Iraq along with a rising count of deaths played while the group performed "Find the Cost of Freedom." Clips of President Bush contradicting himself while the group played Young's "Let's Impeach the President." Anti-war songs and protest seem sort of redudant at this point, as musicians have been doing it for a while now, and most of the country no longer favors the war. It's almost as if CSNY jumped back into the protest scene a few years too late. And the messages did not nearly have the same effect in Toronto as they probably do in the U.S., as the pot smoke drifted around me from every direction, and only receiving a mere, "Please put that out," from the ushers.

Despite this, CSNY still kicked it, with a great version of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth," ending the set with what else but "Rockin' in the Free World," and a one-song encore of "Woodstock."

In a related note, Canada rocks, man. Toronto is such a beautiful city. It's very clean, besides a few bums here and there, but there is always something going on, and the crowds are always so diverse. It kinda stinks that their's almost no exchange rate between Canadian and American cash moneys, but it still is awesome.

Oh, and Neil Young is from Canada. And Neil Young was THE MAN Monday night. The guy dresses like a farmer, but rocks so hard on guitar, I'm very ashamed I'm not more familiar with his work.

I'm a little behind on my posts, as tonight I saw Yo La Tengo perform "The Sounds of Sounds of Science" back in Buffalo. David is seeing it in Brooklyn tomorrow, so you'll hear from one of us about it.