Steven Stills and Neil Young Madison Square Garden, NYC, 2/22/02 Photo by Glenn Emerstone Photo © 2002 NY Rock

To paraphrase Neil Young in a recent interview, he felt it was time to heal the masses. And thus, the band reunited for its second tour in three years. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Neil's got a new one coming out this month, titled Are You Passionate?

With just the right amount of high-pitched wail and wet, ugly supersonic guitar leads, Young kept Crosby, Stills and Nash and their majestically soaring vocals from getting, well, too pretty. For a quarter of a century, Young has managed to keep the eternal flame of punk, psychedelia and grunge well lit. And the artful mix of beauty and beast kept the event from becoming just another reunion.

David Crosby Madison Square Garden, NYC, 2/22/02 Photo by Glenn Emerstone Photo © 2002 NY Rock

As soloists, the band members' celebrity almost predates the pill. English rag MOJO even dubbed them the American Beatles in a recent issue. With members coming from such influential bands as Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and the Hollies, CSNY were one of the first super groups of the sixties. Not content to let past glories earn their keep for this year's high-priced tickets (some peaked at $200 a pop), the band packed three hours of song, spirit, and community into one event.

Opening with "Carry On" from the 1970 gem Déjà Vu, CSNY set the pace with their three- and four-part harmonies and the dual guitar onslaught of Young and Stills. The two riffed off each other as if they were duking it out for rock turf, while bystanders Crosby and Nash egged on the fray from opposite corners of the stage. Stills' fluid finesse was countered by Young's edgy, dirty-ass style in a battle of titans, egos and personalities that goes back to the duo's days as founding members of Buffalo Springfield in 1966. Watching these two blood brothers go for the jugular in a guitar slugfest was well worth the pricey seats alone.

While Young may have been the spirit and driving force that pushed CSN's status quo into spontaneous combustion (with an impassioned might usually reserved for his other band, grunge commandos Crazy Horse), Crosby and Nash's choir-like hymnals managed to keep the band's sound soulful, serene and grounded in sixties idealism. On Nash's "Military Madness," Stills and Young took the song's plea one step further, into a punk-driven attack on the industrial military complex. And on the sci-fi apocalyptical "Wooden Ships," the calm soothing tones of Crosby and Stills peaked at song's end as both guitarists played bluesy vamps of beautiful noise.

Steven Stills and Neil Young Madison Square Garden, NYC, 2/22/02 Photo by Glenn Emerstone, © 2002 NY Rock

The Byrds' classic "Eight Miles High," complete with Stills and Young's twisted guitar work, brought the crowd to its feet. Stills' pristine playing was once again countered by Young's rough and tumble. Then, as if EVERY word counted, Crosby delivered "Almost Cut My Hair," his signature mustache still giving him that acid-eating tripped-out grin, God bless him. "Cinnamon Girl" ended the first set, loud, fuzzy and unforgiving. Young's lanky, bobbing frame moved in unison to bassist Duck Dunn's booming bottom end as Young's black Les Paul screeched like an oncoming locomotive.

The second set started acoustically with Stills' "Helplessly Hoping." Each band member followed with an unplugged gem from his own repertoire. Crosby and Nash's "Carry Me" and "Guinevere" were particularly haunting as the duo's vocals combed the heavens. Young's "Harvest Moon" was snug and poignant.

The band took a breather and then proceeded with "Let's Roll" off Young's latest Are You Passionate? The crowd responded defiantly, somber, yet vocal when Young dealt the line, "Let's roll for justice, let's roll for truth/Let's not let our children grow up fearful in their youth." His delivery embodied the persona of the passengers on September 11th's Flight 93 as they resisted hijackers and crashed to their deaths in Pennsylvania. At the song's end, a "USA! USA!" chant rang out.

"Woodstock" took everyone back to the positive vibes of the sixties and the three-day fest the band played in 1969. "Rockin' the Free World" snatched back the hands of fate from a world of cynicism and doubt, to one where an audience's fist-pumping resilience became a reality.

"Long May You Run" ended the evening gently with its message of faith, charity and strength. "Although these changes have come," CSN&Y healed wounds at the Garden like only old friends can. Long may they run.