Crowded House
3Arena, Dublin
★★★★☆
The Earth was a darker place during the decade that Crowded House, one of the finest singles bands in the universe, went on hiatus after touring 2010′s Intriguer album. There was, or at least there should have been, parades in the streets and hats in the air when main man Neil Finn, a songwriter so good even Paul McCartney has nodded in his direction, announced that he and handsome bass hero, Sligo resident, and west of Ireland surf god Nick Seymour were getting the band back together.
Finn was in a position to bring in his two sons Liam and Elroy, both accomplished musicians in their own right, and Mitchell Froom, the producer who midwifed the first three Crowded House albums including their 1991 classic Woodface.
This new/old crew produced the lovely Dreamers Are Waiting in 2021 and played a memorable show in Trinity College the following year but then again, they’re always memorable shows and I say that as someone who’s been going to see them for decades.
Then they improved on Dreamers with this year’s Gravity Stairs, which might be their best LP since that Woodface high watermark and proves that Finn’s ability to conjure melodies that could make even the tone deaf weep hasn’t deserted him.
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After an atmospheric film noir opening involving lanterns and a lone musician, they kick off with Weather With You, a song that every other band would keep for the finale. The chorus is so perfect.
Placing Teenage Summer from the new record in between cast-iron belters like Weather and a marvellous World Where You Live from the first album (released 38 years ago) with that keyboard intro you could hang a wet duffel coat off shows a well-placed confidence in the newer material. They continue this with the recent To the Island, which starts with what Finn calls a “killer riff” from the bass of the exceptionally well togged-out Seymour. Growing out his greying hair into a windswept and interesting WB Yeats style, he completes the look with a pair of pants that were probably last seen in public when F Scott Fitzgerald played his final round of golf. Liam Finn, on the other side, turned up in a cross between an Hawaiian shirt and a pair of pyjamas while his father, centre stage, looks great in a more conservative jacket and trousers because he’s Neil Finn, and he wrote all these songs so he can do what he likes.
Fall At Your Feet has harmonies that could possibly bring about world peace and the crowd acquits itself admirably when Finn says “I can hear you singing Dublin” and lets us take over for a singalong coda. Oh Hi is sparkly melodic genius with Seymour playing a suitably McCartney-like Hofner-esque bass because pop is a magical Rubik’s Cube of connections if you just twist it the right way.
Finn reminisces about walking around Stephen’s Green earlier in the day, is delighted about the apparent lack of security in front of the stage, and even takes requests (Mean To Me, the first song on that first album, played on the piano, with Finn and Seymour smiling at each other over a few duff notes) from paper planes flung toward his feet. The rapport between the band displays real warmth.
You could pick any of the other songs Crowded House played and write a thousand words about them – Fingers Of Love, When You Come, an absolutely gorgeous Pineapple Head, a joyous The Howl from the new album and a truly spectacular Private Universe floating on Froom’s harmonium before Elroy Finn’s floor tom turns it tribal.
I have to mention Four Seasons In One Day (with some beautiful bouzouki from a Greek gentleman who took the murmurs on the chin when the previous night’s football was mentioned), All That I Can Ever Own (Macca would eat a ham sandwich to write a chorus like that) and a moving Don’t Dream It’s Over as irrefutable evidence that Finn should be awarded the Ivor Novello in perpetuity.
Crowded House don’t go for any Floydy visuals – they played in front of what looked like a giant pile of pipe cleaners as the lights changed colour – because they don’t need to. Their songs are like the platonic ideal brought back from the metaphysical plane to brighten up our drab reality and they’re played with obvious affection by a close-knit family band who manage to gently place a blanket of joy around each member of the audience. Finn’s story of his Dad’s wartime romance, Some Greater Plan (For Claire) is the highlight of a perfectly judged encore because his song writing is as great now as it’s ever was. My friend was right. What a great band they are.
