Crosby, Stills, and Nash live concert performance and ensemble analysis

¶ … Crosby, Stills, and Nash (CS&N) concert I attended. Both my parents were big fans of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and when Neil Young went his own way the trio that was left continued making music in concert, touring, and writing songs. So since I had been hearing CS&N's music for much of my life as an adolescent and young adult in college, I was interested in hearing the classic rock group live.

What was the makeup of the ensemble (singers)?

Crosby, Stills & Nash had a high-quality group of session musicians on the stage helping them bring a full, classic rock sound to the audience. Todd Caldwell played the organ; Shane Fontayne played lead guitar; Steve DiStanislao was on drums; Kevin McCormick played bass guitar; and James Raymond, who is David Crosby's son, played the keyboards for the group.

Flow of events

The concert started right on time, the intermission was exactly 20 minutes and the last set went for over an hour. The banter between David, Stephen and Graham was probably scripted but it elicited chuckles and cheers from the audience. Everything flowed very smoothly, and there was only one song I missed hearing and that was "Woodstock," which my mother played a lot on our CD player. She hadn't made it to Woodstock, but she loved their version of the song written by Joni Mitchell.

What was the venue like and what was the audience like?

The concert was in a classy venue that holds an estimated 2,500 people. It was like another venue I had been to that my mother called "art deco." It had very high ceilings (and there was balcony seating on each side high above the main seating area). There were gold-embossed abstract non-human figures on the walls (it probably wasn't real gold but it was gold colored) and there were colorful mosaics along the walls to the entrance to the lobby.

The ushers were wearing black pants, black (and well shined) shoes, and navy blue sport coats with red neckties. Most of the ushers were women and they were very helpful at locating reserved seats for concert goers. They all carried small flashlights to help people find their way in and out during the concert.

During intermission there were several kiosks that offered beer, wine, coffee and sparkling cider. They also sold small snack packages that had peanuts and a kind of trail mix that was fresh and quite good. People mingled and commented on the music, which was very tight and well presented. My date had a glass of local wine and I had a beer that had been packed in ice and nicely chilled.

The audience was just as I expected: most people were at least 40 or so and probably were as old as well into their seventies. After all it had been 44 years since CS&N played in at Woodstock, among their first public shows. White was a very common hair color in the audience -- after all, David Crosby's hair is all white and so it Graham Nash's hair. Some concert goers wore old CS&N t-shirts, buttons, or baseball caps with the CS&N logo. Others dressed up nicely with sweaters and slacks; women tended to be well-dressed in more instances than men.

But overall this was a polite and very appreciative audience; about half the audience consisted of couples (male-male, female-female, and male-female) but there were groups of women who came with daughters and maybe even granddaughters, it seemed. It should be mentioned that a few of the attendees wore "hippie" clothes: beads, tie-died shirts; peace symbols; bell-bottom pants; long hair in pony tails; and some even had their faces painted with hearts and peace symbols. A couple times the familiar aroma of marijuana could be detected although there was strictly no smoking in the theater. Ushers quickly found the culprit with flashlights and asked them quietly to put out what they were smoking. I didn't seen anyone ejected although the rules provide for that (signs say no smoking; violators will be removed).

In conclusion, the CS&N concert was exactly what I had hoped for and it actually exceeded my expectations. The musicians accompanying the band were very tight, the voices for the most part were strong and on key, and the songs were presented beautifully. Everyone in attendance got their money's worth and though I didn't buy a t-shirt for me or my date, I bought one for my mom, a fan from back in the day.