Rocker Neil mixes new material with good old Young

By Jim Sullivan BOSTON HERALD REVIEWER

If you hear that a famous rocker is going out on a solo tour, you immediately think, “Oh, acoustic, unplugged.”

If you hear that a famous rocker is going out on a solo tour, you immediately think, “Oh, acoustic, unplugged.”

This is not the case with Neil Young, who at 64 is fit, in fine voice and as determined as ever to go his own way - both in choice of instrumentation and material.

At Worcester’s sold-out Hanover Theatre on Friday, Young played some hits but included a large chunk of obscure or unreleased material. He’s no one’s jukebox.

The stage was often bathed in warm, amber light. Large warehouse lamps trimmed in fringe hung over a tie-dyed baby grand piano.

Young started and ended the oft-majestic, 95-minute concert on acoustic guitar and harmonica. The elegiac late-’70s classic “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)” kicked it off and the massive soft-rock hit of the early ’70s, “Heart of Gold,” closed it.

But Young also played a lot of electric guitar, ripping through “Ohio,” “Cortez the Killer,” “Cinnamon Girl” and “Down By the River.” When he sang “Down by the river, I shot my baby!” his feedback-drenched stun-guitar overtook the vocal - no easy feat.

He was at the baby grand for a romantic “I Believe In You.” He was at the pump organ, reworking the environmentalist theme of “After the Gold Rush” to include “Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 21st century.”

Young played another new tune, “Leia,” on upright. It was a gentle number about an elder looking with wonder at a newborn. It prompted his only real chat, as he explained that it was not about his granddaughter, as he had none. (He added he did have two grand-dogs.)

The new “Love and War,” played on an electro-acoustic guitar, was wistful and dark. He conjured up a wrenching scene of a young soldier who was killed in war and left behind a young bride to explain it to their child.

Other new songs included a sizzling and self-lacerating rocker, “Hitchhiker,” and a droll, bluesy “You Never Call.” She never calls because she’s in “heaven with nothing to do - the ultimate vacation” and he’s still working on Earth.

Young mixed gentle reflection and raucous noise. The overall tenor of the concert, though, was not of celebration, but of foreboding and nuanced mood pieces.

Bert Jansch, a British singer-guitarist and early inspiration for Young, opened up with a stellar folk-blues set.

NEIL YOUNG, with BERT JANSCH.

At the Hanover Theatre, Worcester, Friday night.