Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps (DVD)

I’ve never been a huge Neil Young fan.  He’s one of those artists whose greatest hits get played so much on classic rock radio that you’re completely sick of them and I’ve also heard a lot of his stuff that I just don’t care for.  I do, however, love Harvest Moon and Arc-Weld for reasons that escape me since they’re not really that much of a departure from his other stuff.

The concert movie Rust Never Sleeps has always piqued my curiosity though.  The tour that this performance is from was once named one of the top concert performances by Rolling Stone.  If you’re unfamiliar with it, on this tour the roadies were dressed like Jawas from Star Wars and the stage had props like amplifiers whose size was exaggerated so that the people on stage were dwarfed.

The other aspect of this film that had me interested was that it was one of those movies that always was playing at the midnight movies when I was growing up.  By time I was old enough to go to them, the theatre started showing more modern movies so the movies I missed always had a bit of mystery to me.  When I saw the Rust Never Sleeps DVD used  for five dollars I bought it without hesitation.

From a concert perspective the performance is amazing.  A good chunk of the set is solo acoustic which I’m usually not crazy about, but Neil plays songs like “Sugar Mountain” and “After the Goldrush” with a great energy.  The solo songs are so good they almost overshadow his performance with Crazy Horse.  The electric songs are great as well, but based on what I’ve heard before that’s less of a suprise.

From a movie standpoint though it falls flat.  The opening sequence of the roadies shuffling around before the show gets boring after the first 30 seconds.   Same goes for the other interruptions throughout the show - they may have worked for the people in the crowd at the time but sitting through it in the movie becomes aggravating.  The sequence with the Woodstock announcements is beyond boring.

The sound and picture quality aren’t wonderful but for me that’s not an issue considering when it was made.  There is a weird thing about the sound though.  Between songs you can clearly hear Neil’s footsteps on the stage, him dragging the piano bench across the floor, even when he picks up a harmonica out of the glass they’re held in.  I don’t know if that was in the original film or if it’s part of the DVD mixing, or if it was even done on purpose.  It’s just odd.

The bottom line is that Rust Never Sleeps is one of the best concert films I’ve ever seen and I’m not even a big Neil Young fan, although it definitely has made me one now.