Tour news: Neil Young, Dinosaur Jr, Who Shot Rock & Roll

Neil Young is set to show Downunder audiences their stuff. Photo / NZ Herald

So far this year, Neil Young has delivered a concert film, a freewheeling memoir in Waging Heavy Peace and his best album in ages - the new Psychedelic Pill, which reunites him with veteran backers Crazy Horse.

Now here's more good news for the Young faithful - he's touring here in the New Year.

With Crazy Horse in high-decibel support, Young, who turns 67 next week, will play at the TSB Bank Arena in Wellington on Tuesday, March 19 and Auckland's Vector Arena on Thursday, March 21.

Those who prefer Young the West Coast folkie may need to brace themselves. The tour, which is already on the road in the United States, is reportedly mixing recent songs from recent albums Americana and Pill with his electric guitar classics from his late-70s Rust Never Sleeps/ Live Rust and late-80s Freedom eras.

Young was last in New Zealand as the closing act at the 2009 Big Day Out in Auckland. Said our reviewer of that performance: "Young is from the generation that first discovered the joys of electric guitars, amps and volume - and he still plays like a man thrilled with the idea."

You can bet that might still be the case come March. Tickets go on sale November 19.

Talking of high-volume guitarists, also coming this way are Dinosaur Jr, the band who helped kick off the grunge era of the early-90s but who have steered their own haphazard way since.

The original Massachusetts trio of singer-guitarist J Mascis, singer-bassist Lou Barlow and and drummer Murph parted company in the 90s but reformed in 2005 and last played here a year later ("what the Auckland crowd witnessed was three guys who were back together, loving what they do, and playing better than ever" said our reviewer).

This time, they're playing Auckland's Powerstation on Tuesday, March 5, on the back of new album I Bet On Sky - which TimeOut's expert described as "effortlessly enjoyable" in his four-star review. Tickets on sale from Monday.

Framed for rocking
The Auckland Art Gallery's Who Shot Rock & Roll exhibition, which opens this weekend, won't just be quiet contemplation of pictures of folk famous for being loud.

The exhibition, subtitled A Photographic History, 1955 - Present, has come to Auckland from New York's Brooklyn Museum, where it originally opened in 2009.

The gallery is staging a series of monthly Tuesday night Open Late live events involving food and drink, along with DJs and music luminaries talking about their favourite shots, all capped off by live performances - some of which fit happily into the refined gallery setting, some of which should rattle the frames quite nicely.

The first is next Tuesday, with Tim Finn talking about his pick of the 173 photographs on show, followed by a set by Watercolours, fresh from winning the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards Critics' Choice category.

Some speakers are to still to be confirmed but so far appearances at the forthcoming Open Late schedule are:

December 11: Shayne Carter (DJ), BFM's Charlotte Ryan (talk), band The Libres (playing);
January 22: Don McGlashan (talk), Dear Time's Waste (playing);
February 5: The Eversons (playing);
February 19: SJD (playing).

Among notable names behind the exhibited photographs are Linda McCartney, Dennis Hopper, David LaChappelle, Annie Leibovitz, and Diane Arbus. The photos range in vintage from the age of Elvis Presley and Little Richard to the hip-hop era of Eminem and beyond. The exhibition opens on Saturday and runs for three months.

* Graham Reid talks to curator Gail Buckland about the photographers of Who Shot Rock & Roll in Saturday's Weekend Arts section.

- TimeOut