Crowded House Live at Napier's Church Road
A review of the penultimate show from Crowded House's NZ Tour of 2021
The dates were shifted, since our world is different now. And that would not have worked for some people - which is very sad. And in the end it worked for me, for which I am now very grateful. A mate bought some tickets to see Crowded House at Church Road in Napier and of course we said yes. This was a conversation at Christmas and the months raced by and then we realised there was a double-booking. We couldn’t go. But the captain of the team of five million announced a mini-lockdown for Auckland and a slight reduction for the rest of us and the international members of Crowded House were just getting out of MIQ to get ready to hit the road and the dates were pushed back.
The silver lining in all of this - for me at least - was that now I could go.
Last night I went.
I’ve seen Neil Finn in so many line-ups and configurations - solo and with brother Tim, as part of reformed Split Enz and Crowded House shows, in big venues, in little venues, with string sections and special guests. I’ve seen Liam and Elroy Finn in various line-ups and venues come to think of it.
But I was glad to see the always-likely Finn Family Band take some of Neil’s very best songs to grateful audiences.
We’re lucky. Here in New Zealand. We know it. The world tells us this. We tell ourselves - some of us take it for granted, at least some days anyway. But concerts, particularly ones featuring our best and absolutely world class musicians is certainly a reminder. We dance and (some of us) drink. And sometimes the dancing - and almost always the drinking - is too much. And tonight it will result in a chair being hurled up front and Neil will stop the show very matter of factly and efficiently call for the removal of one idiot. And that will happen. And the result is good. And it’s a shame it will be likely brushed off by too many as not a big deal at all. And probably there was all sorts of other bad behaviour since it was a concert at a winery. And in Hawke’s Bay of all places.
But, also, the setting was gorgeous. And Uncle Neil said so right at the start and the assembled people of Napier just looked back like they’d always known that anyway.
We were twice lucky last night. First we had the music - the chance to assemble, to be ‘free’ in the relative sense. (Paying for that privilege of course). To get to mingle and watch. To get to experience what very quickly felt like a past thrill only. Secondly, we got to experience that music.
In a mix of crowdpleasing hits, and, well, crowdpleasing deeper cuts, Neil Finn at the helm with his scarecrow haircut that likely would be in place even if there had never been a lockdown, and the prodigal sons no longer in the shadow of all that glorious music, now deep in the engine-room, this was an absolute clinic.
As songs tumbled from the stage - a hit after a hit after a hit and then a slight pause for something that some of the fairweathers-with-you might not have instantly recognised it was another run of hit-after-hit-after-hit. It’s an extraordinary body of work. Deep and strange and beautiful songs too, so many love songs, paeans to Sharon written on piano or guitar but always with heart and soul from Neil to his wife and the mother of the children now on stage to help celebrate the majesty of these tunes. We are talking about Fall At Your Feet and Whispers and Moans and When You Come and so many others. Glorious songs. Wonderful songs. Little slices of magic.
For most of the set Neil is just guiding the ship with an acoustic guitar. There are great solos from him - of course. Deft acoustic work on his version of the song Silent House that he wrote for the [Dixie] Chicks. And some scorching solos later on the electric (Locked Out) but 90% of tonight’s guitar fireworks come from Liam. And I’ve never heard him better. His solo work is often enjoyable and his ability to play up to expectations and to sell the drama and comedy and joy of being on stage was ingrained at birth - or certainly since the time that, as a teenager, Neil took him around the world to play both guitar and drums as part of the first Neil Finn solo touring group. And now it’s a case of wow, just wow. Liam is alive and electric and in service to some of the very best pop songs ever written. So it’s guitar histrionics, but always cut to fit, never spilling over and getting in the way of anything, always perfectly in the place within the song where it is meant to happen.
Elroy is an exquisite drummer to watch. A total engine-room guy that has chops for days but is never in a rush to show them off. Again, it’s about the song. And the full awareness that there are only a finite number of tunes in this world better than things like Private Universe and Nails In My Feet. You are not going to show off there because the song itself is already doing such spectacular work just by being - just for existing in such resplendent shape.
This is true of the Crowded House band - and, sure, it always was. Past members, fallen soldiers, all great. But we are talking about this version. The authenticity is there with fellow founder Nick Seymour on the bass - still and always. And what rich and wise, melodical drivers he ushers. Whispers and Moans, the lick and curl of it. So sweet and clever. The subtle pulse that is always there because of him. Mitchell Froom, the producer that puppet-stringed the first few vital Crowded House records. Here he is again, sitting up the back filling the sound with creamy, dreamy organ solos and little stabs to provide all the various keyboard textures. He’ll take a solo too, or fill the space with the right notes always but no showing off ever.
This is a lean, exquisite band - muscular and so musical. There’s not an ounce of fat on these songs. And so it’s the same in the band that makes them for these shows, rebuilding them is easy when there’s such perfect architecture.
This clinic reminded me of one very simple - but also utterly mercurial - fact: A Neil Finn song stays written. Fever-dream madness like Pineapple Head would be third-tier and throwaway in anyone else’s hands, but it’s always been a live favourite because it’s light and breezy and weird and wonderful in equal measures. Private Universe is a mood. Holy fuck, is it a mood. It is deep and joyous and again strange and it twists and writhes and seemingly moves and breathes as if an entity all on its own. Neil on the acoustic, Elroy on the drums, they’re basically holding extender-leads for the song to head out and set the pace as it strolls, then jogs, then gallops…
Don’t Dream It’s Over has been a set-closer so often in its life, an encore too - of course. Tonight it’s buried deep down in the set and it signals the end coming, by virtue of its title at the least - but there is still much to come in terms of magic. Something So Strong lights up the crowd. Distant Sun is an anthem. The encore kicks off with Chocolate Cake - Neil at the piano. Another absurdity made good. I always loved this song - as silly as it might have been. It’s been reduced to a novelty over the years, but Neil has always played it as he meant it - knowing the hook was so good and the satire is deep. It’s infectious and groovy and it was gateway-drug stuff being that it was the lead track on Woodface which brought a new audience to Crowded House by virtue of it marking the ‘reunion’ of Neil and Tim for the first time since Split Enz’s dying days.
And speaking of which - tonight we get I Got You. And oh boy isn’t that just resplendent and John Campbell-level Marvellous! It’s the best. And I think we were one of only two audiences on this tour to get it - and it’s the first time it’s been played by a Crowded House in a decade.
Then we get Heroes. The David Bowie song. Which is great. Obviously. And it has the profound sidenote of being a tribute to the Jacinda Ardern-led response to Covid; slides on the sidescreen showing Dr Ashley and our PM and various other Kiwi ‘heroes’. But also, it makes me think that this show is a bit like the time I saw David Bowie. The pacing. The level of hits - the confidence to play new and lesser known songs as sprinkles on the cake. Neil Finn is there - in that realm. The Dylans and Stones and Paul Simons and Neil Youngs, those people that put on big shows and the hits just tumble. And then a pause. And then more hits.
These emotionally resonant songs. You get caught up in them. A lump arrives in your throat as you think about the times you attempted them in your earnest wee covers band, as you lock arms around the shoulders of your best friends you’ve known for 30+ years and realise you’ve been singing these songs (Together and Alone) for 30+ years. And now you are here. And Crowded House is too.
And then Better Be Home Soon is your final song of the night. And it’s a weepy big singalong. The final one tonight. By Neil Finn’s worldbeater of a band. A band in support and celebration of one of the world’s greatest songwriters.
But I want to say that the new songs are majestic - particularly To The Island. I look forward to this new Crowded House record. I’m sure every fan does - and is. And it will be with us soon. The singles have been solid-af. And the album will showcase the new songs by an extraordinary talent. And his new version of his band might, on some level, be the very best version of it. I wasn’t sure that would be the case. But I was prepared for it. I wasn’t quite prepared for how emotionally overwhelmed I would be hearing the best of that band’s music live - and reliving how and why it means so much to me.
This was a mood, this gig. The whole thing joyous and celebratory. Live music is the big gift for so many of us after a year of tumult. And you could not experience better than this. And I’m running out of words and so this seems like just a thin tack-on at the end but The Beths are certainly one of the great opening acts you could hope to have. They have an infectious energy about them live, they have songs that sit tight and buzz nicely. And they warmed us over and readied us for what was to come without ever a hint of stealing even a sliver of the limelight.
I took a lot of photos - some blurry, some not as blurry. Most of the big screen - you can check them out over at my Instagram.
