Being mostly a lurker since I get the biweekly CH-list digests. I thought I'd drop everyone a line since I just saw Finn perform at the Sydney's Metro Theatre on lovely downtown George Street. The Metro Theatre is a smallish venue that holds plays, musicals and lately concerts.
As such its an ideal venue that's centrally located for bands wanting a smaller more personal space to perform. Any Sydneyite would know that these are in shirt supply around these parts.
The support act was an excellent ladies accapella group from Newcastle that sang a mixture of gospel songs and their own compositions. Unfortunately their name escapes me.
On to the main act, TIm and Neil. Given only Neil and Tim were playing, they went for a simpler approach. The set was sparse holding a tiny drum kit, piano and microphones. Neil brought along his usual assortment of guitars, electric, accoustic 6 string and accoustic 12 string. Plus Dougal the guitar wrangler.
I didn't keep a set list but they played a mixture of really old Split Enz stuff that I didn't recognise, Phil Judd stuff according to Tim, along with Poor Boy and Dirty Creatures.
Since the instruments were quite sparse they tended to take interesting interpretations of the older songs. Both Poor Boy and Dirty Creatures were played slower and more rythmically as Tim played the drums. Quite well I might add. Both songs were quite haunting.
From Crowded House they did a killer version of 4 Seasons in 1 day, Chocolate Cake.
Not being familar with the new Finn songs, I can't name what they played. I do know they played Suffer Never, Where is My Soul, Mood Swinging Man and Kiss the Road to Raratonga.
The audience was extremely hyper and enjoying the concert. Neil and Tim were clearly having alot of fun. The different personalities of Tim and Neil showed up, Neil being quite the perfectionist especially when he thought his guitar was out of tune during Suffer Never, while Tim cruised through the rough edges of their performance, prefering to plough on.
I loved when Neil rocked out on alot of songs and it was great to see him enjoying himself.Tim sang mostly with his eyes closed but so did Neil. Personally I don't find it such a big problem. I think that Tim is getting into the music and enjoying it.
They did two encores and promised to be back in Sydney in January.
P.S. Since I was standing on the right side of the audience I could see a cool looking woman with curly auburn hair and a small boy with longish hair in flannel. Would that be Neil's wife and one of Neil's kids ?
P.P.S. Tim told us Neil's nickname was nugget !!!!!!!
Ian Martin
I attended the Sydney concert with Kaz on 1Nov95 and only have one thing to say......
Wow!
Well I lied I have more than one thing to say. The concert was a relaxed, informal affair with none of Tim's stage fright apparent. This is the first time I've seen Tim perform and he seemed happy to be there and enjoyed taking the piss out of his little brother. Both kept their eyes closed for most of the songs but it wasn't for any reason other than they were getting into them. (Or so it seemed)
Kiss the Road was a real stand-out song for me, being very up-beat and a good strong rocking song. Mind you I haven't yet heard the album version so will stay out of the discussion as to wether it should have been put in a different album position.
A concert that was certainly worth the four hour drive to get there.
My only little gripe would be that a group of five of us waited at the rear entrance to see the boys after the concert, three of us club members, and we not only got the run-around from the security guys, but neither Tim nor (I think) Neil stopped to talk. Most Un-Finn like - especially for such a small group.
Mark Leydon
Here is my (belated) review of Neil and Tim's November 1 concert at the Sydney Metro:
From the opening notes of 'Only Talking Sense' it was clear that this concert was going to be something special. Although most of audience was unfamiliar with the song, they were held captive by yet another of the Neil's beautiful chord sequences and melodies. The song possesses that glorious sense of tension and release that characterises much of his best work. The applause at the end was deafening.
From then on the audience was treated to an intriguing mix of old and new. What impressed was how well the new material stacked up against their back catalogue. Songs such as 'Eyes of the World', 'Suffer Never' and 'Niwhai', suffered no comparison against the more familiar 'Woodface' material. And those songs that have received mixed reviews such as 'Kiss the Road of Raratonga' and 'Paradise' worked wonderfully well in the live setting.
The last time I saw Tim with ALT earlier this year I was distressed at the poor state of his voice - reduced almost to a whisper at times. So I was delighted to find that he was in fine voice throughout the night. On the songs in which he sang lead, such as 'Poor Boy' and 'Time For A Change', he couldn't match his younger vocal performances. But his harmony singing with Neil was exhilarating. It was pure pleasure to hear the Woodface songs reproduced in all their original glory. Despite Paul Hester's and, latterly, Mark Hart's best efforts, Crowded House have never managed to match the sublime sibling harmonies Neil and Tim bring to the likes of 'Weather With You', 'There Goes God' and 'Four Seasons in One Day'.
The atmosphere throughout the evening was generally relaxed and informal - but with that slight edge Neil brings to all his best performances. Halfway though 'Suffer Never' Neil struck problems with his guitar and it looked like the song might fall apart. But with characteristic toughness he pulled the song back from the brink and bought it to a triumphant close.
The concert also incorporated much of the playfulness and anarchy of a Crowded House performance. 'Eyes of the World' was preceded by a spontaneous rendition of Englebert Humperdink's 'Please Release Me'. Later, Neil led the audience in a joyous sing-a-long to a slowed-down version of the Enz classic 'History Never Repeats'.
Marck Bailey has criticised 'Last Day of June' as being an inferior remake of 'Walking on the Spot'. But to hear it performed live was a revelation. With Neil alone on stage at the piano, voice strong and pure, the song had an aching poignancy. There was an audible sigh from the audience as the song faded to a close. In time I'm sure it will come to be recognised as one of Neil's greatest.
All in all it was a classic performance that served to reaffirm all the reasons I love these guys so much. Neil Finn remains a god-like genius.
Britain, you are in for a treat. America and Canada, you are missing out on something very special (blame Capitol!).
The following is the set list for the above concert (in approximate order only) : Only Talking Sense, Poor Boy, Where Is My Soul, Sweet Dreams, Angel's Heap, Suffer Never, There Goes God, Time For a Change, Mood Swinging Man, Four Seasons In One Day, What's The Matter With You, Dirty Creature, Niwhai, How Will You Go, Weather With You, Kiss the Road of Raratonga, Last Day of June, History Never Repeats, Paradise. During the first encore they also played an old, previously unrecorded song which I think was called Get Over It.