Neil Young and Crazy Horse played last night on a stage partially lit by 12 flickering candles.

Perhaps no symbolism was intended, but the quartet proved a fire still burns within them during an often-electrifying show at the Saddledome.

"Hey hey, my my/rock `n' roll will NEVER die," Young sang defiantly in Out of the Blue, a raging behemoth of an opening number. Though initially intended to be a tribute to The Sex Pistols, now the song is more of a tribute to Young and Crazy Horse, closing in on their third decade but still threatening to burn out rather than fade away.

Indeed, this was no nostalgia act. A chestnut such as Cinnamon Girl from 1969 was played with the same sloppy garage-rock fury as, say, Pocahontas from 1979 and F---ing Up from 1990. While Crazy Horse laid down the chugging grooves, Frank (Pancho) Sampedro's slashing rhythm guitar and Young's squealing, squeaking, screeching guitar solos pushed the songs to the brink of cacophony. But the music was more than simply noisy -- it was volcanic.

The show had its softer moments, too.

Their version of Helpless positively ached with vulnerablility, while Needle and the Damage Done -- performed by Young solo on acoustic guitar -- proved a highlight. When Young sang, "every junkie's like a setting son," you knew he was thinking of former bandmate Danny Whitten and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain.

If the show had a fault, it was Young and Crazy Horse's tendency to allow its improvisations to meander too much.

But that's a minor point -- rock 'n' roll will never die as long as Young is around.

As for opening act Moist, they're the sort of band a fat, fortysomething, tragically unhip record executive would consider cutting edge. Moist are to the 1990s what Honeymoon Suite and Loverboy were to the 1980s -- an empty vessel following the musical tide,

Pete Droge and the Sinners opened the night with a set of Crazy Horse-styled guitar rock.