Crowded House helps Auckland sing the blues

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Neil Finn performs at Spark Arena.

REVIEW: They were reluctant right from the jump. For nearly an hour, Neil Finn and his new-look Kiwi supergroup tried to encourage a sold-out Auckland crowd to stand up, get out of their seats and start dancing.

As the first of their two-night stand at Spark Arena kicked off, Crowded House threw everything at the constantly seated crowd: solid gold hits World Where You Live and Private Universe, delightful doses of buzzsaw energy during In My Command and newbie Whatever You Want, and Finn firing up so much during Mean to Me that he managed to break a string on his guitar.

They even opened the show – the fifth of their To the Island nationwide tour – with surefire crowd-pleaser Weather With You, a song with a 30-year history of being swayed along to by fans standing shoulder-to-shoulder in arenas.

Tonight’s stuck-in-their-seats crowd managed to botch that sing-along, forcing Finn to joke, “It’s a bit confusing, isn’t it?”

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Perhaps Aucklanders have forgotten how to behave at concerts. This was, probably, the first big gig for many after a year featuring multiple lockdowns, many nights stuck at home, and constantly shifting or cancelled concert tour dates.

In just the past few weeks, Auckland’s brand new Outerfields festival was delayed until December, the Auckland Arts Festival had to completely rejig its line-up, and tour dates by Sol3 Mio were postponed, all due to the recent week spent in alert level 3.

Finn’s reconfigured band, featuring his sons Liam on guitar and Elroy on drums, as well as bassist Nick Seymour and keyboardist Mitchell Froom, were also affected by recent rises in alert levels, making the group postpone the start of this tour and nearly forcing them to bunk down in their rehearsal studio so they could keep practising.

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The band gave fans a night of beautifully performed, wonderfully rendered and reliably classic sing-along anthems

Many overseas countries still suffering through lockdowns would be gagging to attend a Crowded House concert featuring more than 10,000 fans packed into a sweaty arena for a night of beautifully performed, wonderfully rendered and reliably classic sing-along anthems.

This one didn’t come together easily, with Seymour and Froom undertaking epic trips from Dublin and Los Angeles, then spending two weeks in managed isolation facilities, to make the tour happen.

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Guitarist and singer Liam Finn, keyboardist Mitchell Froom and co-founders Neil Finn and Nick Seymour make up the new Crowded House.

So it’s no wonder the crowd took some time to find their feet. Even when Crowded House pulled out the biggest song of the night, Fall at Your Feet, they sang loud and proud with their phones aloft and lighting up the stadium, but kept their butts planted firmly in their chairs.

Finally, an hour and nearly a dozen songs into the night, they decided to get up and find their dancing shoes.

The song that forced them to do so? One of the slowest of the night, their maudlin ballad about Auckland’s changeable weather patterns, Four Seasons in One Day.

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Finn has lost none of his magnetism over the years, and his 62-year-old voice remains a powerful and compelling part of the Crowded House engine.

As good as it was, even Finn expressed surprise at the crowd’s ecstatic response. “Who expected everyone to stand up during Four Seasons in One Day?” he asked. “That’s … historic.”

The crowd clearly wanted a dose of comfort and nostalgia, and they’d found the right band to give it to them, finally letting their hair down and dancing in the aisles for Something So Strong and an encore that included Chocolate Cake and an absolutely huge version of David Bowie’s Heroes.

Finn has lost none of his magnetism over the years, and his 62-year-old voice remains a powerful and compelling part of the Crowded House engine. When he soars, as he did regularly over the night, he really soars.

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The song that forced the crowd to get out of their seats was one of the slowest of the night, the maudlin ballad about Auckland’s changeable weather patterns, ‘Four Seasons in One Day’.

At times, especially during the soaring sing-along for Don’t Dream it’s Over and Distant Sun, his long grey hair gave him the vibe of a shaggy-haired musical shaman helping Aucklanders sing their way out of the blues.

The slower songs were the crowd favourites but some of the night’s best moments came from the new blood in the group, with Elroy showing excellent form behind the drums and Froom, who produced Crowded House’s first three albums and has only now become a fully fledged member, nailing many of the band’s classic keyboard lines.

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Finn’s son Liam almost stole the show with his electric solos and on-stage antics.

But it was Liam who really tried to steal the show, adding grungy crunch to Whispers and Moans, then leaning his forehead on his dad’s back during a frenzied ending to Locked Out, finally throwing his guitar high over his head and catching it while sliding down the stage. His teenage rock band Betchadupa may have departed long ago, but he clearly still remembers the tricks he learnt with them.

On Pineapple Head – a song Finn revealed Liam helped write when he was sick and struggling with a fever at age seven – he delivered a solo so electric even his dad quipped: “Nice.”

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“You did it your way,” said Finn to the crowd at the end. “You’ve been magnificent.”

Between the band’s never-ending cascade of brilliant sing-alongs, the night was also full of playful banter and dad jokes. Finn poked fun at Seymour’s kilt, told Liam off for mishandling a guitar, and even engaged in some daggy dad dancing.

He found time for one more quip about the Auckland crowd’s strange passion for the slow stuff on the way out too. “You did it your way,” said Finn as he waved goodbye at the end. “You’ve been magnificent.”

Crowded House play Spark Arena again on Sunday.

Stuff