Lana Del Rey, Beck, and Neil Young Come Together for Harvest Moon: A Gathering Benefit

In a pastoral setting an hour outside of Los Angeles, Neil Young wasn’t holding back on Saturday. With his new band The Chrome Hearts, he headlined the annual benefit concert Harvest Moon: A Gathering, with some first-rate support from Beck and Lana Del Rey.

In the fading late-afternoon sunlight of Lake Hughes, California, Young and his band performed their newest single, “Big Crime.” Released last month as a live recording, it’s a biting MAGA-era protest song in the songwriter’s decades-long tradition of fiery political commentary, from 1970’s “Ohio” to 2006’s “Let’s Impeach the President.” Like those earlier tunes, “Big Crime” is an urgent reaction to the state of things as they’ve unfolded in real time. To growling guitars, he warned: “Got to get the fascists out / Got to clean the White House out / Don't want no soldiers on our streets / Got big crime in DC at the White House.”

The performance was part of a wide-ranging set played to a crowd spread across the grass at The Painted Turtle, a camp for children with chronic illnesses—another cause of great importance to Young. The weekend’s Harvest Moon mini-festival raised funds for both The Painted Turtle and The Bridge School in the Bay Area, a favorite Young charity for children with severe speech and physical impairments. For 30 years, Young hosted the legendary Bridge School Benefit concert in Mountain View, California—with an all-star cast of major artists, from Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney to Jack White and St. Vincent—which ended after the 2016 edition.

Now, Young’s attention is on Harvest Moon: A Gathering, which last year saw Young co-headline with friend and sometime musical foil Stephen Stills, with support from John Mayer. The result is a new tradition of concerts headed by Young in a new idyllic setting. Founded in 1999 by a group led by actor Paul Newman and philanthropist Page Adler (sister of Young’s wife, Daryl Hannah), the grassy campus of The Painted Turtle hosted a show that often seemed more like a family picnic than a rock festival—except for the quality and firepower of the talent onstage.

Young began his set alone, strumming a small ukulele through “Tumbleweed” (which he introduced as “a song I wrote for my sweetheart”), followed on solo acoustic with a gentle, youthful “Sugar Mountain.” Later on, he sat with a banjo for a tender “My Boy.” Dressed in a train engineer’s pinstriped cap and paint-spattered clothes, Young moved from the delicate to the raging, often cradling his favorite black electric guitar, a 1953 Gibson Les Paul named Old Black. The guitar now looks increasingly weathered, fast-approaching the extremely broken-in flavor of Willie Nelson’s famous acoustic, Trigger. He’ll likely be riding that guitar to the end.

His backing band The Chrome Hearts features a multi-generational lineup that includes veteran organist Spooner Oldham, plus guitarist Micah Nelson (son of Willie), bassist Corey McCormick, and drummer Anthony LoGerfo (the latter two backing Micah’s brother Lukas in his band Promise of the Real). Together, they eased from the quieter hits from Young’s catalog (“Heart of Gold”) to the loudest, like a 12-minute “Cortez the Killer,” one of Young’s most staggering guitar epics.

Unlike last year, it was dark by the time Young and The Chrome Hearts brought the show to a close with “Roll Another Number,” a stoner lament from his darkest album, Tonight’s the Night. Singing of troubles and good times, it was a fitting farewell for the evening: “Though my feet aren't on the ground / I been standin’ on the sound / Of some open-hearted people goin’ down.”

Lana Del Rey opened her set with a cover of Young’s harrowing “The Needle and the Damage Done,” originally recorded to austere solo acoustic guitar. She stepped onstage to the sounds of a small string section, along with her band (acoustic guitar, drums, and organ) as she sang lyrics on the depths of drug addiction with a soft and warbly vocal. It was a typically bold choice for the singer, who explained with a smile: “I thought we’d get started with a little bit of Neil.” 

What followed was an elegant performance of songs from across her career. Dressed in a summery white dress and white cowboy boots, her nine-song set unfolded in the bright sunshine. With her strings swelling, she began “Norman Fucking Rockwell,” eyes closed to the sun, as she sang of a self-involved beau, followed by the autobiographical and sensual “Arcadia.” She then sat behind the organ beside keyboardist Byron Thomas for a wistful take on her 2011 debut single “Video Games.”

Before closing with an emotional “Young and Beautiful,” Del Rey brought out her little niece Phoenix to sing “Do-Re-Mi” (from The Sound of Music) a cappella, like it was a private moment at home. It was the kind of charming episode that fit naturally in the tranquil setting, but you could easily imagine Del Rey finding a place for it at any performance.

In dark shades, blue corduroy jacket, and a floppy hat, Beck opened his set with the gorgeous and melancholy “The Golden Age,” beginning his 10-song performance mostly focused on the gentler and heartbroken side of his repertoire. Then came his cover of The Korgis’ deeply emotional ballad from 1980, “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime,” which Beck re-recorded over two decades later for the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and made the song his own. The downhearted hit parade continued with “Lost Cause,” a song inspired by his own romantic experiences, landing his set in the realm of headliner Young’s most lovelorn tunes, or Dylan’s tortured Blood on the Tracks. 

Near the end, Beck and the band shifted into a livelier groove with “Where It’s At,” dependably laid back and danceable, all jazzy textures and hip-hop beats. From there, Beck picked up the acoustic and dug into an extended stretch of bristling gutbucket solo slide guitar, which then eased into his eccentric debut hit tune, “Loser.”

Together, Beck, Del Rey, and Young brought their best to the less formal concert landscape, surrounded by hills and nature, and far from the city lights. The artists took another step in establishing Harvest Moon: A Gathering as an essential musical summit in the historic tradition of his Bridge School shows. Long may they run.