10 June 2010 17:30
Review: Crowded House @ Hammersmith Apollo
Crowded House's Neil Finn preaching love for the crowd: “I love bogans: "We’re all bogans underneath it all. No-one’s that cool, even in London!”
By Carla Ziino
Photo: Justin Ng
I distinctly remember watching Crowded House’s Farewell to the World concert, filmed at the Sydney Opera House, on TV way back in 1996. I was in the wrong city and too young to travel, and remember feeling disappointed that I’d never see the band in action.
Fortunately for me and the millions of other Crowdies fans around the world, the band reformed after drummer Paul Hester’s tragic suicide 10 years later.
Neil Finn and his band proved at the Apollo Theatre that they have lost nothing of their live brilliance during their extended hiatus.
The band showcased songs from the forthcoming album Intriguer, as well as entertaining the diverse crowd with their classic hits during an unbelievable two and a half hour set.
Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, Mark Hart and former Beck drummer Matt Sherrod played with an exuberance that would put musicians half their age to shame.
The audience gladly helped out with the vocals from the third song in the set – ‘Fall at your Feet’ – with the band conceding that it was unusual to start singalongs so early on. Not many bands could get away with this without seeming arrogant, but the crowd lapped it up.
The new tracks were warmly received but there was no doubting it was the classics the audience wanted to hear: there was even a rebellious storming down the aisles to the front of the venue during the rocking ‘Mean to Me’.
The Aussie versus Kiwi issue was brought up regularly throughout the night. Neil Finn’s loyalties were clearly with New Zealand for the upcoming World Cup, but he kept the Australians happy by quipping: “I love bogans. We’re all bogans underneath it all. No-one’s that cool, even in London!”
It’s true that they’re not the hippest band going around, but nobody cared when the band played a string of hits including ‘Four Seasons in one Day’, ‘Distant Sun’ and ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’. Neil Finn even treated the audience to a solo rendition of the Split Enz classic ‘Message to my Girl’, accompanied only by his piano.
It was the sort of gig where a female audience member asked if she could play the tambourine and the band obliged. Finn bantered about his first marijuana experience and his ‘unreasonable’ disregard for Steely Dan. He even told a security guard to “fuck off” for making a girl sit down while she danced along to the tunes, and invited the entire audience to stand up at the all-seated venue – and they obliged for the remainder of the show.
It was a Tuesday night to remember, and it seemed so for the band as well. Finn beamed that “some nights you just want to keep going”, before reaching the last song of the night, ‘Better Be Home Soon’.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one still humming along on the tube ride home!
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