Compiled from a series of gigs in September 1973,
Roxy: Tonight's the Night Live
captures
Neil Young & the Santa Monica Flyers
just after they recorded the epochal
Tonight's the Night
. It would be another two years before
hit the stores, the label sitting on the record because it was too dark and murky. On-stage, these same songs straighten themselves out and, in the process, get a touch lighter. On
, it often appeared as if
Young
and his crew learned the songs as they recorded them, but on
Roxy
,
the Santa Monica Flyers
have the changes under their belts and are really in the mood to have a good time. For anybody who has bought into the dark mythos surrounding
, it's startling to hear
Neil
and his band joking around on-stage and treating this as an Irish wake, not an occasion for mourning. As such, it's almost a necessary addendum to
, since it illustrates how
's music continually evolved. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine