CSNY NOT WHAT THEY USED TO BE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Staff Writer

Nostalgia was the keynote for the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young concert at Staples Center on Saturday night. Despite the tour's trendy though instantly dated ``CSNY2K'' label, everything about the 31-song, 3 1/2-hour performance recalled old times. But while the whole shebang was orchestrated as a triumphant reunion of the ultimate Woodstock-era supergroup - the first in a quarter century to include all four members, after all - melancholy was the most genuine emotion found in the pumped-up, self-congratulatory atmosphere.

Truths both hard and beautiful became evident Saturday night. For starters, no, we weren't just stoned back then - the old songs are better than the ones from the group's latest album, ``Looking Forward.'' Also, unfortunately, most of 'em can't sing like they used to. But then, as we've suspected for decades, the combo should really be called Neil Young and His Three Assistants.

We also learned that despite the theory people's musical sensibilities become refined with age, enough middle-aged boomers packed into one place will interrupt the most fragile or fumbled performance with mass whoops and clapping as readily as any audience of drunken frat boys.

Credit the band - which included the four principals with a mind-boggling variety of guitars and the superstar-itself rhythm section of drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Donald ``Duck'' Dunn - for maintaining a cordial, good-time atmosphere throughout most of the lengthy program. L.A. native David Crosby repeatedly thanked the crowd for braving the evening traffic to attend, Nash joshed Crosby about his donations to Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypher's procreation efforts, and, to prove their local cred, Stills praised the extinct Santa Monica cable cars while Young rhapsodized about Union Station as a lead-in to a peppy, syncopated rendition of ``Marrakesh Express.''

Displaying abundant energy, the casually dressed rockers stomped and shuffled around on a stage adorned with Tiffany lamps through most of the night. Nash showed no indication of permanent damage from recently breaking both legs; he had the best white haircut, too. His vocal chords, however, are another matter. While Crosby could impressively shout his way through the likes of ``Almost Cut My Hair'' and ``Long Time Gone,'' Nash's more delicate voice could not camouflage his inability to hit the harmonies on ``Guinevere'' or ``Helplessly Hoping.''

For his part, Stills seemed to have trouble remembering some of the words - or what key they should be in - to such generational anthems as ``Woodstock'' and Buffalo Springfield's ``For What It's Worth.'' On the other hand, he wisely opted for a bluesy growl on his long-winded ``Seen Enough,'' the crankiest and best of ``Looking Forward's'' protest songs. And his guitar work was stellar throughout the night.

Indeed, the louder and wilder the guitars, the better the show got. Which, of course, meant that Young ruled. Song after song, he'd reboot the whole arena with fierce slashing ``Southern Man,'' ``Cinnamon Girl,'' furious jams with Stills (``Down by the River'') and feedback conniptions (the climactic ``Rockin' in the Free World''). And some deft Young electric noodlings were all that got us through a somnambulistic, mostly acoustic mid-concert set of Nash and Crosby's trite new ditties and unhit high notes.

Ironically, the Canadian's famously shaky voice is the only one that's grown richer with time. Undeniably, the four-part harmonies on ``Ohio,'' the new ``Slowpoke'' and title cut from ``Looking Forward'' and the mellow, elegiac encore ``Long May You Run'' were lovely to listen to, but you couldn't shake the feeling Young could have sung them just as well all by himself.

But a Neil Young concert would have been a much different thing, perhaps better musically but lacking in the palpable sense of renewed camaraderie that is the whole ``CSNY2K'' enterprise's selling point. Sure, it's commercially calculated in a way that only reunions of rich media hippies can be. But there also was an authentic ring to how thoroughly happy the quartet appeared to be together again after all the contention and breakups of past years. If their history is any indicator, they may not run long, but overall, this round was something worth looking forward to.

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Photo: From left, veteran rockers Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Neil Young and David Crosby play onstage in their first group performance in 25 years Saturday night at the Staples Center.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer