Crowded House need little introduction but for those not in the loop they were founded in Melbourne, Australia way back in 1985 and have sold over fifteen million records. Yes, the line-up has changed over the years and has become a family band with New Zealand born vocalist Neil Finn playing alongside his two sons Liam Finn (guitar) and Elroy Finn (drums) while also being joined by Nick Seymour on bass and Mitchell Froom on keyboards. Never having had the opportunity to see Crowded House live we were excited to see them play and tonight’s OVO Hydro venue was the perfect setting for a band whose last major tour was the Farewell to the World tour way back in 1996.
Did you hear about the guy that played two sets on the same night? Well Liam Finn is that guy in question as he opened the night with a half hour set of solo tracks before reappearing as the guitarist in Crowded House, hats off to Liam for that achievement. Just before the ‘one man band’ appears on stage there are adverts on the screens with a QR code to allow fans to have an early listen to his upcoming album, the arena has a few thousand in early as Liam Finn opens his set with a drum solo before playing Purple Dress and Jump Your Bones, during the latter song he uses a delay pedal to keep the drums playing before he rushes over to play some very pleasing guitar. It is an unusual setup as the one man show continues with Wide Awake On The Voyage Home that is more of a laid back acoustic number while for the next track he uses the delay pedal on the guitar and plays drums. This is definitely a multi-talented musician we’re watching. He tries to wake the crowd up by getting them to shout “Armadillo”. The last song of the set is I Just Want You To Be So Happy, it’s the best of the set for us and the arena is filling up nicely now, we were actually wondering if most people even knew who Liam Finn was at this point … they would soon find out. 7/10
Surprisingly it’s an all-seated affair at the OVO Hydro tonight and we’re struggling to remember the last time we attended an all-seated show at this venue, maybe The Australian Pink Floyd around three years ago? The Gravity Stairs show began just after 8.30pm as Crowded House took to the stage to a thunderous applause one at a time and carrying lit lanterns to add to the effects. We couldn’t have asked for a better start as the first guitar notes for Weather With You are played and the crowd reaction is special prompting the first of many singalongs tonight. The band released latest album Gravity Stairs at the end of May and would play quite a few from that album tonight starting off with Teenage Summer before moving back to 1991’s Woodface album and Fall At Your Feet, another great response from the crowd. The hits just keep coming as Don’t Dream It’s Over is played, by far the most streamed Crowded House track with over 655 million streams on Spotify alone prompts another moment for the crowd to join in with the chorus. To be honest the crowd aren’t great tonight, at one point Neil Finn himself comments that “You could hear a pin drop in here tonight!” however this could have been impacted from the fact that it was all-seated, Glasgow crowd’s much prefer standing and letting loose.
A piano was brought out for Neil Finn as the set moved into a quieter segment where Either Side Of The World and Split Enz track Message To My Girl. Neil started off his career as a member of Split Enz alongside his brother Tim, the fans showed their appreciation afterwards. Two of the best of the set are Oh Hi from the new LP and Private Universe and there is even time for a crowd request as an acoustic version of There Goes God is played, albeit a shortened version. Four Seasons In One Day begins a run of outstanding songs including The Howl that is sung by Liam Finn, once again proving his talents have no end, while Something So Strong gets a good response from the 10,000 or so that are in the arena. After the final track from the main set It’s Only Natural, a quick dash to the toilet was in order but when we came out more than a few people were leaving perhaps assuming that the show was over. We did mention to a few fans that there were four songs to go, it was getting late by this point though. In fact the Crowded House set lasted over the two hour mark tonight and with a twenty-four track setlist we couldn’t have asked for more.
The first song of the encore was Distant Sun and wow the crowd down the front are actually standing up for this one, they have left it late but better late than never … next we have an improvisation from Neil Finn as he asks the fans up the top to light their phones up creating a lovely photo opportunity. Better Be Home Soon ends a late night for some in the OVO Hydro tonight as the band leave the stage for the last time. The band are heading out to Europe and finally back home to tour Australia and New Zealand during November and December. 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
