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There’s currently a resurgence in the popularity of bands that were first popular in the 80’s and many of those bands are getting back together and touring again. At one end of the spectrum you have artists like Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, The Cure, Depeche Mode and Tears For Fears who are playing large arena-style stadiums like Climate Pledge and at the other end you have one hit wonders touring together as a type of mini-festival.
An example of the one hit wonder tour is a show at Marymoor park this year that includes Wang Chung, General Public, Naked Eyes, Animotion, Stacey Q and Shannon (who I’ve never even heard of). Now, how that many bands can even play on the same day on the same stage is beyond me. The show starts at 6pm and I believe Marymoor has a 10pm curfew which means six bands have to play in four hours. There will be more time spent changing the stage between band sets than actual music being played. Oh well. Guess I won’t be going to that show…
Anyway, in the middle somewhere you have bands like They Might Be Giants, who Sam and I went to see a couple of weeks ago, and Crowded House. These bands have a solid fan base that allows them to sell out medium size venues. In the case of Crowded House they did break up in the mid-90’s but reformed a few years ago with the core of Neil Finn and Nick Seymour and they played a sold out show at the Paramount Theater. This was another of those Covid-delayed shows that was originally scheduled a year or two ago. It was worth the wait.
Crowded House has always been a band I’ve enjoyed and the concert was everything I expected. I’ve talked about how I enjoy bands that interact with the audience and aren’t just there to play seventeen songs and run off stage. Crowded House is a band that feels like a family affair and you get the impression from the onstage banter that they genuinely enjoy being together. That feeling was further enhanced by the fact that Neil Finn’s sons, Liam and Elroy, are now permanent members of the band. They may be twenty years younger than the rest of the band but they fit right in and, especially in the case of Liam on guitar, the band clearly gives him some room to cut loose with some youthful exuberance that gives them an energy they might not otherwise have at this point in their careers. This 60 Minutes Australia segment kind of explains how it all came together.
Not only is Liam a member of the band now, he also acted as the opening band, playing a solo set. The guy is entertaining. First, he chatted in between almost every song but beyond that his ability to play multiple instruments and layer them all using loop pedals was amazing. He must have had four or five loops going at some point in most of the songs and to see him bouncing back and forth between instruments was impressive. He would play guitar, record a bit and start that looping, then play and record another part, loop that, and then jump over and play the drums and loop them, all the while building the song structure. I didn’t bother recording any of it but this video is a good example. If you watch the video, he starts looping his guitar around the 2:10 mark and then it just kind of takes off from there. By the time he jumps on the drums at the 3:40 mark he’s got at least three different guitar samples going. Every song he played had some of this wizardry, including one song using a handheld theremin which is something you won’t see every day.
Anyway, a really great show.
