Neil Young, the legendary Canadian singer-songwriter, returned to the stage at Deer Lake Park in Burnaby on September 7, 2025, kicking off the first of two dates on his Love Earth tour with his latest backing band, the Chrome Hearts. For longtime fans, the concert was more than just a trip down memory lane—it was a living testament to Young’s ever-evolving artistry, his blend of folk, rock, and protest music, and the raw, unfiltered energy that has defined his career for over five decades.
Young’s entrance was characteristically understated. There were no pyrotechnics or dazzling visual effects—just Neil, his acoustic guitar, and his trusty G key harmonica. According to the Vancouver Sun, he opened with “Ambulance Blues,” a deep cut from his 1974 album On the Beach. The song’s enigmatic lyric, “It’s hard to say the meaning of this song,” seemed to set the tone for the evening: reflective, sometimes cryptic, and always authentic. The crowd, initially chatty, quickly fell under Young’s spell as the first notes rang out into the overcast night sky.
Soon after, Young switched to his electric Les Paul, launching into “Cowgirl in the Sand.” The performance, as recounted by Postmedia, was marked by a “distinctively sloppy groove”—a hallmark of Young’s style with Crazy Horse and now the Chrome Hearts. While Young’s 79 years were occasionally apparent in his vocals, the guitar interplay with bandmate Micah Nelson captured the psychedelic spirit of the sixties, with jams that felt both nostalgic and fresh.
Not every song hit the mark. “Be the Rain,” originally recorded with Crazy Horse for the 2003 rock opera Greendale, featured a megaphone vocal and references to three-eyed fish—a nod to environmental themes that, as the reviewer noted, might have felt more at home in an episode of The Simpsons than on the protest stage. But when Young turned his attention to the classics, the results were electrifying. The biting social commentary of “Southern Man” and the searing protest anthem “Ohio”—written in response to the 1970 Kent State shootings—reminded everyone why Young’s voice has always mattered in moments of political and cultural upheaval.
Young didn’t shy away from newer material, either. The song “Big Crime,” with its pointed line about “cleaning out the White House,” drew loud cheers from the audience, many of whom had driven up from the United States, as evidenced by the sea of U.S. license plates in the parking lot. (One attendee was even spotted sporting a MAGA hat, perhaps ironically.)
But the concert wasn’t all fire and fury. Young’s gentler side came through in acoustic renditions of “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and “Harvest Moon.” Couples in the crowd took to waltzing, and the reviewer described these performances as “radiating an honesty rarely found in the often drippy love-song arena.” The near-appearance of the actual moon over the lake added a touch of magic to the moment.
Between songs, Young kept his stage banter minimal, mostly checking in with the crowd and expressing gratitude. Still, he shared a charming anecdote about a local man named Randy, who managed to track down the guitar Young played with his first band, the Squires, in Winnipeg in the early 1960s. “I pawned it because I was going to become a folk singer,” Young joked, before strapping on the instrument to deliver a rousing version of Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul.” The song’s playful riff—a deliberate flip on the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction”—still sounded as fresh and vengeful as it did in 1967.
The setlist was a comprehensive journey through Young’s career, from the protest anthems and folk ballads of his early days to the raucous, guitar-driven tracks that defined his later work. Highlights included a “stellar version of Powderfinger,” which the reviewer argued deserves its own film adaptation for its vivid storytelling, and the catchy “Sun Green” from Greendale. The show’s “noisy portions” culminated with “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black),” before Young returned to his acoustic roots for the final numbers.
The encore began with “Old Man,” a song that, as the reviewer observed, “sounds very different coming from an old man.” Far from diminishing its impact, Young’s age seemed to lend the song a new gravitas, making its introspective lyrics even more poignant. To close out the night, Young dug deep into his catalog for “Roll Another Number (For the Road)” from Tonight’s the Night, a track the reviewer hailed as “the best trucker country track to come from a rock singer since Little Feat’s Willin’.” It was, by all accounts, the perfect sendoff for a crowd that had come to celebrate both nostalgia and the enduring power of live music.
Young and the Chrome Hearts are scheduled to return to Deer Lake Park for a second show on Monday, September 8, 2025. For those unable to attend in person, music-first streaming service VEEPS offers live and archived concert streams, bringing the experience into living rooms across Canada.
Beyond the concert, Young’s influence on contemporary music remains unmistakable. As detailed in a recent review of his early 1990s album Ragged Glory, Young’s willingness to experiment with distorted guitar tones and a “don’t look back” attitude helped inspire the grunge movement and bands like Green Day and Nirvana. The chemistry between Young and Crazy Horse on that album—evident in tracks like “Country Home,” “Over and Over,” “Love to Burn,” and “Mansion on the Hill”—showcased a raw, garage-style sound that was as much about creative freedom as it was about technical perfection.
The review noted, “There is a harshness to that sound, a blunt instrument which the very best would continue to use, as Young does to this day. Beauty in the harshness of this sound is what prevails.” That same spirit was alive and well at Deer Lake Park, where Young’s performance proved that the energy of collaboration and the courage to push musical boundaries remain central to his work.
Whether strumming a gentle ballad or unleashing a wall of feedback, Neil Young continues to defy expectations. His concerts—like his albums—are less about flawless execution and more about capturing moments of truth, honesty, and communal experience. As fans filed out into the Burnaby night, there was a sense that, for all his years and all his changes, Neil Young is still very much at the heart of rock’s restless spirit.
