Neil Young is his own tough act to follow

How can he top last time?

Last October, Neil Young played a show at WaMu Theater that ranks among the best I've seen this century. The grandmaster of rock and godfather of grunge was in top form, presenting a powerful show of classics, obscure gems and impressive cuts from his then-new album "Chrome Dreams II."

Like the album, in which he rerecorded songs he had scrapped in the '70s and recorded some like-minded new ones, the show was a return to his roots as well as his take on contemporary culture. It all came together during his classic "After the Gold Rush," when he updated the original "look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s" lyric to "in the 21st century."

Young's high singing voice was sweeter than ever, with ringing tones at the end of lines. He raged on electric guitar, with one solo lasting almost 20 minutes, and played acoustic guitar, piano, organ and harmonica.

The crowd loved every moment of the two-set (acoustic and electric) performance. Anarchy broke out, with hundreds of fans leaving their seats to bum rush the stage, where they danced the night away.

Young will have a hard time matching that memorable show when he brings his latest tour to Comcast Arena in Everett on Tuesday. The tour opened Tuesday in St. Paul, Minn., and continues for eight weeks, closing in New York at Madison Square Garden.

One thing will be different this time — he will have two opening acts, Seattle's own Death Cab for Cutie and a new Los Angeles band, Everest, which released its debut album, "Ghost Notes," in May. Last time the opener was Young's wife, Pegi, and her band, who played a short set of wise, engaging original songs.

The Comcast Arena openers could be an effort to lure more young people (although the high ticket prices may turn some off). The WaMu audience was mostly longtime fans, but there was an impressive number of young people there, too, a tribute to Young's continuing influence and relevance.

He played a lot of fans' favorites at WaMu, like "A Man Needs A Maid," "Love Is A Rose," "Heart of Gold" and "Cinnamon Girl." It seems unlikely he'll do that again, because the hallmark of Young's career is that he's always changing, always surprising. The set list will probably be different, although the news release for the tour says, "sets are expected to be eclectic, featuring both newer material and classic Neil Young hits."

The conventional wisdom regarding the last tour was that he revisited his early period onstage because he had spent a long time going through old material in preparation for the "Archives" series of five boxed sets, the first of which, "Vol. 1 (1963-1972)," was supposed to have been released last year but has been pushed back to 2009.

His sifting through old tapes resulted in two releases, last year's "Live at the Fillmore East" from 1970 and 2006's "Live at Massey Hall" from 1971. A third in the series, "Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968," is to be released Nov. 25. It will feature such Young staples as "Broken Arrow," "Expecting to Fly" and "Mr. Soul."

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312

or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com