CROWDED HOUSE at The Forum, Melbourne, 2nd Dec 2008

Here's my belated review of the recent top notch Crowded House show in Melbourne,
Australia. I'm writing this nearly two weeks after the show, and forgetting a lot
of the details, so if anyone has a recording of the show I'd love to have a copy!

BACKGROUND

Crowded House are known for their unpredictable shows with improvised music,
banter and on-the-fly audience interaction, and Tuesday, 2nd December at
Melbourne's Forum Theatre was a classic of the genre. (Although I have to admit I
came late to them and have only seen them live a handful of times - I do, however,
have numerous live recordings and videos so I am still qualified to make this
statement!)

This was the first of two Melbourne warm-up shows for the band's appearance at
Sydney's Homebake Festival. The house was packed.

For those of you who are not already fans of the band, I should mention that they
split around 1996 and sealed their career with a massive free farewell concert
outside the Sydney Opera House, which was also preceded by two wonderful warm-up
shows at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne which my wife Marjie and I had the pleasure
of attending.

Leader Neil Finn subsequently embarked on an interesting but slightly

disappointing (to me) solo career, releasing two albums on his own and one with
his brother Tim, interspersed by other projects such as a Split Enz reunion tour
and a collaboration with musicians such as ex-members of Radiohead, the Smiths
and, gulp, Pearl Jam.

In the meantime, their much loved drummer and manic funny man, Paul Hester, took
his own life a few years ago, leaving a big gap which seemed impossible to fill.
However, to many people's surprise, Neil reformed the band a couple of years ago
the new Crowded House are producing new songs and albums and generally acting as a
vital unit, unlike some play-the-hits-take-the-money-and-run nostalgia merchants.

New drummer Matt Sherrod (ex-Beck) does his job admirably from a musical point of
view, and wisely doesn't try to emulate Hester's humour and stage presence.

Original bassist Nick Seymour and guitarist/keyboardist Mark Hart (who joined as a
fully-fledged member around the recording of their last pre-split album) are also
back in the fold.

THE VENUE

Melbourne can lay claim to being the band's spiritual home as they formed here and
were based here for most of their career. The Forum Theatre is a fascinating place
in itself, with 'stars' glowing from its ceiling, and faux architecture and Roman
statues visible in large balconies to each side of the stage, giving the illusion
of being outdoors in an exotic locale.

Apart from diners at the back of the room, most of the audience were standing
fairly well-packed in front of the stage. Marjie and I were around ten rows of
fans back from the stage, and the sound was very good and, as usual at Crowded
House shows, not too loud. The drums sounded natural, without that annoying,
larger-then-life quality that you get too often nowadays.

THE ENTRANCE
The band came onstage with the house and stage lights down, wearing those miner-
style camping lamps that you put on your head. They played the first song, 'Locked
Out', like that, so that you couldn't really see their faces. I think some stage
lights also swept across the audience. It was like a low-budget version of
something Neil Young might do. Quite artistic, really, and it actually felt
faintly moving that they might have been implying that they wanted to see the
audience rather than being seen by them.

When they discarded the lamps and the stage lights came up we could see that they
were wearing the trim, dapper suits that they seem to have taken to this century.
Neil's hair hasn't got any rulier. Nick was almost shaven-headed.

A little later Neil revealed that he had cut his forehead (very slightly) taking
the lamps off after the first song, and he and Nick joked about how rock'n'roll
that was. They said that there was a fine line between rock'n'roll and stupidity,
and I think it was Neil who wondered if there is a line at all. Someone said that
rock'n'roll was stupidity with lamps attached.

They talked a bit about which shops they had searched in that day for the lamps,
and of course it was endearing to know that it hadn't been some kind of long-
hatched, professionally staged stunt.

Once the lights came up we could see a fabric backdrop painted to look a little
like wallpapered walls with framed paintings of various members of the band, along
with a couple of slightly weird androgynous nudes. Probably Nick's work, but I'm
only guessing.

THE HELP

The band have often used auxiliary musicians over the years, with Neil's son Liam
recently holding down guitar duties, Eddie Rayner out of Split Enz playing his
baroque keyboards in their early days, and I recall Jools their female roadie
playing keyboards occasionally. Tonight Neil's younger son, Elroy, lurked in the
shadows playing acoustic and electric guitars for many of the songs. He sported a
beard not quite as fulsome as his older brother's, and an immaculately coiffed
hairdo which could probably absorb quite a few bullets if necessary.

Rather more visible was Don McGlashan, who used to be the leader of the sadly
defunct Mutton Birds, and must nearly equal Neil Finn as a New Zealand singer-
songwriter and all-round national treasure. Marjie and I adored the Mutton Birds
(BTW, see our names on 'Flock', their Greatest Hits CD!) so it was rather strange,
and in fact unsettling, to see him up there as a general musical dogsbody and not
get the chance to sing any of his own compositions. We had assumed he would be the
support act, but no, that was the enjoyable but unremarkable Anika Moa.

Anyway, as I mentioned, Don was at least visually quite prominent, with a modest
elevated home behind Nick stage left. He had a small electronic keyboard close to
hand, a guitar or two, a little gourd-like mandolinish thingy, a toy piano,
something like a fluegel horn, and of course, his trusty euphonium. When I spotted
its comforting form I yelled in Marjie's ear, "Don's got his euphonium!" and she
nodded in enthusiastic acknowledgment. However, a minute later she yelled back in
my ear, "I thought you said he's got his wee podium!"

Don also popped up over on the Mark side of the stage playing the real keyboards
once in a while.

THE MAIN SET

The review in Melbourne newspaper The Age* referred to the set as 'fan-friendly'
and indeed it was. There was only one indisputable classic in the entire main set,
'Fall At Your Feet', and that didn't come until near the end.

I guess I should fend off arguments by stating that 'World Where You Live', the
second song, is a near-classic, but not quite of the same mass-recognisability as
'Weather With You' or 'Don't Dream It's Over' (which didn't get an airing
tonight).

The audience didn't seem to mind the five new songs they played, although I have
to say I found them a little dull, rather like some of the lesser songs on 'Time
On Earth', the band's first post-reformation album, which had started out as a
Neil solo album. I expect they'll grow on me, though.

'Lucky' was the title of one of the new songs and they attempted to throw in a bit
of The Kinks' 'Lola' but they didn't really know the chords - there's one to
practise for next time! Another impromptu cover was 'You Sexy Thing', one I've
heard them do before.

One of the greater songs on 'Time On Earth'
a little flat on this occasion. Nick seemed
keyboard bit at the beginning while holding
quite took off. I've seen them do it before
guess it might have been just another thing
was 'Don't Stop Now', which to me was
a little uncomfortable playing the
his bass, and the whole thing never
perfectly successfully though - I
to iron out on the warm-up show.

Pineapple Head sequed into a cover of The Beatles' 'The End' which was rather
nice.

Neil referred to the fact that he had dreamed the previous night about being in
bed with Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway out of Radiohead. Those two appeared on his
'Seven Worlds Collide' project a few years ago, and are scheduled to play with him
again when he revisits the concept next year.

When Paul was around it seemed that almost all the banter and humour originated
with him, but now Neil and Nick are as chatty as ever without him. Nick was
famously very much against splitting the band, and you get the impression that
he's very happy indeed to be up there again. Perhaps the fact that he had become a
father a few weeks previously also had a bearing on his cheerful demeanour. He
talked with fondness about going that day to Bernard's Magic Shop on Elizabeth
Street which he used to visit as a child but realising now that all the toys and
tricks were really crap.

At one point Neil managed to rib Nick, as he often does, about the Seymour Family
Singers, his family's band which he was in with his parents and siblings when he
was growing up. Snippets from such classics as 'Three Little Maids From School'
ensued.

The normally taciturn Mark actually went up to the mike and opened his mouth as if
he was going to speak, but then changed his mind. Later on, though, he actually
did come up with a few words, as I recall.

I was particularly happy to hear a couple of my favourites, 'Not The Girl You
Think You Are' and 'Whispers And Moans', and the opening bars of both were greeted
with warm recognition from the audience, suggesting that I am not the only one to
hold those two songs in high regard. They also revived the great 'Chocolate Cake',
which was preceded by a series of samples that featured in the Woodface recording
of the song. Afterwards there were some allusions to Obama and his recently
announced 'Money Team' but rather than give an unqualified vote of confidence to
their ability to get the world out of recession, Neil circumspectly said, "we'll
just have to wait and see".

Before the gig Marjie and I had noted a person at the bar dressed up in fancy
dress as 1965 Bob Dylan or John Cooper Clarke (take your pick) with elaborate yet
immovable hair. During 'Love You Til The Day I Die' this creature joined the band,
played a lively guitar solo and was introduced as Davey Lane from You Am I.
There's a tradition around here for people to chant "The Best Cold Beer Is Vic" at
a certain point in this song, but tonight Neil had to do it himself with hardly
any help from the audience, and he seemed a little disappointed. I think it was
originally a Paul Hesterism, but perhaps someone can help me out with the story.
The phrase itself is a slogan for our local king of beers, Victoria Bitter.

I should mention that Neil and Mark shared electric guitar duties, with Neil
mostly playing his usual gold-top Les Paul, and Mark on a variety of instruments
including his lap steel and Rickenbacker 12-string. I know you gear-heads like to
know all the details but I can't really remember all of the guitars and I didn't
pay close attention, which I know must seem shameful for a guitar player! Nick
swapped between a couple of black Fender basses - not the Spector which I've
normally seen him play.

THE FIRST ENCORE

In the first encore we were treated to 'It's Only Natural', another big fave of
Marjie's and mine, and it was good, as always, but they didn't really play that
odd but lovely riff properly at the beginning, and, as in all the Woodface
Tim/Neil songs, Tim's backing vocals were sorely missed. I've seen shows before
where Mark did a reasonably good job of replicating them, but at this show they
were very weak indeed and one had to sing them oneself to achieve anything
approaching the desired effect. I guess this is what 'warm-up' shows are for!

Neil asked the audience if they had any questions for the band and then found a
loose microphone on a lead and asked the audience to pass it around to the
speakers. He asked us to police ourselves and was duly impressed by the orderly
fashion in which this was done, and even more so by the fact that the microphone
returned intact at the end of it all. (Not quite as cute as a tale I once heard of
Don's euphonium being crowd-surfed from soundboard to stage witha few detours in
between.)

One guy mentioned that his wife was about to have a baby and had to miss the gig
because of it. He requested that Mark think of a name for it if it turned out to
be a girl, and Nick if it was a boy. He said he was serious and the name would
actually be used, but Mark cruelly came up with 'Addicus', which he had heard on
some TV program the night before. Neil made up a snatch of a song "Attaboy
Addicus". Nick asked what the surname would be (I forget) and came up with the
very boring but much kinder suggestion, 'Emily'.

Then some guy answered Neil's earlier question to the audience about when the back
balcony had got walled up by saying that when Neil played solo there in such-and-
such a year it was still open, and after that gig he and his band had gone home
and learned to play 'Private Universe'. This, of course, was a cue for Neil to
invite him and his friends to come up on stage and play the song, so they guy got
up but the other two members took a while to materialise. So in the meantime some
other enthusiastic bloke got up as well. I toyed with the idea of doing likewise
but two things stopped me: (a) I don't really like 'Private Universe' and (b) I
wasn't sure that I could succesfully climb up on to the stage. Of course I
regretted it afterwards.
Eventually the other two guys materialised and with the help of the real band they
played and sang the song. But for me the highlight was the young girl who
clambered up un-noticed by Neil and proceeded to play along on Don's euphonium!
Audience participation is commonplace at Crowded House shows but I bet this was a
first!

They finished the first encore with Weather With You, again suffering from sheer
lack of Tim, but benefiting from Don playing enthusiastically on his little toy
piano held up to the microphone and rather effective for it. This is yet another
perfect singalong song, but as I've noticed before, there are two versions of the
chorus, both of which resolve differently. Generally the audience doesn't know
which version is happening at any one time, and the thing collapses each time the
resolution is reached and half the people sing a different thing from the other
half. However Neil made much of the fact that, for the first time ever, we
actually managed to get it right! That's a hometown audience for you! He got us to
run through it again both ways just to make sure.

THE SECOND ENCORE

Neil began by playing a lengthy drum solo while Matt wandered over to the
keyboards and started making sounds. Neil attempted to get a rendition of Paul
Hester's 'This Is Massive' going but it didn't really work out. Apart from this
musical allusion, I don't think Neil mentioned Paul at all, even though he was a
Melbourne man and it would have seemed very natural to talk about him here. Neil
regularly paid tribute to Paul frequently on the earlier tours of the reformed
version of the band, but tonight he didn't and afterwards I was absolutely amazed
to realise that I had gone through the whole concert barely consciously thinking
of him at all! I guess that's a good thing in that it means that Matt is doing a
great job on drums, but I almost felt guilty when it dawned on me.

Then it was 'Fingers Of Love' which Marjie absolutely hates. I don't mind it too
much but Marjie's detestation always rubs off on me a little so that I can't
really enjoy it.

Then they sang a live favourite, their version of Nick's brother Mark's 'Throw
Your Arms Around Me'. An audience sing-along classic if ever there was one. We
were happy that Neil gave Don a verse to sing, and he sounded truly magnificent.
Only made me more cross that he didn't get to sing any of his own songs!

Neil was clearly wanting the night to go on for ever and said that he couldn't
think of a way to end it so he gave Matt a drium solo. Parts of it seemed to me to
be modelled along the lines of Led Zeppelin's 'Moby Dick' so I was wishing the
band to come in with that riff, but they had worked abother Zep riff into
Chocolate Cake earlier so perhaps they didn't want to overdo it!

Nick treated us to a rendition of 'Hector The Safety Cat' which must be some old
Aussie public information film. I don't think Neil had heard that one before.

Then they finished the night with 'Better Be Home Soon' - always a good way to end
it! Throughout the evening the band seemed genuinely moved by the reception they
got, and Neil specifically said that he didn't want it to end. The show had lasted
almost three hours and after a wildly received bow or two from the entire
ensemble, Nick concluded it by warmly thanking his hometown of Melbourne.

- DC Cardwell 2008
_____________________
SET LIST (compiled from some other versions posted on the web - may not be
entirely accurate but thanks to the kind anons from whom I pinched it)

1. Locked Out
2. World Where You Live
3. Isolation
4. Turn It Round
5. Pineapple Head/The End
6. Amsterdam
7. Don't Stop Now
8. People Are Like Suns
9. Chocolate Cake
10. Not The Girl You Think You Are
11. Heaven That I'm Making
12. Lucky/Lola
13. Fall At Your Feet
14. Whispers And Moans
15. Love You Til The Day I Die
16. When You Come

17. It's Only Natural

18. Cars Collide
19. Private Universe
20. Distant Sun
21. Weather With You

22. Neil Drum Jam/This Is Massive

23. Fingers Of Love
24. Throw Your Arms Around Me
25. Matt Drum Solo
26. Better Be Home Soon

_____________________

* Our son Samuel had mentioned to me the review in the Age but I couldn't find it,
and after I'd thumbed through the paper for some time Marjie revealed that she'd
used a few pages to wrap the Christmas Cake as it baked in the oven. She was kind
enough to save the relevant article after the cake came out, and now I know that
newsprint can survive such ordeals unscathed. I've heard of 'half-baked' reviews
before, but I have the 'completely-baked' one in front of me as I type. It looks
just fine.