Son and dad act Liam Finn (left) and Neil Finn (right), flanking keyboardist Mitchell Froom. Photo / Ian Cooper
Son and dad act Liam Finn (left) and Neil Finn (right), flanking keyboardist Mitchell Froom. Photo / Ian Cooper
In the music through the system waiting for Crowded House to enter a truly crowded albeit-outdoors house on Saturday night, came the words, "We don't know how lucky we are."
It wasn't Fred Dagg, or actor and comedian John Clarke, to use the given name of one who passed in 2017.
And Clarke never got to know just how much those words of his 1975 anthem might mean on an idyllic night at Church Road Winery, near Taradale, on the last Saturday night of March in 2021.
As frontman and original Neil Finn had said pre-concert, Crowded House is, amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, probably the only international band touring right now.
The Taradale crowd enjoyed an idyllic night. Photo / Ian Cooper
The greatest show on Earth might in the circumstances sound playing with words, but, just 24 hours before a Sunday night show which would end that tour, "the greatest show on Earth" is not far off the mark.
The fact is that ever since Neil Finn joined older brother Tim in Split Enz, about the time as Fred Dagg emerged, he's produced nothing that is less than class. And now at 62, with sons Liam, 37, and on lead guitar, and Elroy, 30, on drums and for a moment second acoustic guitar, he wasn't about to let anything spoil a good thing.
Always with Finn-esse, one might say, and it was thus that he would deal with the one blemish on the night - a clown's biffing of a chair at a fellow audience member late in the piece.
It attracted appropriate opprobrium from Finn Snr, OBE.= no less, who implored, apparently to security: "Can you take him out – forever."
"Chairs are for sitting on, occasionally for standing on, never for throwing," he said. "Are we ready to rock in peace?"
More than ready. It was already two numbers into a bracket of four constituting the encore, and arguably the best was to come – I Got You, the Split Enz hit from 1980, and, finally, Better Be Home Soon, Crowded House from 1988.
Finn once conceded, famously in 2006, that Crowded House was an Australian band.
It stuck, a history which the way Finn thinks may one day become another of his masterpieces, but there's nothing Australian about the act any more.
The Finns, undeniably New Zealand. Founding member and bassist Nick Seymour now from Sligo, West Ireland, but, admittedly Australia-born. Keyboardist Mitchell Froom, from LA.
Off to one side, from time to time, was Paul Taylor, from Great Barrier Island, a percussionist and specialist on something that looked a bit like a hollowed ceramic gourd, or calabash.
Warmed-up by Auckland alternative/indie four-piece The Beths, fronted by singer-guitarist Elizabeth Stoke and brought-on twice later in the night to bolster the already-quality vocals, the crowd was ready when Finn, with that mass of grey hair, which was also class – compared with Boris Johnson.
He launched into it with Weather With You (1992), first ever Crowded House release Mean To Me (1986) and World Where You Live (1987) before 2020 release Whatever You Want, the first of three from Dreamers Are Waiting, due for release in June as the first Crowded House album in more than a decade. Another was tour title-track To the Island.
Among the more awaited were 1986 success Don't Dream It's Over, into which Finn wove seamlessly a bar of two of the Everly Brothers' All I Have To Do Is Dream, and Something So Strong (1987).
From left Mitchell Froom, Neil Finn, Elroy Finn and Nick Seymour. Photo / Ian Cooper
Having lauded the on site little donuts, Finn was away so long after signing off, for the first time, he may have gone to get some.
When they returned for the encore, it was with a helping of Chocolate Cake (1991) and then the only non-House, non-Enz venture of the night, David Bowie's Heroes, a chance to recognise, on the screen, such Kiwi heroes as Jonah Lomu, and nurses working through the pandemic.
With the obvious influence of lights and effects guru Ben Dalgleish, it was an effective and spectacular production.
Church Road is the only venue on the tour, apart from Spark Arena, where there's a second time around. Crowded House, and The Beths, are there again tonight (Sunday), with hopes of selling out again.
