Gig review: Crosby, Stills & Nash, Royal Concert Hall Glasgow

DAVID Crosby’s traditional assessment of the chemistry between the three members of Crosby, Stills & Nash still holds true more than 45 years into their on/off collaboration.

Stephens Stills, Graham Nash and David Crosby performing with Neil Young (right). Picture: AP

Crosby, Stills & Nash

Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow

Rating: ****

Stephen Stills writes the “awesome rock ’n’ roll songs”, as evidenced at this show by Southern Cross; Graham Nash provides the singalong anthems, of which the comforting domesticity of Our House and Teach Your Children were the benchmarks, and Crosby himself writes “the weird shit” such as the extended folk rock raga Déjà Vu.

But they criss-cross into each other’s territory too. Stills’ Love the One You’re With was as compellingly catchy and rousing as any song in their extensive repertoire and Crosby’s Almost Cut My Hair raged most righteously. Each of these silver legends took a solo turn in the second half to debut new material – which sounded much like their old material. Nash’s Myself At Last chimed with as well as questioned his past, Crosby’s jazzy What Makes It So was intriguingly offbeat and Stills’ Virtual World was yet another effective showcase for his stormy guitar playing.

With no less than five guitars battling it out on stage, there was always the danger of overshadowing those signature harmonies at points, though Crosby and Nash turned in their usual sublime double act on Guinnevere and the band’s collective firepower was more than welcome on the mighty Wooden Ships, an old post-apocalyptic hippy anthem with obvious resonance during the current refugee crisis.