Finntastic

Whoever said puns were bad. Ahem. Anyway.



The town hall didn't *quite* sell-out, but that's still 2,500 odd punters. Interestingly, had they dropped the price $20, removed the seats (thereby increasing capacity to 3,500), perhaps they would have enticed some more young people along, but come away with the same money. However, I digress.

Those of you who know my musical tastes well will be aware that I'm frequently a little luke-warm on the recorded output of Finn the Younger. Which is not to say that I don't appreciate the abilities of the seemingly less dark and frivolous one. It just seems like somewhere there's a "If we make the mix a little bit blander we'll get more cross-over into pop" demon lurking. It's no surprise then that my most treasured Crowded House output is the live disc that came as an extra in some versions of the best-of. And live, this demon is well and truly put to bed.

Last night was no exception. They rocked hard, with Neil doing some welcome soloing. They had a piano on stage, which they took in turn for playing various numbers.



I'm also a big fan of deviating from the set-list. It makes it seem like somehow they're tailoring the concert to the audience, and that it's not an exact replica of all the other gigs. It would be nice to think that the moment of shirt removal and speaker-stack climbing by Mr Toogood is spontaneous, but my inner cynic is skeptical. And it was extra pleasing that the deviation was then dedicated to Mr Hester.