The last time Neil Finn appeared on a stage in Perth was in 2019 as a member of Fleetwood Mac, in a performance that included several of his own songs. He has been humble about this, but the fact that ‘Fleetwood Mac: guitarist/vocalist’ is just one of the entries on his CV speaks indelibly about his achievements. He respectfully crashed the gates of Buckingham Palace.
The first time Crowded House appeared on a stage in Perth was in 1987 at the long ago demolished Entertainment Centre. They were so hot right then; flotsam jetsam in outlook, comedic and poignant and dazzle-may-care, with all their vocal and instrumental chops in play. They were breaking the US, having already burst into our hearts, with Finn out front leading bassist Nick Seymour and late drummer Paul Hester (and touring keyboardist Eddie Rayner). They opened with the first track from their recently released self-titled debut album produced by Mitchell Froom, who now plays keyboards in the band. It was perfect.
Fast forward to Friday night at Perth’s King’s Park and it was a traffic jam on memory lane but with reminders that great artists aren’t mired in nostalgia, no matter how much we might want them to be.
Perth singer/songwriter Angie Colman had earlier nestled the crowd into the late afternoon’s cloudy-equatorial climate. With her own local airwave hit Who Are You Now? to a rendition of Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You she met the 6 o’clock challenge and settled in thousands of post-work picnic blankets. It’s harder than it sounds. Arising New Zealand empress Vera Ellen and band were a revelation, a shimmering reminder that pop’n’roll can still nudge one’s soul.
This time, like the first time Crowded House appeared on a stage in Perth, they opened with Mean To Me, the first glimpse offered from the band’s 1986 debut LP. That ‘blind date with destiny’ has carried them – and all of us – this far. It found Neil Finn and his amazing shock of grey hair in classic Crowdies footwork tandem with bassist Nick Seymour. But immediately, there was a sense that it wasn’t all about nostalgia with the vocal harmonies from Finn’s sons Liam (guitar) and the beautifully strident drumming of Elroy moving the song into the realms of us and now.
Us and now. The inclusivity of this music is everything. Finn, resplendent in double-blue (but not quite double denim), joked of the band camping in King’s Park and the elegantly longish black-shorted Seymour revelled in musings about reptiles and playing spotlight. Camping is not allowed in Kings Park but the audience willed it to be so. The World Where You Live was a fitting signoff to that banter, and Finn would soon honour the Wadjuk land the performance was given on, as the band launched into the gently majestic Fall At Your Feet.
A caress, an embrace, a reassurance – it was the first of the night’s many crowd singalongs. “You’ve brought your voices, Perth. We knew you would,” said Finn. When You Come, from the band’s 1988 album Temple Of Low Men – a darker turn from the bright and bubbly 1986 debut – was an epic, the band leaning in and Liam’s guitar soaring above and between (a psychedelic guitar entanglement between father and son also later highlighted To The Island). The pride Finn has in his sons playing his songs is obvious. When they later played the Elroy-penned The Other, Finn was particularly moved by the crowd’s percussive participation on the stage-left hill and made it known.
Taking to the piano and noting it was his first instrument, Finn trilled some playful classical notes. “Lucky Beethoven isn’t here,” he said with some self-deprecation. “He’d roll over,” deadpanned Seymour.
The new album, Gravity Stairs, was given its due with five songs honoured – Teenage Summer, Oh Hi, Night Song, Magic Piano and The Howl – and while any band four decades in will always face silent patience at best from an audience baying for hits, given the intrinsic nature of Finn’s songwriting and the band’s delivery, the reception was considered yet engaged, the songs being fascinating if unfamiliar worlds unto their own.
With Elroy down to the front on a snare drum and brushes, Crowded House busked through Four Seasons In One Day and Sister Madly, delivering sentiment and show business in one, but the business end of the night kicked in with a rousing run through Split Enz’s I Got You – still crazy after all these years.
The final quarter of the show was a photo album of hits. Don’t Dream It’s Over, Distant Sun, Weather With You, Something So Strong and Chocolate Cake brought those sitting to their feet and had the picnic blanket brigade cutting their rugs. A medley that started with Shaggy’s It Wasn’t Me and legged it through Queen’s Under Pressure, Stevie Nicks’ Edge Of Seventeen, Hot Chocolate’s I Believe In Miracles and locked in admirably on Talking Heads’ Road To Nowhere had a charmed crowd cheering.
In a night of singalongs, the closing Better Be Home Soon proved to be one of the greatest campfire songs of all time. It was a song – and indeed a night – for the ages.
Crowded House’s Australian tour continues through December.
