The gig review

OK, gig review time before I forget too much.

I met up with some fellow fans before the gig (well it was technically an album launch, but gig is faster to type) that I knew off the 'net. I got to the designated place first, and the second person to turn up was the girl who had organised it. I recognised her, not only because she was carrying a 'True Colours' sign like she said she would be, but also because we used to go to school together! Small world eh. Neither of us could believe that someone else from Firbank would actually have good taste in music, and that we would both happen to belong to the forum, so it was great to catch up. A couple of others turned up and I had a drink before meeting my family out the front. Very different to what I'm used to when going to gigs - I'm used to standing for three hours outside freezing my ass off and getting thoroughly bored. But I showed up half an hour before the doors opened and my family was already there (which shocked me greatly as we're notoriously late) at the head of the queue. There was a fairly even mix of young and old, although at 19 I was definitely in the minority of really young people. Thanks to my family's astounding punctuality, I got a possie front and centre and was soon joined by the girls I'd met up with.

The support act was a girl whose name I think is Emily Ulman. She was nice, but didn't exactly set my world on fire, and her songs seemed to sound much the same, running into each other. Perhaps it was because it was only her and another guy on their acoustic guitars. She played a short half hour set, then there was the usual wait while the roadies set up. It was at this point we noticed the distinct lack of Tim's yellow star-shaped tambourine, which has been a fixture of his live shows for quite a few years. So I wrote a note asking where it was, folded it into a paper aeroplane (another Finn tradition) and Eloise placed it at Tim's mic stand (we were standing right against the stage, which was about hip height).

Before Tim came on, a druid came out to bless the stage and Tim and all and sundry. I can't remember exactly what she said, and at first people were laughing a bit, but by the end everyone was dead silent and hanging off her words. She talked about peace. I remember that much. It was actually a surprisingly spiritual experience, not something you would expect at a gig.

So onto the gig itself. They opened with Six Months In A Leaky Boat, which was a really nice surprise, because he hadn't played it in Sydney or Auckland, and really got the crowd going. At 54, Tim Finn still rocks pretty hard. He either played acoustic guitar or piano or he just sang, and he still dances like a maniac. He has a great rapport with the audience as well...I've read a lot of stuff on Tim that says that his moods are really obvious and he can change the whole mood of a room with what he's feeling. Last night he was jubilant and in a really playful mood. Being a launch, it was mostly songs off the new album, and I really enjoyed all of them. There was one called Resting that I particularly loved, and another one that I can't remember the name of, but had a really great beat to it and an almost-gospel feel. There were also some old gems, Enz songs like Poor Boy and So Long For Now (last song of the set of course). For the encore he played two Crowded House songs, How Will You Go and It's Only Natural. Just before the final song He noticed my note and picked it up. 'Tim, where is your tambourine? Oooh!' He dropped it on the stage and picked up his guitar, but instead of going into 'Still The Song' he started a jam about his daughter being a rock and roll girl who likes to play the tambourine. 'What's a word that rhymes with tambourine?'
'Tangerine!' yelled someone in the crowd.
'Something something something Tangerine...'
'She has melons like a Tangerine!' yelled the voice.
Tim laughed. 'Awesome!'. Then during Still The Song he ditched the guitar and grabbed his drummer's tambourine for a dance. I'm quite proud that my stupid note inspired a jam. Eloise grabbed it off the stage after so I'll stick it up on my wall.

We didn't hang around the stage door after...something to do with a) it being a fairly seedy area (the joke was to get to the door 'turn left at the prostitute and right at the crack addict') and b) not really knowing where it was anyway. However when we went back to the carpark Tim drove out in the standard white tarago (there was only Tim and the driver, but it must be law that if you're going to or from a gig, you must be in a tarago). Then when we got in the car, Gold FM was playing an interview with Neil Finn and then they played History Never Repeats by Split Enz. Which is hopefully untrue as I'll be seeing Tim on his tour in February.

-R

PS photos up at my flickr site...www.flickr.com/photos/worldofcheese. Because I was so close I got some pretty good shots.