Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts
Dalhalla, Rättvik, Sweden, June 18, 2025
With the Swedish midsummer twilight still hours away, deep down within the cavernous former limestone quarry at Dalhalla, 79-year-old Neil Young makes his way front of stage to receive a rapturous ovation that echoes across the remarkable meteor crater-like venue from a sell-out crowd of devotees, many of whom have travelled the globe to be here.
Dressed for the cool Swedish evening in grey plaid shirt, charcoal jeans and Casey Jones engineer hat, Young and his charges in The Chrome Hearts seem ready for business. There’s a new album, Talkin To The Trees, to promote and it feels as though Neil Young might, as usual, have a lot to say.
-
READ MORE: Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts – Talkin To The Trees Reviewed: Young still raging against the world
This night, a Neil Young show in Europe (the first of 13, including a Glastonbury headline slot and a visit to Hyde Park in July), seemed to be a long way away when, last summer, a Crazy Horse tour of North America was aborted, with Young stating latterly that he quit because he was so exhausted and (literally) just couldn’t go on.
But here he is, looking – and sounding – in rude health, fit and ready to carve out a groove in the quarry with songs that feel as though they themselves have been hewn from the ages old rock that surrounds the audience; Dalhalla feels like the perfect venue in which to begin this latest touring odyssey.
So much has happened since Young last came to Europe in the summer of 2019, not least Covid and the return of Trump. Back then, he was joined by Promise Of The Real and they make up the core of the largely much younger Chrome Hearts. They are joined by the masterful Spooner Oldham: the 82-year-old Muscle Shoals veteran who played organ for Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin and countless others, and whose association with Young goes back decades.
Chrome Hearts shine: (from left) Micah Nelson, Corey McCormick, Anthony LoGerfo and Neil Young on stage at Dalhalla, Rättvik, Sweden, June 18, 2025.
Young’s voracious appetite for getting his house in order got a kick-start in those years post Covid, archival releases coming thick and fast (almost 30 of them) whilst finding time to record three new records with Crazy Horse before Talkin To The Trees. That the new album was entirely absent from the set felt like a classic Neil Young move, as he delivered a group of songs that could define the word ‘random’.
To shift gear from solo acoustic opener Sugar Mountain, still such a bittersweet take on adolescence 60 years on, into Greendale’s raging eco-hymn, Be The Rain was a move few would have predicted. That Young would then lay waste to the electric songs that followed, with the ferocious energy of someone 30 or 40 years younger, was as electrifying as the music he played.
-
READ MORE: Neil Young's 50 Greatest Songs Ranked
That salvo of songs, dipping back to the very best of prime Crazy Horse, may even have been a bit of unfinished business after that abandoned tour of 2024 – here The Chrome Hearts followed their leader all the way; Corey McCormick’s watertight bass, Anthony LoGerfo’s crisp drums, and Micah Nelson’s second guitar melding into the ether, in a dazzling onslaught (close your eyes and it could almost have been the Horse). Nelson too was at the heart of it all in an early standout, a fierce When You Dance, I Can Really Love, stood stabbing at the stand-up piano keys, just as Jack Nitzsche did way back in 1970.
There was a lot of talk beforehand that perhaps, much like Bruce Springsteen’s recent onstage tirades against Trump, this may be a set strewn with overt politicking. But while he returned to Greendale for corporate polemic Sun Green, barking into his mic-ed up megaphone “there’s corruption on the highest floor”, outside of the songs themselves, Neil Young kept schtum, bar a customary “how ya doin’?”
The sheer relentlessness and pace of the opening electric burst could never last, so it was almost a relief to see Young settled down on the drum riser, have a rest with acoustic guitar in hand, for The Needle And The Damage Done, followed by Harvest Moon, one of the few moments where Spooner Oldham’s lush playing could really be heard and enjoyed.
The sometimes eclectic set veered off into two songs from two reunions with CSNY – from 1988’s American Dream album, Name of Love, and, for the first time in 25 years, Looking Forward, from the largely mediocre album of the same name. Tonight, with double acoustic guitars, the most gentle bass, brushed drums and some heavenly harmonies, this was a song that sounded so very pretty and so very far removed from the ugly album cut of 1999.
Muscular, punchy takes on two further Crazy Horse staples dove-tailed into each other, Love And Only Love and Like A Hurricane, both sounding huge, Neil Young hunched over the ever trusty Old Black, draining every last note he could muster from within the belly of his beloved guitar.
A wistful, thoughtful Old Man brought the set to a close after sharp 90 minutes, before the one thing that could be predicted on this sometimes curious opening night, the only encore of the evening: Rockin’ In the Free World. It was boisterous and angry, yet, ultimately, triumphant finale and the crowd stood as one, peace signs and raised fists stretching high into the Swedish night. With a wave to the crowd and a warm embrace for Spooner Oldham, Neil Young left the stage, and the first leg of the Love Earth Tour 2025 was done.
In many ways it felt like a bespoke ‘greatest hits’ set, but with enough twists and turns to keep the audience guessing. There’s certainly room to maneouvre a few songs in and out, but Neil Young may stick rather than twist too much as the long summer on the road progresses.
On this form, many will head home from their chosen venues happy to have heard some of the biggest songs within the sizeable canon of Neil Young’s collection alongside more unexpected cuts. They’ll also likely head home wondering just how a man within six months of his 80th birthday can do what he did in Sweden tonight.
Relentless and loud, delicate and soft and yes, ragged and glorious: Neil Young remains a unique yin-yang force of nature.
Set List: Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts Dalhalla, Rättvik, Sweden, June 18, 2025
Sugar Mountain
Be The Rain
When You Dance I Can Really Love
Cinnamon Girl
Fuckin’ Up
Hey Hey My My (Into The Black)
The Needle And The Damage Done
Harvest Moon
Looking Forward
Sun Green
Love and Only Love
Like A Hurricane
Name Of Love
Old Man
Encore
Rockin in the Free World