I Waited 38 Years To See This Band
The joy of seeing Crowded House in concert for the first time
To many people, especially those of us living in America, the New Zealand band, Crowded House, seems like a one hit wonder. Perhaps that’s because their first single, “Don’t Dream It’s Over” became such a massive hit back in 1986 that it has eclipsed all of their other releases.
In addition, it’s no secret that the band has always been more popular in Europe and Australia than they are here in America.
Even so, Crowded House has always been one of my very favorite bands. When I first heard the finely crafted melodic songs on their debut album, I was immediately hooked. I have faithfully bought all of their albums and singles throughout the years. In short, I love their music.
Yet, I’ve never been able to see Crowded House perform live until now.
As part of their lengthy 2024 U.S. tour, Crowded House came to my hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, and performed at a relatively new outdoor amphitheater called, “The Astro.” Because I belong to their fan club, last spring I was able to buy my tickets for the show before they went on sale to the general public. In fact, in a weird coincidence considering the name of this newsletter, I got tickets near the center of the 10th row.
Since I couldn’t get a date, my best friend tagged along, surprised the band was still together.
When I pointed out that Crowded House had just released a new album earlier this summer, my friend exclaimed, “Really? They’re still recording?” Sadly, that might be the attitude of most people here in America who haven’t followed the band in years and only know them for “Don’t Dream It’s Over.”
Then, my friend predicted that nobody under sixty would be at the show. It turns out he was mostly right.
How weird is it to realize one of your favorite bands is now just an oldies act?
Yet, talking to many of the people seated around us, I discovered that I’m not the only loyal Crowded House fan here in the midwest.
In fact, everyone I spoke to before the show began wasn’t from Nebraska. The couple to my right (in their late sixties or early seventies), drove in from Kansas City. The wife, Mary, said she has seen Crowded House before but was bummed the band wasn’t playing anywhere in Missouri on this tour, so she and her husband decided to drive up for the show. The couple to my left, also in their sixties or early seventies, drove in from Wichita, Kansas.
But most interesting were the two fifty-something women seated in the row in front of us. They’re from New Jersey and are following the band on every stop on this tour. They said they saw the band the previous night in Chicago and the night before that in Ohio and so on. They also explained that they already have tickets (and hotel rooms) for every show left on Crowded House’s 2024 American tour. Now that’s dedication.
Later, halfway through the show, Neil Finn asked the crowd how many people weren’t from Nebraska. He let out a Keanu Reeves like “Woah” when almost every person’s hand in the entire front section of the audience went up except my friend and mine.
I guess I’m not Crowded House’s biggest fan after all.
The show began at 7 p.m. Liam Finn, Neil’s oldest son, (and now the band’s guitarist), was the opening act. He gave a loose, semi-improvised performance filled with witty banter. Liam began by doing a drum solo and then surprised everyone by jumping up to grab his guitar as the drums continued to play by themselves. Apparently, Liam had somehow set the drums to loop, which enabled him to lay down a guitar solo on top of it.
Later, he did the same thing by looping both his drums and guitar; then he used a theremin to play a spacey sounding solo on top of all that. Even though I enjoyed Liam’s set, I would’ve preferred an extra hour of Crowded House performances instead.
After a short intermission, Crowded House walked on stage around 8:00 p.m. Although there were probably only a few thousand people present, the roar from the crowd increased my level of excitement.
After 38 years, the time had finally come to hear Crowded House perform live.
The first song was the beautiful “Recurring Dream” from the band’s album, Afterglow. I was immediately struck by the pristine quality of the sound mix and the fact that the band is able to perfectly reproduce the Beatlesque sound of their recordings live on-stage. This is especially noteworthy since the band’s line-up has changed through the years, especially after the original drummer and co-founder, Paul Hester, left the band in 2004 before tragically committing suicide a year later.
Now, the only original members are Neil Finn and bassist Nick Seymour. They are augmented by Neil’s two sons: Liam, on lead guitar and vocals; his younger brother, Elroy, on drums (and later on guitar for a few songs too); acclaimed record producer Mitchell Froom on keyboards, and Elroy’s pal from New Zealand, Lucky Paul, on percussion.
For their next song, the band immediately went into a searing rendition of “World Where You Live” from their first album and followed that with their latest single, “Teenage Summer,” from their new album, Gravity Stairs. After that, they played one of songwriter Neil Finn’s most beautiful songs, “Fall at your Feet,” and followed that with “To The Island,” which is my favorite song from their album, Dreamers Are Waiting.
“To The Island” is one of the more interesting recent Crowded House songs since it was released during the covid crisis. It’s Neil Finn’s comment about seeking refuge from the chaos of the world and perfectly captured the way all of us felt during the pandemic. Performed live, “To The Island” was one of my favorite parts of the show because the band played a new arrangement of the song that contained improvised guitar solos and a different ending.
This illustrates one of the things that I think made this concert so special. Rather than running through their catalog and playing each song just like the record, Crowded House altered arrangements, slowed or sped up tempos, and added extended solos to many of their songs.
At one point, Neil Finn even joked that they were on their way to morphing into a jam band. If so, that’s fine by me. The band’s quality of musicianship is unsurpassed.
Until I saw them perform live, I never realized that Neil Finn is a great guitarist. I guess I’ve always thought of him as more of a singer-songwriter. After wowing the audience with his guitar solo on “World Where You Live,” Neil proudly exclaimed, “Take that Z. Z. Top!” Yes indeed. Equally talented on guitar is his oldest son, Liam, who also improvised many fine solos throughout the evening.
Also making major contributions to the band throughout the night was the fine playing of Mitchell Froom on keyboards. Although he’s not a household name, Froom produced the first three Crowded House albums, along with albums by Los Lobos, Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, and Paul McCartney.
Now an official member of Crowded House, Froom spent the entire evening hunched over his rack of keyboards and contributed textured layers of sound, including organs, pianos, and strings, along with different synthesized riffs, that added a lot to each live rendition of the band’s songs.
Another thing that made this concert special was Neil Finn’s sincerity and humility.
Halfway through the show, Neil thanked everyone for coming, acknowledging that many local fans, like myself, had waited for over 30 years to see the band perform live in our hometown of Omaha. In addition, Neil Finn thanked everyone present for supporting the band and continuing to buy their music. It was a nice gesture.
In addition, Neil Finn’s fine sense of humor was on display many times during the show as he and bassist Nick Seymour traded jokey comments about being able to see the street on the other side of the amphitheater and how they could hear the traffic from the stage.
Neil’s improvised song as two roadies carried out a large electric piano for him to play was also quite humorous. “They’re bringing out my piano…” Neil crooned. “It’s got black and white keys and soon I’ll be playing it.” Maybe you had to be there, but trust me, it was hilarious.
Another aspect of this show that I really liked were the lack of screens on either side of the stage or onstage behind the band. Unlike many other concerts today, Crowded House didn’t have cameras projecting their images on large screens as they played. Instead, they had a single large backdrop that looked like a bunch of different intertwined Hawaiian leas. Surprisingly, this backdrop was very effective since its appearance changed when different colored lights were shone on it.
The lack of screens and projected images also helped keep the focus on the performers and on their music.
And listening to these gorgeous songs one right after the other, you realize that Neil Finn is truly one of the best songwriters of our time; not since Ray Davies has anyone created such a fine body of carefully crafted music and lyrics.
Another highlight of the show was an extended version of the beautiful ballad, “Black Water, White Circle,” featuring Neil Finn on the piano. Interestingly, the audience remained quiet during the entire song, intently listening to the music and caught up in the spell that Mitchell Froom’s layered keyboards created in support of Neil Finn’s vocals and piano.
In contrast, a rocking version of “The Howl” had the crowd on their feet with its infectious energy. Both of these songs are from the band’s new album, Gravity Stairs.
One of the most outstanding performances of the show was a cover of Split Enz’s “Message to My Girl,” which began as a ballad and evolved into an up-tempo rocker. (Note: Neil Finn’s older brother, Tim, was a founding member of Split Enz and Neil later joined the band too before forming Crowded House a few years later).
Other highlights during the evening included the band’s live versions of “Private Universe,” “Four Seasons in One Day,” and, of course, the band’s signature song, “Don’t Dream It’s Over.”
The last two songs of the main set, the joyful “Something So Strong” and “Weather With You,” had everyone on their feet as the crowd danced and sang along with with the band.
After much thunderous applause, the band returned to play an encore of four songs: a cover of the Split Enz hit, “I Got You;” “Nails In My Feet;” “Into Temptation;” and the closing song of the night, “Better Be Home Soon.” During this final song, Neil led everyone in a singalong of the chorus as each member of the band left the stage one by one until only Neil was left there alone. Then, he left the stage too. It was a wonderful way to end the evening.
By the end of the show, Crowded House played a total of 23 different songs for almost two and half hours.
It’s a concert I’ll never forget.
Thanks for such a detailed review!
Great story, as always!!!