Neil Finn - Bush Hall 03-02-2010
I'd have thought it was a risky strategy, inviting your fans on stage to sing your songs with you. I mean, these are people in a crowd! They could be anyone. They could make a fool of themselves, or you. Either they've got no skill as musicians in which case it's a bit pointless, or they're quite good in which case it's potentially embarrassing. No-one in their right mind would invite the fans onstage!
Somehow though, Neil Finn pulled it off. His live performance at Bush Hall was more of a ramshackle singalong than an us-and-them concert. Three hundred of Neil's friends coming along to have a big of knees-up! The set-list was quickly forgotten as the crowd shouted out requests for rarely heard songs and Neil succumbed to temptation without a moment's thought.
That's not to say that Neil was musically lacking. He belted out songs from years ago and you couldn't tell that he hadn't rehearsed them. I think that's how you spot a professional musician. They'll say 'Oh I'm not sure if I remember this one, I'm a little rusty, how does it go again?' and then, without any effort, they'll break your heart with a beautiful, note-perfect rendition of a forgotten classic. I think he did about ten of those.
There were new songs too, two of which were great and one of which (the one about Amsterdam) that I didn't like so much.
Neil's fans are very loving. There are few musicians who could get away with spending five minutes of a concert trying to reach his friends in New Zealand on Skype. After asking the staff what the wireless password is over the PA. Especially to discover that even though it's 11am, everyone's still in bed. The only comment he got was when he asked what the network name was and someone shouted 'Big Chicken And Ribs!'
As for those invited on stage, they all acquitted themselves very well. There was one girl invited to play three notes on the piano; a young woman singer who was apparently a diva; and Steve who was an excellent pianist and filled out on one of Neil's rarer songs brilliantly.
"I'm not on Facebook. I don't understand Twitter. I'm not on MySpace, though there is someone who runs my MySpace site. So if I make friends with you on MySpace, it's not me. I don't know who it is, but they do an excellent job."
And the music... was fabulous. Neil Finn seems incapable of writing a bad song. Of all the songs, 'Gentle Hum' really got to me. And then there's 'Don't Dream It's Over', often overlooked because it gets loads of attention, but then you forget how perfect it is, how perfectly suited to Neil's voice, how it's at just the right place between hope and sorrow... brilliant.
Somehow though, Neil Finn pulled it off. His live performance at Bush Hall was more of a ramshackle singalong than an us-and-them concert. Three hundred of Neil's friends coming along to have a big of knees-up! The set-list was quickly forgotten as the crowd shouted out requests for rarely heard songs and Neil succumbed to temptation without a moment's thought.
That's not to say that Neil was musically lacking. He belted out songs from years ago and you couldn't tell that he hadn't rehearsed them. I think that's how you spot a professional musician. They'll say 'Oh I'm not sure if I remember this one, I'm a little rusty, how does it go again?' and then, without any effort, they'll break your heart with a beautiful, note-perfect rendition of a forgotten classic. I think he did about ten of those.
There were new songs too, two of which were great and one of which (the one about Amsterdam) that I didn't like so much.
Neil's fans are very loving. There are few musicians who could get away with spending five minutes of a concert trying to reach his friends in New Zealand on Skype. After asking the staff what the wireless password is over the PA. Especially to discover that even though it's 11am, everyone's still in bed. The only comment he got was when he asked what the network name was and someone shouted 'Big Chicken And Ribs!'
As for those invited on stage, they all acquitted themselves very well. There was one girl invited to play three notes on the piano; a young woman singer who was apparently a diva; and Steve who was an excellent pianist and filled out on one of Neil's rarer songs brilliantly.
"I'm not on Facebook. I don't understand Twitter. I'm not on MySpace, though there is someone who runs my MySpace site. So if I make friends with you on MySpace, it's not me. I don't know who it is, but they do an excellent job."
And the music... was fabulous. Neil Finn seems incapable of writing a bad song. Of all the songs, 'Gentle Hum' really got to me. And then there's 'Don't Dream It's Over', often overlooked because it gets loads of attention, but then you forget how perfect it is, how perfectly suited to Neil's voice, how it's at just the right place between hope and sorrow... brilliant.