Pushing 51 and with an ever-expanding bald spot on the crown of his head, Neil Young can still out-rock just about anybody, even those half his age.

He proved it recently in the Frankfurt Festhalle during a short tour of Germany, spending 150 minutes grinding out wonderful rock ’n’ roll in a show that featured a wide range of his work, some of it nearly 30 years old, but as fresh as the day it was written.

Young has never been one to shy away from taking chances. His albums have always been like a package from a grab bag basket at the county fair — one doesn’t know what to expect. In the past, the California-based Canadian has treated his fans to synthesized rock, pure country and even brand-new 1950s-era rock. He’s an idol of grunge rock leaders Pearl Jam and once recorded with country outlaw Willie Nelson.

In fact, he was once embroiled in a fight with his record company which claimed he was not producing "Neil Young albums" because his work was so varied and eclectic.

Like his early fans — those of us who remember him from his days with Buffalo Springfield — Young has gone through phases and stages in his life. When his fans were changing, so was he.

He dabbled in this and that, just like we did. While we were changing college majors, Young was changing musical directions. While we moved from one career choice to another, Young skipped from acoustic guitar to computers.

We grew. He grew.

But with middle-age, changes come more infrequently. People settle into a particular lifestyle and venture away from it only rarely. And usually that lifestyle is quite similar to one from years earlier, before life became a series of experiments and adventure. We seem most comfortable, ultimately, at home.

It seems the same for Young. His latest albums have been pretty straight rock ’n’ roll — screaming guitars and shouted lyrics.

On this latest tour, he even reached back more than 25 years to reunite with a favorite band, Crazy Horse. They helped Young produce some of his best rock ’n’ roll then and they still form a wonderful alliance — three middleaged men with their guitars and one playing vicious drums.

In the Frankfurt show, Young and Crazy Horse walked casually on stage with no introduction, took their places and burst into Hey, Hey, My My — "rock ’n’ roll will never die" — without so much as a "hello." From that, they moved into Down by the River, a 25-year-old song that seemed daisy-fresh in this 15-minute version.

Before Young slowed it down with a brief acoustic set, he rocked the joint with other classics, such as Cinnamon Girl, and some songs from his new album, recorded with Crazy Horse.

Alone with his acoustic guitar and harmonica, Young played I Am a Child, which is a Buffalo Springfield-era song, and Sugar Mountain, a concert-only classic that has never been recorded on a studio album.

The highlight of the evening came when Young and Crazy Horse spent about 20 minutes jamming on Hurricane. It left Young with broken guitar strings and the crowd wanting more, which Young gave it in two encores.

The final song of the evening was his haunting Tonight’s the Night, a 20-year-old tribute to a dead friend, but played here like a rocking anthem, not a mournful eulogy.

During the entire evening, Young paid little attention to the crowd. He never said a word of thanks, not one greeting. The only two words he said on stage outside of the songs were "Crazy Horse," which he uttered as he returned to the stage for the first encore.

That figures. Just like his fans who have reached middle age with him, Young has learned that little is gained from idle chatter. He let his work speak for him.

And what it said was: Nobody does it better. Not at any age.