What does it feel like to support Neil Young and Crazy Horse?

“In some ways, they were the least nerve-racking shows I’ve ever done, because I couldn’t see a single person’s face,” said singer-songwriter Husky Gawenda.

Neil Young performing at the Big Day Out festival on the Gold Coast in 2009. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

In these pages last week I wrote about Melbourne indie folk band Husky, whose compelling fourth album, Stardust Blues, is based on a narrative inspired by a day in the life of denizens of a now-demolished building. In 2011, the group shot from obscurity to national recognition when its song History’s Door was added to Triple J, and in 2013 Husky landed the plum gig of supporting rock ’n’ roll stalwarts Neil Young and Crazy Horse on a national tour of entertainment centres and wineries.

But what does that sort of support slot look, feel and sound like for the band in question, which is hired to warm up in front of the biggest crowds of its members’ lives?

“We all grew up listening to Neil Young, so getting the gig was kind of surreal,” singer-songwriter Husky Gawenda told me. “And then — in the same way that all experiences in reality are very different to the way you imagine them — the actual tour was not what we expected, in many ways. We met Neil Young a couple of times, and that was kind of fun but not necessarily remarkable; not life-changing. We didn’t become close friends or anything like that; he was just a guy. And the shows were bizarre; we were four guys playing pretty soft folk music in these huge stadiums. I think they were 13,000 to 15,000 capacity venues, and it was less nerve-racking than you would expect. In some ways, they were the least nerve-racking shows I’ve ever done because I couldn’t see a single person’s face. There was something very detached about it, whereas when you’re in a little room and there are 10 people there, and you can see the detailed expressions of every one of their faces, that’s confronting. That’s when I’m most nervous.”

And what does that sort of dynamic do to a frontman who has been robbed of his ability to connect visually with the audience? Who was Husky playing for at those shows?

“We tried to get up on the stage and play for each other, as a band, as if we were just in a rehearsal studio, and tried to really lock in and get the chemistry flowing between us,” Gawenda said. “And then I tried to keep in mind that even though I couldn’t see anyone’s face, and a large percentage of the people there were coming in, sitting down with their hot chips and a beer, and having a chat with their mates — people were doing that, but there was a small percentage of people who were taking interest and listening to us, and they were the people that I was playing for. Even a small percentage of 15,000 people is a few people. It’s just statistics, right? And it’s funny; years and years later I still have people come up to me at shows and say, ‘I discovered you at a Neil Young concert and I’ve followed you ever since.’ ”

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