The hugely successful national run of Tim and Neil Finn tribute concerts – They Will Have Their Way – continued last night with a sold out show at the Sydney Opera House, the first of three at the venue.
The show sees seven well regarded Australian artists – Seeker Lover Keeper (Sarah Blasko, Sally Seltmann and Holly Throsby), Paul Dempsey, Lior, Clare Bowditch and Oh Mercy’s Alexander Gow accompanied by an accomplished five piece band as they perform some of Tim and Neil Finn’s best known and most loved songs.
The shows come after the success of the “She Will…” and “He Will…” tribute compilations released over the last few years, featuring many of the artists who appear on stage here. Though it was a pity more of the artists involved in the CDs couldn’t be a part of the tour, the sensational talents of those on stage more than made up for it. The seven artists collaborated in a variety of different ways to produce an exciting look back at the catalogues of Crowded House, Split Enz, Tim and Neil.
The highlights came early with “Fall At Your Feet” popping up in the first 20 minutes of the show, performed by Seeker Lover Keeper and Claire Bowditch. Though the arrangement wasn’t as inspired as the popular Boy & Bear version, it certainly did the timeless track justice. Indeed, so many Finn tracks are “timeless”, and the fact they can be performed so aptly by different groups of performers – of both sexes I might add – is a testament to such. In addition, as was mentioned a few times on the night, I think that for many of these artists, they just wish they’d written these songs in the first place.
Other highlights in the first half of the show included Holly Throsby’s rendition of “Not The Girl You Think You Are”, Alexander Gow and Holly Throsby’s duet for Split Enz’s “Stuff And Nonsense” (Holly mentioned that this was her version of Missy Higgins’ version of the track, who performed the track for the “She Will…” compilation). “I Feel Possessed” with Alexander Gow felt spot on, while Paul “Tall and Handsome” Dempsey (as introduced by Gow) did an apt cover of “Message To My Girl” and Sarah Blasko got our feet moving with “That Was My Mistake”.
“Distant Sun” was performed by Sarah Blasko and Paul Dempsey, without the backing band, and was my favourite moment of the night. They should definitely work together more often! A perfect vocal pairing. The first half of the show closed out with “Better Be Home Soon”, as performed by Clare Bowditch, with Paul Dempsey sneaking in half way through. Clare made great efforts to get the audience involved in this one – with the boys singing one vocal part, and the girls singing another – and it worked marvelously. It helped we were in the beautiful acoustics of the Opera House, of course.
The often hilarious Gow kicked off the second act with “Poor Boy” by Split Enz, and some of the highlights of the remaining set included Lior’s “Unsinkable”, Alex and Clare’s “Something So Strong”, Paul’s “Chocolate Cake”, Sally Seltmann’s “I Hope I Never” – which ended in an stunning piano duet, while “Don’t Dream It’s Over” saw all 7 singers join Sarah Blasko on stage, before she returned for solo mode with “Dirty Creature”. “I See Red” closed things up with Paul Dempsey jumping into the front row of the Opera House.
The energy continued for the encore with all artists performing “It’s Only Natural” and then the three boys donned the guitar for “Weather With You”. A great way to end a phenomenal night of music. The artists displayed true respect for the music, and the arrangements worked a treat.
I’m not sure if any tickets remain for the remainder of the shows, but if you’re a fan of Tim Finn, Neil Finn and Australian artists performing songs by the Finn brothers, then this is definitely a night you don’t want to miss. Head along to sydneyoperahouse.com for more details as to the availability of the remaining shows – tonight and tomorrow night!
