Perhaps a curious choice of venue for a band that have sold millions of records across the globe, but as frontman Neil Finn explained it’s a venue in his backyard, having recently relocated to the area. “I’m bi-hemispheral, spending half the time here and the other half back in New Zealand.” The ten years that have passed since the break up of the band were apparent in the crowd – the hair a little greyer and receding, the middle age spread testing the stretchability of the old tour t-shirts. As for the band themselves, the break seems to have had little adverse effect. The three members of the old guard – Finn, bass player Nick Seymour and utility man Mark Hart all looked in fine fettle, suited and booted for the comeback. New drummer Matt Sherrod, formerly with Beck’s band, favoured a more casual approach but slotted into the musical ensemble with equal measures of power and finesse. It can’t be easy to join an established band at the best of times, let alone when the man you are replacing is a figure of the importance of Paul Hester. Hester’s suicide in 2005 will naturally cast as long a shadow over the future of Crowded House as his presence behind the drum kit brought so much colour to the band’s history. Penned into a corner The band arrived on the stage just after 9pm, launching straight into the 1994 hit Locked Out, perhaps a statement from Finn that his band could still rock ten years on. Penned into a corner of a small stage, one got the feeling that he was desperate to throw himself around more than the space allowed, the comparison between the Thekla and their last gig on the steps of the Sydney Opera House extremely apparent. Indeed at a later point in the evening, during a bizarre post-Modern German jazz jam Finn stepped back a little too far and tripped over an amp. But that kind of thing is exactly what you expect at a Crowdies gig. The set continued with World Where You Live and Something So Strong from their 1986 eponymous debut album, but like the work of all great songwriters, nothing about the tracks seems dated at all. The memory of Hester returned in the first song from the new Crowded House album Time On Earth, during which Finn’s younger son Elroy joined the band on stage with a guitar. Finn senior looked reflective as he sang “I remember the time when your head was still clear”, perhaps a reference to the depression that clouded Hester’s latter years. As expected, the gig was a blend of the old tracks and the new, the band clearly still finding their feet in places, but who wants a polished performance? Pineapple Head – including a bizarre sea-shanty aside to reflect the fact that the Thekla is a floating venue - was followed by Fingers Of Love, a track which highlighted the supreme talent of Mark Hart as an instrumentalist. The rawness of his 12-string guitar solo lifts this track to a higher echelon. The new material has all the trademarks of Finn as a writer: big choruses, strong melodies and surprising twists and turns. He took to the keyboards for a few of the new tracks, one of which was partly sung in French, another featuring the guest vocals of Bristol’s own Beth Rollins. Hippy dance As the set rolled on, the old Crowded House gradually emerged. Their concerts are more like parties than gigs, with audience participation and heckling positively encouraged. Neil demonstrated what Nick Seymour described as his “New Zealand hippy dance” accompanied by a cover version of KC and the Sunshine Band’s That’s The Way I Like It. Looking around the crowd at faces creased with laughter and embarrassment, one could sense that Finn wasn’t the only one present who dances like that… Back to the old tunes, the band let their hair down with Love You ‘Til The Day I Die, featuring audience vocals when the words temporarily escaped Finn, followed by the brilliant and evocative When You Come. Another track from Time On Earth followed, Heaven That I’m Making which brought Seymour’s vocals to the fore. There’s a strong impression that Hester’s death has cemented the relationship between Seymour and Finn particularly, both on and off stage, and Seymour exudes the confidence of a man happy to be back in front of a crowd, performing the tracks that he played a crucial part in creating. It was inevitable that emotion would play a part during the course of the evening. Fans of the band have shared in every aspect of the pleasure and the pain throughout the Crowded House lifespan, and when Neil invited those assembled to “sing it for Paul” as he strummed the opening chords to Better Be Home Soon, the passion that they put into it was a clear demonstration that everyone present had lost somebody they considered to be a friend. When Hester left the band in the 1990s Finn dedicated this song to him, but this time round it was immeasurably more poignant. With the curfew fast approaching, the band played another new track, Nobody Wants To, followed by another impromptu moment, a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Born On The Bayou, with Mark Hart on lead vocals and electric guitar, assisted by Finn on keyboards. This track stirred some bizarre shenanigans in front of the stage – it can hardly be called a mosh pit – which from my vantage point appeared to be some kind of “assault by bingo wings”, resulting in one woman being ejected from the venue. Not the kind of thing one normally sees at a Crowdies gig, but it was an extraordinary night all round, and one that many fans never thought they would see. The clock ticked on, and the setlist was still packed with unplayed hits. Distant Sun from the band’s last studio album Together Alone (not counting the compilation Afterglow), brought the set proper to a close, but there was absolutely no chance of Crowded House leaving the building, well the boat, without an encore. Naturally they obliged, inviting the crowd to choose two tracks from the following four: Fall At Your Feet, Mean To Me, Don’t Dream It’s Over and Four Seasons In One Day. A tricky decision, but one that would guarantee a happy outcome. Fall At Your Feet came first, closely followed by a revved up rendition of Mean To Me, the opening track on the band’s debut album. The trademark curtain call followed, the band beaming as they bowed to the 150-strong crowd, before Finn stepped to the mic to simply say “See you soon”. This time you know he means it. | 
