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Crosby Stills Nash

All pictures and text © 2004 by Kelpie

I went to Red Rocks for the first time on Thursday, September 2nd, to see Crosby, Stills and Nash in concert. It was an incredible venue for an incredible concert. I'm so glad I was able to go!

Crosby Stills Nash
Red Rocks Ampitheater
Morrison, CO
Thursday, September 2, 2004


Kelpie’s Review:

It was a totally gorgeous day for an outdoor concert. The weather in Colorado has been so funky all summer that it was definitely a toss-up whether or not it was a good bet to go to an outdoor show. We had snow (ok, it was actually hail) at the beginning of August, for heaven’s sake. But I really wanted to see Crosby, Stills and Nash together (especially since Jeff Pevar and James Raymond were part of the band as well), having seen Neil Young solo earlier in the year on his Greendale tour. CSN are icons… they’ve been around a long, long, time and their list of hits… well, the box set came out in 1991 and comprised four disks, with 18-20 songs on each disk. They have hundreds of songs and many of those songs have been the soundtrack of our lives, for those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s. I may be a bit on the young side, really, for some of their earlier music. But I have gained a real appreciation, I hope, of their classic songs. The upshot of all this inconsequential stuff is… I really, really wanted to see them live. As with many acts of that vintage, the guys are getting older, and it’s anyone’s guess how much longer they are going to tour.

So when I saw that they would be at Red Rocks, more or less in Denver, more or less an hour away from where I live in Colorado Springs… I decided that I wanted to try to go. I did find someone to go with. That was fortunate, because I don’t think I would have had the gumption to go alone… as much as I wanted to see them. I had never been to Red Rocks (and I don’t like driving in or around Denver anyway). Now, having been there…. it’s definitely not a place I would want to catch a concert solo. We ended up with third row center (!!!) which is better than I’ve ever had for any major name concert. It was really cool!

After a lot of searching online and calling around, I did find out that I'd be able to take pictures at the show. I was really glad. So when my concert companions and I took off from the Springs, headed to Denver, I was very pleased. We were leaving early enough that traffic would not be a problem, with plenty of time allowed. And I would be allowed to take my camera in and take pictures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Pevar and Raymond (and Finnegan and Vitale and Santos). And the weather was perfect… it had become partly cloudy, but no rain was forecast, so the overcast just kept the weather from getting too hot. There was a nice breeze and the forecast was for a low of 50 overnight so it wouldn’t be too cold. (I took a coat into the amphitheater, but I never had to put it on, it didn’t get that cool. Not even on the descent from the amphitheater down to the parking lot.)

I had never been to Red Rocks. I couldn’t believe it when we finally got there. (And climbed up and climbed up and climbed up… ok, not stairs, it was a ramp, but still.

Red Rocks is such a beautiful venue. Set amongst the natural red rock formations that were formed thousands of years ago, with excellent natural acoustics amidst a gorgeous natural setting, even the seats, ramps and other amenities blend well into the natural beauty. It is a very steep climb to get up into the amphitheater. We parked in the lower south 1 lot, so we had to climb up to even get to the entrance, then get on the steep ramps that lead up into the actual amphitheater. Our route led us past the parking lot for the three huge semis and four (or was it more?) nice custom tour buses. All I could think was, not “are CSN in those buses??” but “I sure hope they have a van or golf cart to get the performers up this hill and to the stage!”

Red Rocks was totally a beautiful venue, if hard to get up to. Flanked on each side by natural red rock formations, which are even named (Creation Rock on the north side, Ship Rock on the south. Stage Rock, unsurprisingly, behind the stage.) The background of this page, and of the picture page, is a photograph I took that night, which shows Creation Rock. I looked at a map of the venue (map) and I realize that we came into the amphitheater around Pulpit Rock and went down to our seats… I never even got up to the upper level plaza! I bet the view from up there was gorgeous. Red Rocks Amphitheater is just an awesome, somewhat natural venue. The acoustics are great.

I was able to meet up with one member of the lee-shore message group (it was nice to meet you and your hubby, Linda!) Apparently another lee-shore lister was also at Red Rocks, and also third row center, but since I didn’t know that before I went, and had no idea what he looked like, I don’t know if I saw him. I did not see anything on the lee-shore list or the CSN message boards regarding any kind of get-together of shorers for Red Rocks pre- or post-show. Maybe next concert!

The stage was set up with three different areas for Stills, Nash and Crosby, respectively, as I looked at the stage. Stephen apparently prefers a hard, slick surface, so his area of the stage has that kind of surface, almost looks like a portable dance floor. Graham, according to what I’ve heard and read, always performs barefoot, so his area and David’s have a carpet.

You can see a little bit of the hard floor for Stills and the carpet for Graham’s bare feet and for David. I took this picture before the show started. I was really surprised when they came out because the first thing I did was to look and see if Graham was barefoot… and he wasn’t, he had shoes on. Before they started to play, though, his shoes came off. He’s apparently known for that. In a couple of the pictures that I took, you can see that he’s barefoot, and I think in one of them (aside: the Woodstock pic) you can even see his discarded shoes sitting back by the drums…

The concert was just… awesome. It was a beautiful night, the weather was just right… not raining or hailing, not too hot, a nice breeze flowing through the amphitheater to cool down the performers and the audience. It was just about full dark at 8:10 when Crosby, Stills, Nash, with Pevar and Raymond, and Finnegan, Vitale, and Santos, took to the stage. The audience gave them a good reception… it was fun to see. The guys looked, and said that they were, very happy to be back at Red Rocks.

The band:
David Crosby, guitar and lead vocals
Graham Nash, guitar, percussion and lead vocals
Stephen Stills, guitar and lead vocals
Jeff Pevar, guitar, other stringed instruments, backing vocals
James Raymond, keyboards and backing vocals
Mike Finnegan, Hammond B3 organ and backing vocals
David Santos, bass (and he’s a native of Morrison, Colorado, according to Graham)
Joe Vitale, drums

The set started with Carry On. What a classic song, and it was such a pleasure to hear it. It made me realize that I really WAS hearing Crosby Stills and Nash… It was immediately followed by Questions. The set list was very similar to several recent shows that I had read reviews of on the Crosby Stills Nash message boards. But sometimes the audience gets an extra song put in (The Red Rocks audience did! :))

Marrakesh Express was next. Then 49 Bye Byes. After that, Croz announced that they were going to perform a new song. He said that he knew when he said that, that the audience would think "oh no, another endless ballad that when he gets to the end of it, no one knows what he was talking about…" Croz promised that wouldn't happen. He said this new song was a hard rocker and a rant against the climate of corporate greed as personified by things like Enron. Then they sang They Want It All. It really got the amphitheater rocking!

The bad part about sitting close up is, you don't get to see a lot of the audience. I didn't have a good way to judge how big the audience was (later word said sold out) or what their reaction was to most of the songs, since the majority of them were behind me (and I sure wasn't going to take my eyes off CSNPR to look at the audience!) I also couldn't get a good feeling for how many people were like myself and had purchased the new double cd and was familiar with the new songs. They actually performed relatively a lot from the new double cd, seven out of their total of twenty-five songs were from Crosby*Nash. I loved that, since I love the cds! I *think* the reaction was favorable from the audience… but like I said, I wasn't in a good position to note that for sure.

After They Want It All, CSN performed another song from the new cds, Jesus of Rio. This was wonderful to hear live. It kind of made sense that after that song, CSN would perform Stills' Feed the People. I believe it was after this that CSN made one of their few direct political references, before they segued into Military Madness. For the most part… partisan politics were avoided during this concert.

After Military Madness, the Red Rocks audience got a bonus. Croz or Nash said they wanted to do another song from the new cds, that they enjoyed. And I know *I* sure enjoyed seeing them perform Luck Dragon. It sounds even better live than it does on the cd. After that, Croz said he had been in trouble with just about every branch of the government, over the years, except the CIA, so he dedicated Nighttime for the Generals to them. There was a great guitar jam between Peev and Stephen on this song. I loved watching them play off each other and spur each other to new guitar heights. This happened several times throughout the evening and I enjoyed each one (and of course tried to capture them photographically... which I think I did, a couple of times.) I always enjoy seeing a masterfully played, hard rocking guitar solo. And I saw a bunch of them this night!

Déjà vu was next, followed by a classic Love the One You're With, with the crowd encouraged to join in. After that, the band took a short break and announced a fifteen minute intermission.

Twenty minutes later, CSN returned to the stage. They began the second set with Southern Cross, another classic. It was amazing to hear the audience participation. This was followed with another song from the Crosby*Nash cds, I Surrender. Great harmonies on this one. Then another classic, Helplessly Hoping.

I was amazed at the sheer quantity of different guitars that the band had. It seemed like the guitar techs were bringing each guy a different guitar after every song. Without resorting to the pictures, I couldn't even count how many different stringed instruments were used. I guess it could be limited to two apiece, except for Peev who had at least three. (I'm just too lazy to go back to the pictures and actually count.) Peev had a lap guitar and something I think was a mandolin… and all different kinds of guitars. I read somewhere that he can play any kind of stringed [ie, guitarlike] instrument (and he's self-taught!). Stephen had at least three different guitars, electric and acoustic. I was sad that for most of the Crosby*Nash songs, Stephen left the stage… but I enjoyed his stellar guitar playing very much when he did stay on for a Crosby*Nash song (and during the CSN and Stills songs of course!). Graham had at least an electric and an acoustic guitar; he also played a tambourine with a drumstick on a couple of occasions. Croz sometimes played guitar, electric or acoustic… sometimes he just sang. (I think I have a picture of him singing with his hands in his pants pockets.) He did appear, however, to have completely recovered from the broken hand that he suffered in August. His playing seemed as good as ever, and his hand as good as new, from what I could observe.

I did not get any good pictures of Mike Finnegan, who plays the Hammond B3 Organ. I did very much enjoy his playing, however, as there were a number of songs where his contribution was highlighted. (I tried to take pictures of him… just none turned out, because of the angle or the lighting or something.) I was watching James Raymond play his keyboards over on the other side of the stage for most of the night. He also had some highlighted contributions. Joe Vitale's drumming was good, and he had quite an extensive drumset (not as extensive as Deen Castronovo's Journey drumkit, but much more extensive than PRR's.) David Santos seemed to be a very solid bass player and I was conscious of his contribution at several points. But the focus, naturally, was on Crosby, Stills, and Nash… and to a lesser extent, Pevar and Raymond.

The next song they performed was the first song off the Crosby*Nash cds, Lay Me Down. I love this song, and they performed it marvelously. It sounded so good bouncing off the rocks. The harmonies were superb. After Lay Me Down, Croz said that the Crosby*Nash cds were recorded very fast. He said one day he had to go to the dentist, and when he came back, the others had written and recorded Milky Way Tonight. This song was incredible to hear, sitting high in the Rockies and looking up at the stars. I just can't imagine a better setting. This is one of those songs where you just have to close your eyes and soak it in… and pinch yourself to make sure you're not dreaming. I was totally awed at the *rightness* of the performance of this song.

Next the group performed a Stills song, Anywhere Around Us. The songs the whole night were so good, I am running out of superlatives. It is interesting to think of the sheer volume of songs that have come from all of these individuals. I did like the Stills songs that were performed, though I'm less familiar with his work.

Croz introduced the next song by saying that his son, James Raymond, had been reading in the newspaper about a contest to come up with a permanent monument for Yucca Mountain in Nevada, where nuclear waste is buried. He mentioned that the marker would have to last for 30,000 years. The song that James Raymond wrote is a pretty good marker, I think… and it is pretty clear that we Don't Dig Here.

~~you can dig for diamonds in the dust
and you can dig forever if you must
but if you dig this mountain high and clear
there's much to fear
just don't dig here…~~
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