Review: 7 Worlds Collide

Neil Finn's supergroup gets warm welcome from a crowded house

12 August 2009 - It's hard to imagine how you'd combine Radiohead's Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway, Johnny Marr, Kt Tunstall and Wilco's rhythm section, but at this gig it was obvious that Neil Finn is the glue that does just that.

Joined at London’s Dingwalls by a Wilco and Radiohead backing to play tracks from forthcoming ‘7 Worlds Collide’ album The Sun Came Out, Finn couldn't resist playing some Crowded House hits.

Indeed, it was an arc of songs that began and ended with Crowded House tracks, kicking off with Distant Sun and ending with Don’t Dream It’s Over and Weather With You.

But it was Radiohead’s Selway who provided the biggest talking point, ditching his drumsticks for the microphone - and the limelight - on The Witching Hour and Ties That Bind Us, the latter being the highlight of the set.

Meanwhile the melange of influences spanning a stack of bands usually gave way to one force or another, such as the unmistakeably Marr-influenced Too Blue, or the country edges of the Don McGlashan-penned Girl Make Your Own Mind Up.

"Whatever happens we can go back to our day jobs. They’re pretty good day jobs."
Neil Finn

Radiohead fans in the crowd were obviously delighted to hear Finn let slip that the band had been rehearsing tracks from their much anticipated new album in the day before this gig; and at times the guitar personality O’Brien has honed over years with Thom Yorke and co shone through, punctuating the rockiest number, All Comedians Suffer, for example.

It was a rare cocktail that seemed to have enough elements to please all of the people most of the time, although the off-kilter details that brought alive Learn to Crawl and Red Wine Bottle weren’t sustained in all of the new material, leaving a handful of songs sounding a touch too middle of the road and rather too indebted to Neil Young - while lacking Young’s characteristic flourish.

Nevertheless with Finn as the centrifugal force behind a project that is an impressive logistical and artistic achievement, it’s hard to blame him for indulging some of the music that made his name as a pop songwriter.

Moreover with such an array of musicians willing to reinvent their roles and musical styles in such a relaxed way, virtually any fan of any of their constituent projects was able to find something new to absorb.

As Finn himself admitted: "Whatever happens we can go back to our day jobs. They’re pretty good day jobs."

Rodrigo Davies