Heart of Gold

at E Street Cinema, 3/1/2006

The film, "Heart of Gold," is a Neil Young concert, filmed by Jonathan Demme. Normally, I wouldn't post about a movie, but Demme has a way of making films of live performances that really capture the essence of the live performance experience, and use all the tricks and tools at his disposal to create a kind of hyper-real experience. Remember "Stop Making Sense" and "Swimming to Cambodia"? The guy's got a gift... and more obscure, remember the PBS performance art series, "Alive from off center"? That was too good to last - and he had a hand in that too...

Anyway, there are many good resources already online where you can learn more about this beautiful film. I first heard about it thanks to Greg Sandow's blog post. There's also an interview w/ Young and Demme on Studio 360:
[link to transcript]
[or stream the segment, requires RealPlayer]
[or download the Studio 360 podcast for 2/12/06 - this is the segment included as the podcast for that week. here's the feed address]
They were also on "Fresh Air." Someone's got a good publicist...

I love the new songs in "Prairie Wind" - and many of his old "hits" sounded fabulous as well. Kudos to Neil Young (and the audio mixing team) for achieving the impossible: not letting Emmylou Harris steal the show. She certainly added a great deal, but her presence wasn't overpowering. (I only mean that as a huge compliment re: Ms. Harris' abilities...)

The performance was staged in a bizarrely anachronistic way - I guess to make it seem timeless? Costumes were a bit over the top, but the performance was so fabulous, and the cinematic treatment of it so perfectly executed, I really have no complaints. It's an absorbing document of a mature artist at the top of his game. 4 stars. A must see. Better than Cats.

unrelated: a hilarious review of Scott Stapp's show at 9:30 club thanks to DCist.