On a rainy night in downtown Reno, a legend took the stage at the Reno Events Center. He plugged in his vintage ‘53 Les Paul he’s named “Old Black” and immediately reminded us that this guy is not just the “Godfather of Grunge.” Neil Young is more like a true son of rock ‘n’ roll.

Opening his two-hour set with “Love And Only Love,” Young made all of us see that new music comes and goes. But the great stuff only gets better. Now 62-years-old, Neil brought with him the heart of a young man as he played his songs with the edge and ownership that we paid to see. While many of us are used to that trusty one note power chord that we’ve come to love as fans, Young showcased his many talents. The set went from hard rock to lullaby-like acoustic and the instruments went from guitars and piano to pipe organ. He moved throughout his musical catalogue playing songs from his 40-plus albums. He played guitar laden classics like “Cortez the Killer,” “Powderfinger” and “Cowgirl In the Sand.” Setting down the electric for the acoustic and his harmonica he slipped into classics like, “The Needle And The Damage Done,” “Unknown Legend,” “Heart Of Gold,” “Old Man” as well as “Oh, Lonesome Me.”

While Neil sung, the crowd sung his every word. Between songs the rowdy Reno bunch hooted, hollered and cheered. When plugged in, he twitched and shuttered and banged his head up and down vibrating his hands and body across the stage.

After closing the set with a powerful version of “Rockin’ in the Free World,” Neil and the band encored with The Beatles, “A Day In The Life.” As the song came to a close he threw his guitar into the speaker and banged on the amp until all the strings broke and he was scratching the strings on the neck and causing feedback in the amps.

It was vintage rock ‘n’ roll.