The Finn Brothers

Tonight I got to see another fantastic concert- this time by the Finn Brothers. This show was a secret warm-up for the Homebake Festival on Saturday. They played at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, which is a lovely art deco venue. Now, for those of you who don't know, I am a huge fan of Neil and Tim Finn. Their musical careers go back to the 1970s, starting with Tim's band Split Enz (which Neil joined in the late 70s). When the Enz broke up in 1984, Neil and Paul Hester went on to form Crowded House. I have been a massive Crowded House fan since 1987, and have followed Neil's solo career since Crowded House broke up in 1996. Last year Neil and Tim released their second brother's album "Everyone Is Here," and these are the last concerts they will be performing as the Finn Brothers for a while.

What made this show extra special was the band the Finns had joining them. On piano was Eddie Rayner, who played in Split Enz, and on bass was Nick Seymour, who was in Crowded House. For the drums they brought in Joey Waronker, who has played with Beck and REM. The concert was amazing. It had an energy and looseness to it that had been missing in previous shows because with Eddie and Nick there is a lot of history to draw on. They played a mixture of Split Enz, Crowded House, and Finn Brothers songs. Tim was his usual frantic and slightly psychotic self on stage as he let the music take him over. There was joking and lots of banter between the songs, and the crowd was really into it because it was mostly an audience of hard core fans. The boys played two encores and could have gone on the entire night. The show ended with a touching crowd sing-along to "Four Seasons In One Day," which was dedicated to Paul Hester, who committed suicide in March of this year.