I just got home from the Crowded House show...OMG, what an amazing night! Easily the best concert I've ever been to, both from a musical standpoint as well as the on-stage antics of Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, and Mark Hart - along with drummer Matt Sherrod. It was clear from the get-go that if having a good time was like a virus, then these guys were about to spread it like wildfire throughout Danforth Music Hall!
Kicking things off a little after 9:00 p.m., the band started with "Everything is Good For You", followed up with one of my all time favorite CH songs, "World where you live". The rest of the set was a veritable mixed bag of old - "Don't Dream It's Over", "It's Only Natural", "Into Temptation" (one of the big highlights of the night for me), "Distant Sun", "Fingers of Love" (another big highlight), "Locked Out" - new - "Don't Stop Now", "She Called Up", "Heaven that I'm making", "Walked Her Way Down", - even newer - I can't recall most of the titles of the newer songs, although "The Other Side of the World" and "The Luckiest One" are two definite standouts...actually, all the new material they played tonight was quite catchy, definitely worthy additions to the Crowded House catelog for sure! Can't wait for the new album! - and in addition to all that, the really old - as in, Split Enz-old - "One Step Ahead", "I Got You", and the clearcut highlight of the night for me, the Hunters and Collectors cover "Throw Your Arms Around Me", which brought out a great sing-a-long from the audience, as well as "Weather With You", and the aforementioned "Don't Dream It's Over", which for me was a rather special moment in that I remember watching on Much Music all those years ago their "Farewell to the World" concert and feeling rather misty-eyed at the final audience sing-a-long of "Don't Dream It's Over", thinking that this was the end of the road, but of course, tonight's rendition brought with it a renewed sense of hope, which gave me a much-needed emotional lift as well.
In between songs, of course, the usual entertaining stage banter between the members of the band - at one point, Don McGlashen (the opening act) as well as one of their tech-crew members joined them on stage in a back-up capacity, to which Neil aptly quipped that "After all these years we're finally starting to live up to our name!" There were several other great moments of on stage banter, such as when Neil suddenly decided to change the key midway through a new song, throwing his other bandmates off slightly! At one point Neil was at the back behind Mark Hart's keyboard and complained about Mark's weird microphone setup (it was kinda angled in a weird way, Neil felt). At this point he stepped away from the microphone a bit to see if everyone could hear him up in the nosebleeds, and then Nick did a bit of an improvised dramatic "theatre"-ish performance that had the audience in hysterics!
Clearly, these guys were having fun performing on stage, performing for a near capacity Music Hall, in one of their favorite cities in the world to perform. Neil at one point joked that he was sure that there's probably a Crowded House fan in the audience somewhere who could tell them exactly how many times they'd played in Toronto over the years!
So around 10:15 or so, the main part of the set ended...but of course, encores would follow - two songs, then another 4 or 5 songs after that...almost an hour later they finally packed it in for the night, and honestly, they probably could have (and would have) kept playing all night, and I'm sure none of the audience would have minded it all that much if they had!
Anyway, it was an amazing show - definitely the best concert I've ever been to. It took me nearly 14 years of listening to their music to finally get to my first Crowded House show - and believe me, it'll be far less time before my next one, as long as they don't wait another 10 years or so to tour again, as Neil also quipped at one point in the evening! The new material is fantastic - definitely alot more upbeat than the material on their last album, but of course with the circumstances surrounding original drummer Paul Hester's suicide, it was an understandably darker record. The new album, if tonight's performance is any indication, looks to be a definite return to form, and I can't wait!
Greg, you're definitely in for a treat tomorrow night!
JDJ, they didn't record the show tonight - however, at the merchandise table they were selling cd copies of the 09/08/2007 Winnipeg show, and of course I picked up a copy of it, as well as a tour t-shirt.
Great concert...it was definitely worth the $80 ticket...what a great way to celebrate my birthday, for sure!
Like I said before, when I saw that they were coming to Toronto and in the same week as my b-day, it was too good to resist...and I'm glad I went...and also, I think in the process I may have converted a new CH fan...now I'll have to get her started on Blue Rodeo as well!
~ ...and all the demons are saints, and the saints I'll never trust...~ Blue Rodeo - "Graveyard"
~...Had a dream where everybody looked like someone else, and the farthest I could get from was the closest to myself...~ Men Without Hats - "Sideways"