Neil Young is on borrowed time.

He’s had brushes with death ranging from childhood diabetes to epilepsy to a major brain aneurism that nearly killed him in 2005. Instead of killing him, it gave us all “Prairie Wind.”

Not to mention that the ol’ rock and roll lifestyle isn’t exactly marketing material for your average life insurance firm – and Neil has been a part of it for the better part of a half-century.

Such is the continuing cycle of one of the true legends of rock and roll as he celebrates his 65th birthday, which was on Friday. In commemorating “Shakey's” birthday, Jerry Perry did what he does best on Saturday night at Harlow’s and arranged a troupe of local acts (with a little help from out of town) to dust off their favorite Neil Young tunes and take them for a spin.

The results were at a few small points lost on even the more seasoned Young fans in the room (yours truly included), but overall delightfully demonstrative of the resilient fortitude and raw energy of his enigmatic catalog. There had to have even been a few “oh hey, I know this song” moments from the Harlow’s-for-Harlow’s-sake drifters.

As is usually the case with these tribute shows, the point for the artists was never to “sound like Neil,” but for each act to throw their own style and spin into the tunes of their choosing.

Honyock fired things up with by the book takes on a pair of Young’s radio hits, “Ohio” and the venerable “Cinnamon Girl.” These cats were no doubt chosen by Perry to jump-start a lineup that wouldn’t offer up one of your “greatest hits” type tunes for a fairly long ensuing stretch.

Christopher Fairman’s quirky outfit the Stilts dished out a chunky and properly dirty rendition of “Cortez the Killer” with remarkable flair – and sweet Jesus, was that a guy playing a typewriter? Yep, sure was.

Speaking of interesting sights, did anyone recognize that guy playing the drums for Walking Spanish (grainily pictured above in photo 2)? We’ll give you a hint: He’s been on that stage before, the lead singer is his little brother, and he’ll make just about all of us feel a bit sheepish about our pre-30th birthday achievements in this life.

Here’s a question for you: How many 13 year old kids can go to school on Monday and tell their friends that they got to hang out in a bar on Saturday night? The three dudes from Simpl3Jack can (if they have a problem scoring dates for the dance, there’s something really wrong with the world). There may have been some grumbling about them turning Neil tunes like “My My, Hey Hey” into bar chord amp rompers, but you can’t get mad at a kid who is younger than Neil was when he contracted polio that can handle a Les Paul like that.

Did you ever have anything that cool for show-and-tell? Didn’t think so.

While mentally rifling through Neil’s catalog and taking shots at what songs we might hear, the one I never saw coming was served up by local stalwart David Houston and his trio of string players, as they waltzed through a heart wrenching “Philadelphia,” the song that plays during the conclusion of the Tom Hanks film of the same name.

Way to sucker punch us all in the emotional crotch on a Saturday night there, David – but no complaints about the dirty sweet version of “Southern Man,” led by his firey acoustic guitar that was more distorted than a bachelor party at Badlands.

Equally silky smooth was veteran Sal Valentino and his acoustic trio, crooning “Wrecking Ball” and “Long May You Run.”

Considering the level of talent that is always present, stealing the show at a Jerry Perry tribute is no easy feat, so how come Saucer always seems to pull a Danny Ocean? When they hit the stage, it’s usually time to rock out with your (well, you know the saying), and there was no exception with their to-eleven walloping of “Down By the River” and a collectively energizing sing-along with “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Saucer also took the time to turn “Needle and the Damage Done” into a juiced up punk rock style number (stick a pin in your preconceptions of how Neil covers should sound and think for a second about what that song is really about, you’ll understand why this worked).

The show was in hyper drive for the remainder of the night, with the delightful Reggie Ginn perched at the keyboard and delivering a haymaker by absolutely owning “Like a Hurricane,” rattling the venue walls with her knee-weakening, soul charged wails. Ginn was the only solo act on the bill and, oddly enough, the only female act of the night (strange when you consider how well Neil songs would theoretically lend themselves to women vocalists).

Ginn resurfaced during Musical Charis’ fun-filled delivery of “Old Man,” and the Neil-love kept coming with Briangle (best band name ever, considering it comprised of three dudes named Brian) wailing out “Harvest Moon.”

Those out of town free agents we mentioned at the start were San Diego’s the Silent Comedy, who seem to have developed a love affair with our fair city - and that’s just fine with us. This wily gang of juke joint hooligans went ballistic with “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” went straight for the gut with “Helpless,” and (aside from a pair of unscheduled plug-and-go solo songs from Adrian Bourgeois at the tail end) provided a fitting closer with a raucous and jamming “Tonight’s the Night.”

Just to be pointlessly picky, the only song the Neil faithful may have wanted to hear but didn’t was “Comes a Time,” which has become the unofficial anthem of Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit concerts – but “Comes a Time” or not, Jerry Perry still sent 20 percent of the evening’s door take as a donation to the Bridge School.

Perry also dropped hints about a few upcoming tribute shows he’s hoping to bring to fruition in the coming months, including Burt Bacharach, Carole King, and another famous guy named Neil. Yep, Neil Diamond (oh hell yes!). He also has a Lou Reed/Velvet Underground tribute on the books for December at Old Ironsides.

(Note to self: Never spend four and a half hours filling your brain, heart and loins with the soul food that is Neil Young’s catalog, and then accidentally wander into MoMo Lounge’s back patio. It’s a worse buzz kill than finding out you are actually Tyler Durden).

(Photos: 1: The Stilts, 2: Walking Spanish, 3: Simpl3Jack, 4: Sal Valentino, 5: Musical Charis, 6: The Silent Comedy)