The Late Show with David Letterman, New York, NY, 31 January 1994

Set List

1. Locked Out

Reports by Mark Schnitzius (schnitzi@east.isx.com), Bob Devine (sdevine@cwis.unomaha.edu) and Joe Silva.

In case you missed it, the David Letterman appearance, in more detail than you probably care to see.

DL:  Our next guests have flown in all the way from Australia --
     what I like to call the Land Down Under... Matey[*].  [Shrugs]
     Uh, their brand new album is called, uh, Together Alone and
     it is unbelievablyyyy good.  Ladies and gentlemen, here
     they are -- Crowded House.

[Neil, Nick, and Mark perform 'Locked Out', with addition of
drums, two tamborines, two backing vocalists and two other
guitars (four total!).  In spite of this, the sound is good --
members of the Late Night Orchestra tend to turn their
instruments way down (or off?) for their musical guests.
The show pre-recorded, so they have time to set up their
instruments beforehand and iron out any technical difficulties.]

[After the song]

DL:  Hey, how are you?  Good to see you!  [Shakes hands with
     Mark Hart] You know, we're on in Australia now.

MH:  I know.

DL:  You excited about that?  [Moves to Neil]  How ya doing?
     [They shake]  Thank you very much.  Thank you... Matey.

NF:  They're excited down there too.  I like your accent.

DL:  Thank you.

NF:  [Into microphone]  Very accurate.

DL:  [Shakes with Nick]  Nice job, thank you for being here.
     [To camera]  It's Crowded House, kids.  We'll be right
     back to cook.  [Back to band]  Thank you all very much.
     [claps]

--------------------------

All in all, it seemed like an American gig where things seemed to go right. Letterman seemed genuinely pleased. BTW, he almost never interviews bands after they perform (I did see him do Elvis Costello once, though), largely because it is a comedy show and band members typically don't make interesting guests. Crowded House would've been a good exception.

Bob Devine

My apologies to our Australian friends.... Dave sure isn't endearing himself to his new market is he.

Dave to Mark, "You Know We're On In Australia Now".

Neil, Mark and Nick seemed rather somber in their dark clothes. Overall though, their performance of Locked Out was good.

Joe Silva

Well for all Dave's messing around, he seemed well meaning enough. The fact that this is the third time or so that he's had the band on says something. I've heard he DOES get involved in the selection process and he does know the music (sometimes getting into with record company execs over what tune he wants played on the show...usually when he'd rather them not play the new single, but something he prefers).

But I thought it was worth a grin when he looked at Mark and said "You know we're on in Australia now, are you excited about that?"

The only thing that sucked about the broadcast was the shots of withering old Paul Shaffer while Mark was ripping throught the soLo for the song. I mean, who the hell wants to see Paul shake a damn tambourine when you have a musical guest on? The sound was pretty good I thought, but I couldn't make out which of Neil's guitars he was using. Looked like a Les Paul Jr., but I don't remember that being listed as one of his aXes from that Brit guitar mag.