It was like Taylor Swift for adults.<\/p>\n
You know how you go to Taylor’s show and all the little girls sing along?\u00c2\u00a0 It was JUST LIKE THAT, only everyone in attendance had reached puberty.<\/p>\n
A chill went up my spine as they started to play.\u00c2\u00a0 This was genuine music, Neil Finn in his skinny tie and jacket, taking his job seriously, wringing the notes out of his guitar as he emoted into the microphone.<\/p>\n
It was truly shocking, how fucking great they were.<\/p>\n
Oh, they did "Hole In The River".\u00c2\u00a0 And "Amsterdam".\u00c2\u00a0 And even "Message To My Girl"!\u00c2\u00a0 Hearing that made me feel completely whole, like there was nothing wrong with me, like it was fucking great to be alive and I’m gonna live forever, even though it’s fine if I die tonight.<\/p>\n
There were illuminated plastic ducks and trolls on the edge of the stage.\u00c2\u00a0 The players stood atop rugs.\u00c2\u00a0 It was all homey without being quaint.\u00c2\u00a0 You see this was serious business, musicians working out.<\/p>\n
They played for two hours and fifteen minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 I had no desire to check my phone, needed no e-mail connection or Twitter feed, because the music was so alive, so vibrant.<\/p>\n
And so modern.<\/p>\n
Usually, when you see the codgers, it’s nostalgia.\u00c2\u00a0 But Crowded House played most of the new album, and the act felt more alive than that of the twentysomethings performing to hard drive.\u00c2\u00a0 This is what it was like in the days before recordings, when you had to go to the show to get it.<\/p>\n
And in the dressing room, Neil was like a guy you went to high school with.\u00c2\u00a0 Chipper, adrenalized since he’d just had a great show, but with no airs whatsoever.\u00c2\u00a0 He was normal.\u00c2\u00a0 But so upbeat, I had to ask him, did he ever get frustrated, ever get depressed?\u00c2\u00a0 He rolled his head back and laughed…it’s part of being creative, the despair creeps in and you’ve got to create to get out of the space.<\/p>\n
He’s excited about playing.\u00c2\u00a0 Gonna record a bunch of stuff and release it right away, not worry about complete albums and release cycles.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, on his next project, he’s playing the drums!<\/p>\n
That’s the life of a musician.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not doing the same thing every day, he’s constantly experimenting, constantly innovating, constantly taking chances, otherwise you die inside.<\/p>\n
And the show rocked hard enough at times that James Hetfield could smile.<\/p>\n
Then again, there were moments when it was just Neil and his keyboard, completely sweet.<\/p>\n
But he loved to play.\u00c2\u00a0 He kept changing guitars, changing sounds, we were viewing a master at work.<\/p>\n
And one final note…\u00c2\u00a0 I ended up telling him that I saw him at the Whisky…<\/p>\n
He remembered the show!\u00c2\u00a0 But for different reasons than I. You see at the time Split Enz were co-managed by Tommy Mottola, and there was an altercation in the pit when their Down Under manager’s seats were usurped by Tommy’s guys. Spit was involved.<\/p>\n
And at the end of the evening, Neil’s brother Tim went home with _________________.
Ah, remember the seventies, when you had to go to the show to get it?\u00c2\u00a0 When you felt being there, drinking up the sound, was the height of life?\u00c2\u00a0 THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS LIKE! It was alive, not dead.\u00c2\u00a0 No one was going through the motions. It was the essence.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s why I’m a believer.<\/p>\n
And I thought love was only true in fairy tales…<\/p>\n
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It was like Taylor Swift for adults. You know how you go to Taylor’s show and all the little girls sing along?\u00c2\u00a0 It was JUST LIKE THAT, only everyone in attendance had reached puberty. A chill went up my spine as they started to play.\u00c2\u00a0 This was genuine music, Neil Finn in his skinny tie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-QF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}