by Mark Bascand

After at least a half-hour of local act Stereobus (a.k.a. Radiohead II), Neil and the band took to the stage. Failing to recall the exact songlist last night, I'll try to do my best to describe the evening. All out they played 22 songs. All the songs from TWT (minus "Astro"), plus the best of his back catalogue (well for me anyway).

Little Liam was there on his guitar doing the guitar effects as "Last One Standing" opened the gig. They then followed up with "King Tide" and "Sinner," with "Not the Girl You Think You Are" and "Tokyo" early on too. "Private Universe" was in there somewhere with Neil doing a very cool solo, exploring every inch of his guitar.

Along the way the band had a break while he did acoustic versions of "Fall At Your Feet" and "Distant Sun," which he pulled off very well by himself. He started the second half off with "Mean To Me" (I think), leading the way on the bass. "Twisty Bass" followed, which sounded really good and wasn't too long. He had a bit of trouble getting the effects out of the mic for the chorus, but it still sound awesome.

Liam and the drummer from Rotorua swapped around with Liam doing a splendid job on all insruments considering his age. Most of the time he was on the electric, standing there very causually, swapping small talk with everyone and playing most of the time without looking at his guitar. Not bad really! What an experience for him!

Other songs which were played were "Suffer Never," "I Got You," "Message to My Girl (solo on piano), and Don't Dream It's Over (2nd to last song). "Addicted" faded out then he said a big thanks, then gone!

Of course there was the humour! He recalled the time he and Tim went to Japan and saw some big-time Japanese pop star. At his house, this pop star (forgotten his name) lays out "the most drugs i'd ever seen!" "Of course we didn't part-take in that ... actually we couldn't keep up."

Then he went on about the ghost of the theatre, Charlie. He hassled some people who arrived late. Then there was the person who requested "Dr Livingston" about ten minutes into the show, and a few other things as well. He said he found it refreshing to play some Crowded House songs by himself.