Saw Finn last night at the Renfrew Ferry, Glasgow.
Remember my pal Derek who threw paper planes onto the stage for me at Neil's birthday concert last year?
HE SANG ON STAGE WITH NEIL AND TIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We were right at the front, the stage being about knee-height and Neil and Tim this close to us - SCREAM!!!
(So close I could see the hairs up Neil's nose.)
(And the fact that he appears to wear *two* wedding rings. Does this mean Sharon loves him double, or is he a bigamist?)
(And he dyes his hair. Sorry, Neil - had to mention the hair or this wouldn't be a true Hazel-post.)
The third song played was _There Goes God_ - Derek was singing along at the top of his voice. At the end of the song Neil said "Hey Tim, this guy down the front's singing a third harmony with us on this song." Tim was incredulous, so Neil pulled Derek up onto the stage for a reprise of TGG with Derek on third harmony!!!!!
(Great voice, Derek - next new member of Crowded House?!)
Waaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
If you go into Echo Records on Byres Road this week all you'll hear is Finn, and Derek bellowing TGG at the top of his voice!!
I'm leaving Derek to write a full review, as he has the starlet's view, and also the set list I swiped off the stage :-)
Waaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hereunder follows Derek's review of Monday night. I'd correct his typos and spelling mistakes, but I have a life. :-)
Monday night in Glasgow was, as usual, bloody cold & wet.(Why the hell do these guys never tour in the summer over here, when it's winter in their own bit of the world?) But we didn't care!- Neil & Tim were on the Renfrew Ferry and it was going to be one helluva night.
The last time these guys were supposed to take the stage together in Glasgow, things finally came to a head and by the time C.H hit the (very small) stage of King Tut's Wah-Wah Hut, Tim was on a plane back to Aust. That was almost exactly four years ago and so I'd been waiting a looong time for this night! ( I will always kick myself for missing them on the third Woodface tour when Tim did his support slot!)
Whatever. They eventually let us in and it was a mad... err... saunter ( I dunno... why is there never quite the same level of mania at these low-key gigs as there is at the full-on C.H. experience? Or are we Glaswegian Crowdies just too damn civilised? (Mind you, I didn't check the Q for the bar....) to the front of the stage to secure a place just inches (how do you get italics on this bloody thing? I WANT A MAC!!!!!!!!) from where Neil would later be bopping about and making our night. I hadn't had an opportunity to see these guys in such an intimate wee venue since King Tut's (the Ferry's capacity is something like 3-400) This was definately going to be a good night! ( yeah, I know I've said that already, but I don't care...)
Anyway, first up was Dave Dobbyn, who may of been going for God knows how long in N.Z, but has only just launched his first album in the U.K., the rather excellent "Twist". On record, I thought his voice was a lot like a lower-pitched version of Tim's, but live, with just an acoustic guitar to back him up, it was really a lot richer and more individual. Stripped of Neil's production, the songs from "Twist" still sounded great, from "lap of the Gods" to the final (and one of my favourites from the album) "Language". If you don't have "Twist", then I can thoroughly recommend it. It's almost like a missing C.H album with all the Finn connections, tho' I have to admit that he's probably not quite as good a songwriter as the Finns, (but then, who is ?)
But getting back to the Finns themselves..... They took the stage to their usual rapturous Glasgow welcome, Tim in a loose charcoal pinstripe suit and Neil in a shirt that reminded me of pyjama-tops from the 70's (it probably looked great in daylight, but on stage.... hmmm. I say bring back the purple shirt.) From a review I've been sent of the Melbourne gig, they seem to be loosely following the same set list, and first off was "Only Talking Sense", sounding great with just Neil's electric and Tim's drumming (which I am really impressed with these days. I think it relly suits the sort of loose projects he's been doing lately. I wonder if he'll be doing his own drumming on the next solo album?) and those two voices....! Wow ! THIS is what i'd been waiting to hear ever since I first heard an Enz album. As for the rest of the night...
Not a bad line up eh? And it was great that it took in the whole Enz-C.H-solo spectrum. As for the highlights?....
Well, I've been dying to get to this bit since I started this, but my LIFE was made at the end of "there Goes God" (why was this never a single ?). In the past i'd had Neil play a request ( Holy Smoke- I'm a sucker for the old stuff), I'd met Nick and all of ALT, but they pale into insignificance beside what happened next. Neil turns to Tim ,"Tim, I don't know if you can hear over there, but there's a guy down here singing a third part to the harmony above us". (O.K, so it's a bit of a pose-y thing to do, but it's just a habit I've got into when I really know the songs I'm singing along to. AND NEIL NOTICED IT!!!!!)."Want to come up here and do that?" How I made it up onto that stage I'll never know, but there I was, onstage with just Neil and Tim, scared shitless and loving every unreal minute of it, as I sang my harmony to the chorus and end of the song into the same mic as Neil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKK!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Damn it was good! It probably only lasted a couple of minutes, but an experience like that I think I'll remember for the rest of my life. ( I wonder if they need any backing singers on the next tour?). I was shaking as the guys congratulated me ( Tim looked at me IN RESPECT !!! ( I'd repeat the scream bit here, but it could get a bit repetitive...) and I wobbled back into the crowd and almost collapsed. "Dougald, get Derek a drink. The poor guy looks like he's about to faint down there" ( and I'm still waiting on it!) For the rest of the gig I was in a state of shock, belting out the rest of the songs with a silly grin on my face (mind you, I always look like that at C.H. gigs anyway), and thinking, " Bloody hell, I just sang on stage". Thanks Neil for making my life!
But to get back to the rest of the gig, Suffer Never sounded a lot different with Tim strumming along in a major key or whatever. Way more upbeat and less dark which suited the whole atmosphere of the gig. Where's My Soul had lot's more of Tim's lovely piano behind it, and we got the story of how Eyes of the World was inspired by the discovery of the woman who discovered Engelbert Humperdinck sitting drunk in a lift ( what are these guys lives like???).
At the end Neil got out the uke and gave us a funny little rendition of I Can't Give you... before sending us happily home with the blissful Paradise. Next year they're back with a band, but for me it's going to take something truly incredible to top that night on the Renfrew Ferry.
Johnny MacKinnon
I was one of the fortunate at the Renfrew Ferry on Monday 13th past. I am working away from home (and my e-mail account) during the week so haven't had time to post anything until now, and that's after reading through most of the 137 messages awaiting my arrival home on Friday night! The concert was, as if no-one noticed from previous postings, quite brilliant. Some interesting points although that either no-one else has mentioned or that start to present themselves as recurring themes in various postings.
"Kiss the Road" - the group of people I was with although firm CH fans had heard nothing from Finn other than SN on single and all without exception thought KTROR was one of the best of the new bunch of songs. In that case as with previous postings are most people reading too much into the production and in the process losing out on the song? It was introduced by Neil as a song he'd written for Tim after he (Tim) had crashed his motorcycle on a dirt road in New Zealand. Blinded by Neils car lights following him he'd hit the only pot hole in the whole road. Tim interjected to say that it was his scooter, not quite the Harley that was implied!
Tim - what was he on! I'd never actually seen him perform live before but was interested from all the postings about his reluctance to open his eyes while he sings (I used to play with a guy who had to sing with his eyes shut as he lost concentration looking at the audience if he opened them and forgot the words!). Well did he open his eyes! Whilst in the middle of There Goes God which I, along with many others (see Dereks posting), was singing along with he opened his eyes and just STARED WILDLY in my direction for what seemed like ages. I eventually looked away as I couldn't hold his gaze at all. Derek - here was another man definitely on an adrenalin high, imagine singing with the Brothers Finn! I thought his head was going to fall off! Neil himself backed off quite a lot during the song to allow the audience who knew every word to get in on the act.
Top harmony of the evening without a doubt went to How Will You Go, just perfect from first to last, indeed it sounded even more so than on Woodface.
Final point, I got myself a T-shirt (sorry), and if only I'd known earlier about the interest in them I'd have got a dozen, which I would probably have given away free to anyone who wanted them if you'd caught me still on a euphoric high after the show. In my 33 years and so many concerts that I can't remember all of them, I've got to say this was the one - the dogs appendage!