Neil Young’s catalog is uncomfortable for a tribute band for good reason. The songwriter responsible for Harvest‘s hushed confessional around acoustic guitar and string arrangements spent years also grinding through electric demolition with Crazy Horse on Rust Never Sleeps, two distinct artistic identities that happen to share a name and a voice. Harvest & Rust, the Western Massachusetts-based five-piece named for exactly this tension, has built a Northeast reputation on the argument that one evening can hold both — what the band calls, with appropriate ambition, “a night of complete Neil.” They bring that argument to Cohoes Music Hall on Saturday, Jan. 16.
About the Show
The band draws from a rotating pool of more than 70 songs: Young’s solo catalog, the Buffalo Springfield years, and the CSNY collaborations, with no two sets identical — a design philosophy borrowed from Young’s own refusal to repeat himself. The core five: Garrett Lechowski on lead vocals, guitars, piano, harmonica, and banjitar; Matt Cahill on guitar, piano, and backing vocals; Andy Gordon on pedal steel; John Kiernan on drums; Jim Reynolds on bass. The band regularly expands with additional local musicians to cover the full breadth of Young’s work, from the acoustic quietude of the Harvest era to the electric wallop of Rust Never Sleeps.
Twenty-one sold-out shows spanning New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and Delaware suggest this isn’t a nostalgia act coasting on name recognition. Randy Smith, president of Cooperstown Concerts, saw them in February 2025 and called Harvest & Rust “one of the premiere Neil Young tribute bands in the Northeast … a stirring, authentic performance.” Tor Krautter of the Berkshire Theatre Group added in December 2025 that the band is “the complete package” that “performs the music of Neil Young with the accuracy and passion it deserves.”
Venue & Logistics
Cohoes Music Hall is a 350-capacity historic theater in Cohoes, part of the Capital Region. Close quarters for this catalog: the contrast between the acoustic and electric halves of a Young set, in a room that size, registers in a way it wouldn’t at twice the capacity. The show is at 7:30 p.m. at 58 Remsen St.
Tickets
Tickets are $29–$39, available online or through the box office at 518-434-0776 (Tuesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.) for reduced fees. Buy tickets