Reviews: Paul Simon, Neil Young, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Joan Baez & More

This week, for your reading enjoyment, we have compiled critical reviews of live performances from Paul Simon in Queens Village, New York; Neil Young in Upper Darby, Pa.; Jeff Lynne’s ELO in Glasgow, Scotland; Joan Baez in Cleveland; Blood Orange in Toronto; Cat Power in New York; and Pink Martini in Worcester, Mass.
Paul Simon
PRNewsfoto/Legacy Recordings – Paul Simon
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Paul Simon @ Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens Village, New York, Sept. 23 – “We’ll never know what the show meant to Paul Simon, but hopefully it doesn’t mean that he’s now completely retired. Hopefully it means he’s going to keep recording new music and playing the occasional show. Hopefully it means we have years and years of new Paul Simon music in front of us. But if that’s not the case and he’s truly done, he couldn’t have possibly scripted a better ending than this one.” – Andy Greene / Rolling Stone

Neil Young @ Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Penn., Sept. 28 – “Sunday night’s show drifted without focus at points, but it had its full share of quietly electrifying moments. It closed with one of them, as Young sang, “Life is full of strange delights / In the darkness we find lights,” on “Tumbleweed,” a song from 2014’s Storytone, on which he finally put that ukulele to use.” – Dan DeLuca / The Inquirer

Jeff Lynne’s ELO @ The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, Oct. 3 – “The fact that Lynne’s stage persona was always so diffident means that even at 70 he seems as animated as he ever was, self-contained but still capable of wringing out surprisingly fierce licks on his Gibson Les Paul. At one point, the musical director of his urbane 12-piece band – including a three-piece string section and two backing singers, essential for filling out the luxurious ELO sound – pays effusive tribute to Lynne’s songwriting gifts and receives an emphatic crowd roar in return.” – Graeme Virtue / The Guardian

Joan Baez @ PlayhouseSquare in Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 3 – “The stage was stark – usually occupied only by Baez, her son, and Oberlin-born, Cleveland Heights-raised multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, and occasionally Stumberg – but it was a testament to the power of the music itself. Lasers and pyrotechnics are gimmicks real music – and real musicians – do not need.” – Chuck Yarborough / The Plain Dealer

Joan Baez
Steve Snowden – Joan Baez

Blood Orange @ The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, Ontario, Oct. 1 – “Appropriately framed around dialogue samples from Dev Hynes’s most recent Blood Orange album, Negro Swan, the interludes between songs highlighted themes of chosen family, queer identity and the contemporary Black experience.” – Kevin Hegge / Now Toronto

Cat Power @ The Kitchen in New York, New York, Oct. 3 – “Many performers engage with their fans during concerts, but the venue’s steep theater-style seating arrayed the audience before Marshall like a toy-store display, and she pointed, laughed and chatted with various crowdmembers throughout the show. Clad in a long black dress and high-heeled boots, she seemed elated to be performing in such close quarters, smiling often and dancing even when singing the quiet songs.” – Jem Aswad / Variety

Pink Martini @ Hanover Theatre for the Perf. Arts in Worcester, Mass., Oct. 3 – “For many, though, the highlight might well have been Forbes’ rendition of what’s arguably the band’s biggest pop hit, “Hey, Eugene,” a tale of drunkenly making out with someone at a party and then having the titular Eugene subsequently lose her number. In some ways, the clear, contemporary pop stylings could have felt like an intrusion but instead came off as just a foray into another language and genre, which had been the course of the night.” – Victor Infante / Telegram & Gazette 
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