Neil Young played a handful of songs from his 1975 classic Tonight’s the Night for the first time in five decades during his appearance celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles on September 20th.
When the Roxy was first opened by producer Lou Adler in 1973, Young was the first artist to play the venue. Along with his then-current band, The Santa Monica Flyers, which included Crazy Horse stalwarts Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina, plus pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith and guitarist/pianist Nils Lofgren, Young had just finished the album Tonight’s the Night, which wouldn’t come out until 1975.
Young’s recording from the Roxy shows would eventually be released as Roxy: Tonight’s the Night Live, an archival live album from 2018. Young returned to the venue to celebrate its 50th anniversary with a set that included full performances of both Tonight’s the Night and his essential 1969 album with Crazy Horse, Everbody Knows This Is Nowhere.
That meant that, for the first time in almost exactly 50 years, Young performed rarities from Tonight’s the Night on stage. Three of the songs from that album, ‘Lookout Joe’, ‘Borrowed Tune’ and ‘Tired Eyes’, hadn’t been performed in any capacity since 1973.
Young performed with the current iteration of Crazy Horse, which includes Talbot, Molina, and guitarist Micah Nelson, the son of legendary outlaw country star Willie Nelson. Nelson had performed extensively with Young as a part of Promise of the Real, his brother Lukas’ band when they briefly became Young’s full-time backing band between 2015 and 2019.
Thanks to the inclusion of Everbody Knows This Is Nowhere, popular tracks like ‘Cinnamon Girl’, ‘Down By The River’, and ‘Cowgirl in the Sand’ were played as well. The concert also featured the debut live performance of ‘Round and Round (It Won’t Be Long)’, the Nowhere album cut.
Watch Neil Young and Crazy Horse play ”Tied Eyes’ down below.
