Mon 28 Apr – Crowded House, Don McGlashan

After last summer's tour, Crowded House announced that they were going to tour again and play longer engagements at smaller, more intimate venues. This show was the first of these and demonstrated why the band wanted to do this: the crowd was fully engaged and enthusiastic and everyone (including the band) got to have a great time.
Don McGlashan opened the show but only the Kiwis knew anything about him, and even their knowledge was limited to his material with The Mutton Birds - one fellow insistently called for "Dominion Road" even into the Crowded House set. Despite most people not knowing his material he graciously showed off his fantastic songwriting abilities to such an extent that people were singing along with his choruses by the end of his time on stage. He also joked with the crowd and introduced us to his euphonium (though he didn't call it that by name; most thought it was a tuba) by recording himself playing the horn track…

1. Crowded House
First track heard: I Feel Posessed
Track that made me get into the band: Better Be Home Soon
Seen live: Unbelievably, yes, four times at the time of writing this! I never thought I'd get to say that. Last time I did this survey I wrote 'never have, never will'. Never say never, eh.
Favourite track (all-time): Walking On The Spot
Favourite track (atm): She Walked Her Way Down
LPs (I own): Crowded House, Temple Of Low Men, Woodface, Together Alone, Recurring Dream, Afterglow, Time On Earth, about a thousand bootlegs of live shows...
DVDs (I own): Dreaming: The Videos, Farewell To The World, and again lots of bootlegs of random stuff
Fan since: 1988

2. Split Enz
First track heard: I Got You
Track that made me get into the band: Six Months In A Leaky Boat
Seen live: In Melbourne, July 2006 for the reunion tour, and next month in Auckland, yay!
Favourite track (all-time): Message To My Girl
Favourite track (atm): Matinee Idyll
…

1. What are you listening to right now?
Into Temptation

2. What song makes you sad?
Better Be Home Soon

3. What is the most annoying song in the world?
CDE Had a boat, round and round the corner floats...Thank you Mark Hart! It was the first song he learnt on piano and incidentally one of the first I learnt to, and just thinking about it gets it lodged in my brain.

4. Your all time favorite band?
Crowded House

5. Your newly discovered band is?
Gotye

6. Best female voice?
I can't really pick between Kate Miller-Heidke, Bic Runga, or Sarah Blasko.

7. Best male voice?
Neil Finn or Tim Freedman from The Whitlams.

8. Music type you find yourself listening to most?
singer songwritery stuff, mostly.

9. What do you listen to, to hype you up?
The Grates or Words

10. What do you listen to, to calm down?
Jack Johnson

11. Last gig/concert you went to?
Kate Miller-Heidke at the Corner

12. Band you find yourself listening to the most right now?
…

Mon 20 Aug – Crowded House

I stood in the same room as Genius.

Neil Finn can toss off marvelous pop songs, that are deep and thoughtful as easily as most of us breath. He is also one hell of an entertainer.
The entire band was marvelous to behold, to be fair. However, don't doubt for a moment that Neil Finn is the centerpiece of this band. Like Macca, he may enjoy the dynamics of a band, but it is still a vehicle for his creativity.

The show lasted about 2 hours, with a couple of encores. Gotta hand it to them, Crowded House made us work for those encores. At least my middle-aged feet felt that way. And they saved some surprises for the encores. Like Mark Hart being asked to sing a song since KC is close to his home ground. Mark chose "Born on the Bayou." I don't know whether it was truly impromptu, but it felt like it.

I didn't bother with a set list, and it isn't needed anyway. Long on familiar songs, and short on material from Time On Earth…

I went to see the Crowded House concert yesterday at the Calvin Theater in Northampton, MA, and it was awesome. The opening act was supposed to be Liam Finn, but he was unable to attend (for unspecified reasons), so he was replaced by two members of The Winterpills. I guess I would classify the Winterpills as a modern indie-folk-rock. They were proficient, but nothing that they did in their brief (35 minute) set stood out in my mind.

After a not-so-brief sound-check, Crowded House themselves came on. The did almost every track on Time On Earth, and a lot of their big hits from way back when. In the main set, I'd say that my favorite song was Distant Sun, which was about half-way through. The balance was pretty good by that point, and the band seemed to be getting into it a bit more than they had been with the newer, more sedate music. Of course, after the main set, they came back for five (!) encores, all of which were great.

The band seemed very tight, especially considering that they've only been playing for a few months. …

The Feeling

I Want You Now
Fill My Little World
Rose
Never Be Lonely
Helicopter
Video Killed The Radio Star
Join With Us
Sewn
Love It When You Call

Crowded House

Locked Out
Weather With You
Pineapple Head
Transit Lounge
Don't Stop Now
Fall At Your Feet
Distant Sun
Silent House
Private Universe
Heaven That I'm Making
Four Seasons In One Day
Mean To Me
Better Be Home Soon


The Feeling got on stage shortly before 5pm and proceeded to romp through their set. Again, Join With Us was included as the Old but New song appearing on the much awaited second album. As expected, a very good, if truncated, set.

We suffered the odd shower whilst waiting for Crowded House to appear on stage, but we were quite lucky in that regard. Neil Finn and co then appeared, to a rather large welcome. (I'm afraid that I subscribe to the theory that Neil Finn is Crowded House and vice versa, since Neil writes 95% of the songs, sings 99% of them, plays most of the instrumentation etc. …