Concert review: Rock god Neil Young stretches out on both the acoustic and the electric

"Here I am with this old guitar doing what I do," Neil Young whined during his opening number, 1992's "From Hank to Hendrix," on Thursday night at sold-out Northrop Auditorium.

The rock god has been known for presenting quirky concerts. In 2003, he offered a hippie stage musical with actors, sets and songs. He has toured solo, surrounded by a semicircle of acoustic guitars. And he has done ear-splitting rocking shows, with roadies dressed as alien creatures and the stage dressed with oversize cartoon amplifiers.

At Northrop, he unveiled a most appropriate quirk: One solo acoustic set and one electric set with a four-piece band. The formula fit his Hall of Fame career, during which he has been the melancholy folkie and the rebellious rocker with equal success. Thursday's concert was a fanatic's dream, filled with lots of obscure and seldom-performed songs, but it was also a casual fan's disappointment if they were hoping for lots of hits.

Overall, it was a rewarding but unsatisfying evening, short on consistent vocal passion and short on the kind of soaring highs Young has provided in the past.

The opening 11-song, 50-minute set was very even keeled, with his vocals almost as bland as the beige sportcoat and pants he was wearing. The true believers ate up the obscurities, including "Sad Movies,"Mellow My Mind" on a banjo and "Ambulance Blues," a Nixon-era tune with the line "I know a man who tells so many lies" that resonated in these Bush times.

Young did not indulge in heavy politics in song or conversation, as he did last year on his "Livin' with War" album and his tour with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. On Thursday, he was friendly, chatting about "growing up a few miles north of here" (Winnipeg was his teenage home) and how geese make the sky seem dark (a comment as cryptic as some of his lyrics).

Highlights of the opening set were the familiar "A Man Needs a Maid" (rendered on a psychedelically painted grand piano), the trippy "After the Gold Rush," the inevitable smash "Heart of Gold" and the spirited "Love Is a Rose," which featured a passionate harmonica/guitar jam.

Performing on a stage that looked like an abandoned theater, Young was joined by three former colleagues -- drummer Ralph Molina (Crazy Horse), bassist Rich Rosas (Bluenotes) and guitarist-keyboardist Ben Keith (Stray Gators) -- for an 11-song, 70-minute electric segment. He opened with "The Loner," the first song from his first solo album in 1969, and impressed on the set's departure, a lonely dirge-like reading of Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me."

The most potent stuff was a trio of tunes from his current "Chrome Dreams II": the grungy grinder "Dirty Old Man," the snarling "Spirit Road" with CSNY-worthy vocal harmonies and the 13-minute "No Hidden Path," with a penetrating Young guitar solo that was about harmonics, not thrash. If ragged guitar glory was what the fans craved, they got it on the ferocious finale, "Like a Hurricane" -- with the soon-to-be 62-year-old raging on his old guitar.

Jon Bream • 612-673-1719

Jon Bream • popmusic@startribune.com