Buffalo Springfield Have Their 'Greatest' Night Ever at Bonnaroo 2011

"We're Buffalo Springfield. We're from the past!" shouted singer Richie Furay at the top of his lungs, when the recently reunited band took the main stage at Bonnaroo on Saturday night. And he was right: this band has been gone for a very, very long time. Their last studio album was released in 1968. It's been decades since their last tour. But that didn't matter for this show. No, at this performance, it sounded like the classic rock legends had never taken a forty-plus-year break.

Playing almost exclusively from their three studio albums -- 'Buffalo Springfield,' 'Buffalo Springfield Again,' and 'Last Time Around' -- the group sounded in sync the entire night; surviving Buffalo Springfield members Furay, Neil Young and Stephen Stills showed exactly why the group was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. From 'On the Way Home' to 'Flying on the Ground is Wrong' to 'Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It,' they looked like they were having a blast up on stage, entertaining the tens of thousands that had come out to see them rock out.

But unfortunately, the set was not without its problems. The main complaint heard from the crowd was that the volume just wasn't high enough. When you are pretty close to the stage at a concert for one of the more influential rock groups ever, there is no reason you should be able to have a clear and coherent conversation with your neighbor without screaming. Alas, you actually could, causing many annoyed Springfield fans to start chants of "Turn up the volume" and "Louder." In the end, it didn't work, and everyone had to live with what the current decibel level was at.

Yet that shouldn't distract from the band's overall performance. While it did lag a bit toward the middle, renditions of 'For What It's Worth' (which fans didn't immediately recognize in the beginning because it sounded a bit different) and Young's 'Keep on Rockin' in the Free World,' showed why Buffalo Springfield was a breeding ground for other iconic classic rock groups (Crosby, Stills & Nash, Poco and Young's many other projects and bands).

And from how Young put it at the end, it was as much an important night for Buffalo Springfield as it was for the fans: "It's great to see you all here," he said. "We're lucky to be here with you. This is the greatest thing we've ever done."

Watch a Reunited Buffalo Springfield Perform in Oakland on June 2, 2011


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