Pop Reviews : The Buddy System Still Works for CSN

For Crosby, Stills & Nash, harmonies are just about everything, and the perfection of same--or lack thereof--has made or broken many a show over the years. Early on Wednesday night at the Universal Amphitheatre, at the climax of the vocally demanding “In My Dreams,” David Crosby seemed exultant, clenching his fist and jerking his elbow back in a job-well-done salute. “OK, if the hard stuff goes good, it’s gonna be a great night,” he promised.

Fortunately, the hard stuff continued to go well throughout the two-hour set, in the first of two nights at the hall. There’s always plenty of potential for messing up the tight vocal arrangements--they know it, the audience knows it, and when a tricky harmony goes flawlessly there’s more victorious hand-slapping than at a Dream Team massacre.

Individually, CSN tend to be less than the breakdown of their parts, and the show did bog down with the inevitable two-song solo segments. Graham Nash indulged an unseemly flair for melodrama with “Cathedral”; Crosby revived “the song they threw me out of the Byrds for” (understandably so), a meandering menage a trois tribute, “Triad”; and Stephen Stills failed to evoke ‘60s glory in introducing his new riots-inspired, Bush-bashing “Won’t Go Away.” Here’s to the buddy system.

Will freshman Marc Cohn be as beloved when he passes the two-decade mark? Cohn’s approach in his opening set proved warm and pleasant, but nothing in his material suggested lasting distinction. Vocally soulful but squarely in the earnest singer-songwriter mode, the Grammy winner for best new artist is either the thinking man’s Michael Bolton or the dull man’s Bruce Hornsby, or both.