Neil Young has assumed many guises over the years, some more successfully then others – as the country folk-rock poet who gave us the classic Harvest, he was indirectly responsible for the 70s MOR boom! Deterred by success and all its trappings, he famously veered off course and ended up in a 'ditch' where he eventually wrote some of the most harrowing music ever put to tape.

His eventual re-emergence as the 'Godfather of Grunge' at the beginning of the 90s book-ended a strange 10 year musical period, beginning at the dawn of the 80s, for the Canadian during which he toyed with electronics, jazz, rockabilly and an assortment of others styles while intermittently returning to his country roots routine and the feverish amplified assault of Crazy Horse. But one thing has remained constant throughout – Young sticks to his guns no matter what and rarely does he stoop to meet anyone's expectations of him.

On the evidence of his recent Live at the Marquee show in Cork, the passing years have failed to blunt those idiosyncratic impulses. That's not to say Young polarised his disparate audience though, which ranged from youthful giddy teenagers to hoary and hairy rockers who have seen Young in all his forms – on the contrary, his set was well rounded, pulling material from the many facets of Young's remarkable career and extensive songbook.

'Love and Only Love', 'Hey Hey, My My' and 'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere' got things off to a raucous and literally electrifying start, as Young shows just why he is held up as an icon to successive generations of rockers – his pulsating garage rock is the definitive proto grunge sound. Fan favourites 'Needle & The Damage Done' and 'Heart of Gold' take us back to his Harvest days and in the veterans steady hands they still retain all their rustic, mournful and simplistic charms. The crowd duly lap them up, hollering in approval as soon as Young peels off another one of those unmistakable melodies from his mouth-harp.

Bob Dylan's 'All Along The Watchtower' and the Beatles 'A Day In The Life' get a Young feedback-heavy overhaul, while 'Unknown Legend' is as beautiful a slice of rarefied country strumming and lyrical lap-steel playing as you'll find anywhere. Elsewhere Young shows he's lost none of his six-string prowess, with the epic 'No Hidden Path', from his recent Chrome Dreams 2 album, serving as the piece de résistance. Over the course of its 25 minute duration Young gives into his avant-garde noise-mongering tendencies, coaxing both delicate and deafening shades of feedback from his guitar, as he sends sky-rocketing solo's off into the ether, plucks desolate and dusk-tinged chords straight out of the Americana heartlands and falls back on his country rock roots. Had the track been written 30 years earlier it surely would rank up there among Young's finest ever moments, no small achievement when one considers the rightfully lofty stature he holds and proof, if ever that it was needed, that Young continues to push forward in search of more ditches. A truly life-affirming performance.

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