This was Crowded House's third gig in Sweden (the other two were
in 1986 and in 1991 - both fantastic gigs) and the venue was a rock
club called Gino in downtown Stockholm. Originally, the gig was to be
held at the Museum of Modern Art Gardens (mine and others' tickets
even said so) but for some reason it was switched to Gino (both are
1,000 capacity venues). Seeing that it had both thundered and rained
heavily this day, I wasn't entirely unhappy that they changed
venues...
Crowded House's gig was sold out since about a week
before the gig.
Before the gig, I had dinner with my friend Susanne, my penpal Jenny
and her cousin Cilla at a restaurant called Kings Cross, a restaurant
specialising in New Zealand food. I can highly recommend this
restaurant as the food was really yummy and well worth its
price. (Goodness knows why a restaurant specialising in NZ food would
be named after a red light district in Sydney, though...) Since we had
plenty of time before the concert we spent some time there. No
hurry.
We arrived at Gino around 8.15 p.m. and noticed a looooooooong
queue. Some 15 minutes earlier, Gino supposedly started selling a
handful of tickets. Some persons were desperate for tickets and
offered 200 SEK for our tickets, but we just laughed that off.
Once inside, we sat down near the stage (the gig was to start around
10 p.m. so at this point it was quite empty in front of the stage) and
spotted the merchandise stall. They had a few different things
available. One was a black t-shirt with the pigs from the 'Together
Alone' booklet on the front and a TA symbol and 'Crowded House
European Tour 1994' on the back; one was a black t-shirt with the
album cover on the front and tour cities (for the European tour) on
the back; one was a white t-shirt with the 'Nails In My Feet' cover on
the front and the same foot on the back, but with tour cities; and the
last type of t-shirt they had was a black one which had 'Crowded' and 'Together'
on the front (written as on the album cover) and 'House' and 'Alone'
on the back. This last one was, it seemed, made for children, judging
by its size. Also they had a blue polo shirt which had "Crowded House
European Tour 1994" on the front, and finally, a Crowded House
cap. Jenny, Susanne and I bought some stuff there, and also the
merchandise guys told us that Peter Green was not present at this
gig.
While waiting for the gig to start, we spotted first Mark Hart and
then Neil Finn coming down from the bar on the second floor, but we
didn't approach them as they seemed to be in a hurry.
As the crowd started to increase, we decided to get spots in the front
row. 45 minutes before the gig was scheduled to start, the venue was
totally crowded (no pun intended). My mate Niclas, wearing a shirt
from CH's NZ tour in 1992, joined us in the front row.
No ads had mentioned anything about a support act, so much to our
surprise the metal curtains went up at about 9.30 p.m. and a guy who
looked like a young cousin of Keith Richard entered the stage with an
acoustic guitar. This guy didn't introduce himself, and I did not
recognise him, but his songs were quite good (and they might have
sounded better had I heard any of them beforehand). He was also in a
very good mood, smiling and laughing and joking a lot, and got the
audience to do likewise.
Before one song, he taught the audience to sing 'Na na na na' in a
special way. The crowd went on to sing that part in that song. After
the song he commented "You're the first people to do that. There is no
'Na na na na' in this song..."
For another song, he told us it needed that we jumped up and down and
headbanged, so some members of the audience did just that. He also
mentioned that we could sing along to one song, if we were familiar
with it (said with some self-irony...). I thought he was quite good
musically and would definitely check out his album if/when he releases
one.
After his performance was over, songs from U2's 'Achtung Baby' were
played in the loudspeakers.
Last time Crowded House played in Stockholm, in October 1991, yours
truly was dragged up on stage to sing the Swedish National Anthem,
wearing a knitted sweater patterned after the 'True Colours' cover
(knitted by my mother a long time ago when I was young). This was, in
fact, mentioned in all the reviews of that particular gig. Some guys
behind me spotted Niclas and began chatting with him. I thought they
were mates, but Niclas later revealed that they are members of a band
which has sent him some demos - he works at a record company - which
he had rejected, so I am not quite sure about the 'mates' bit... :-)
(Incidentally, if said band members read this, I think you should know
that I have a copy of your demo tape and when you get famous I will
sell it for mega-bucks to some obsessed fan....:-) ). Anyway, in their
chat with Niclas they went on about how this (Crowded House) was
already, before the gig had even started, the Concert Of The
Year. Then one of the guys said to Niclas, "Do you remember their last
gig in Sweden? There was a guy in a knitted sweater getting up on
stage and singing the Swedish National Anthem...". I was surprised to
hear that they still remembered that. Niclas informed them that they
were standing just behind the guy in question (pointing at me). They
looked at me and asked, "Are you gonna sing with them again? We'll get
you up on stage!", but then again, the same guys also spoke about
getting up on stage and stage-diving during 'Into Temptation'.
Crowded House entered the stage around 10.30 p.m., to the sounds
of what sounded like one or more didgeridoos. Neil was on the far left
(seen from the audience's point of view), wearing a black shirt and
grey trousers; Mark was right behind him at the keyboards, wearing a
red/black shirt and jeans; Nick was on my right wearing a grey shirt
and silver-coloured trousers (the kind of trousers that make sounds at
the slightest movement...) and no shoes, and the new drummer, Peter
Jones, was behind Nick, wearing a t-shirt with red/blue stripes and
white sleeves.
The first song was "Whispers And Moans", and it immediately got the
audience singing. The band sounded very tight, and Neil's voice
sounded brilliant. Mark and Nick's vocal harmonies were also
impressive, and all in all I thought it surpassed the album
version. It was followed by "There Goes God", again with Mark playing
keyboards. This was another song with lots of audience singalong. Neil
improvised some lyrics towards the end of the song: "There goes
God...over there at the bar/There goes God...he can't get a
drink/There goes God...he's been waiting for half an hour/Yeah, I
guess he's lost his power".
After this song, the first chatter with the audience appeared. Neil
introduced Peter Jones (enormous cheering from the crowd) and said
"Paul's gone... Paul's gone home to Australia. He needed to be on his
own, he needed to find some space", to which Nick commented that
there's not a lot of space in Australia.
Mark switched to an electric guitar, and the band started "In My
Command". The opening chords increased the audience's level of
cheering, and judging from the reaction, this could have been a good
choice for a single in Sweden (in my opinion, it would have been a
much better single choice than "Locked Out").
So far, Crowded House had followed the set list, but for some reason
Peter Jones's kick drum broke. The band reacted quickly, told a roadie
to bring in the stand-up kit for Peter. So Peter came up front with
his brushes (imagine a CH drummer coming up front, eh?). The four
members were now standing next to each other at the front of the
stage, Neil on the far left, then Mark with his guitar (for some
reason, when Mark played keyboards he used his glasses, but when he
played guitar he took them off), Peter with his stand-up kit and then
Nick on the far right. The first song they played like this was not on
the set list. It was "Money's No Object" (of the UK "It's Only
Natural" CD single fame) which sounded very hip, and Peter was very
impressive up front, not missing a beat and smiling a lot (as they all
did). I think Peter really fitted in with the band.
This got a very enthusiastic response from the audience, and the band
remained up front for the next song, "Pineapple Head". From now on in
the concert, the set list was no longer followed. They would play
several songs which weren't on the set list, and also play songs from
the set list in a very different order.
Mark got up to his keyboards, and Nick noted that "Apart from his
glasses, he looks a lot like Steve McGarrett. Ladies and gentlemen,
doesn't Mark look like Steve McGarrett?". Naturally, everyone thought
so - that is, everyone but Mark himself, who took off his glasses and
yelled out, "No fucking way!!! Fuck off!!". This comment seemed to
surprise (and amuse) the other band members, and Nick half-apologised
to the audience. "He speaks so seldom... I'm sorry, ladies and
gentlemen."
The next song was "Sister Madly", but after the first verse and
chorus, Neil stopped playing in order to scratch his hand (and telling
the audience what he was doing). The song grinded to a halt. Nick told
Neil he was suffering from a special Swedish insomnia disease, and
went on to "hypnotise" Neil. Neil sort of sleepwalked backwards and
was standing motionless near the keyboards, his arms and his head
hanging, as if he was standing sleeping, while Nick went on with his
"hypnotising". Nick said, "You are now in my control" and Neil
"sleepwalked" up to the front and began singing and playing The
Beatles' "I'm So Tired" and the rest of the band joined in. After
having played that song, Nick told Neil to wake up and Neil
immediately continued with "Sister Madly" from where he had left
off. In this song, Neil approached Peter, and Peter strummed Neil's
guitar with the brushes. This was definitely something that the
audience loved.
Neil started discussing stage-diving and said he thought it made much
more sense to do something like that for slower songs rather than "the
raging, frenzied Rage In The Machine type of songs". Mark returned to
the front of the stage with his black 12-string guitar, and we got a
fantastic version of "Fingers Of Love", which I thought was one of the
best songs in the entire concert. It had a great atmosphere, and the
guitarplaying by Mark and Neil was absolutely amazing. Peter Jones did
some frenzied drumming towards the end, really letting loose.
For the next song, the roadies had fixed the kick drum problem, and
Peter returned to the full drumkit. The group went on to play "Distant
Sun" (featuring an additional verse), which was another crowd pleaser
with lots of audience singalong. Neil's voice was particularly
impressive in this song.
Generally, there were several "unexpected" album songs played, and I
was very pleased when the next song was "I Feel Possessed" (preceded
by the following conversation between Neil and Nick....... Neil: "Are
we gonna do 'Black And White Boy'?"; Nick: "'I Feel Possessed'"; Neil:
"Ah, shit!"), which I believe is not played that often at CH
concerts. Mark played keyboards on this one, and his organ bits were
perfect, and the song was absolutely one of the concert highlights (at
least for my friends and me) and again, Neil's voice was
brilliant.
Mark got a gold-coloured Gibson electric guitar (same as Neil was
playing at that point) and the band played instrumentally for two
minutes. It sounded a bit like an instrumental version of "Black And
White Boy", and indeed that was the next song. It sounded very
powerful live, with the twin guitars and Neil's singing, and (as in
most songs) impressive performances by Nick and Peter.
Neil shook hands with a guy called Michael in the front row and asked
him what he did for a living. The Michael bloke said "Nothing". Neil
commented on how Michael was doing nothing and still earning a living,
and went on to comment on how the dole offices in Sweden were pretty
impressive. "All the dole money goes into the dole offices" he
said. He went on to introduce the next song, "Love This Life", saying
"This is a song about making the best of whatever shit you're
in". This song sounded very different to the album version,
particularly Neil's guitar playing, but I was thrilled to hear a live
version of this fabulous song.
Mark returned to his keyboards, and Neil switched to the black
12-string guitar, and when he began singing "My life is a house..."
the place literally erupted in joy, and the audience sang along word
for word in this one. Neil's guitar solo sounded like the one on the
album (and I think that particular guitar solo really adds to the
song) but the ending of the song was slightly different (the bit about
"The scenery is my floor" etc wasn't sung - that part was
instrumental). This song got enormous cheering, and when the band
started "Locked Out" the audience began jumping up and down and
headbanging (and unlike the support act, Neil didn't even have to ask
us to do it...). I think this is one of the weaker tracks on TA, but I
enjoyed it more live.
Last time Crowded House were in Stockholm, Tim was still a member and
was singing the harmonies, and last time I saw CH, in Oslo in 1992,
Paul took care of that bit. I thought both did a great job with the
harmonies, so I was interested to hear how that would work out now
that neither of them are in the band anymore. The next song was
"Weather With You", with Mark doing the harmonies (Nick didn't sing
anything in that song). I think Mark does a good job with the
harmonies, there's nothing wrong with them, but in my opinion Tim and
Paul were better. This song is the biggest CH hit in Sweden so far,
and naturally there was lots of audience singalong for this one. In
fact, the band could just have let the audience do the entire song
themselves... Neil and Mark's guitars were absolutely
amazing.
After this song, the band left the stage but public demand got them
back on stage. Or, rather, Neil came back alone and went up to the
keyboards. "Where are the others? I don't know. Who needs them
anyway?" he commented, but the way he said didn't suggest any tension
beneath the surface. He started playing and singing "Walking On The
Spot" (not on the set list), and had one of his best vocal
performances of the evening. Halfway through the song, Mark Hart got
on stage with a new instrument. It looked like a mini-keyboard, but he
played it with his mouth. I don't know what this instrument is called,
but I don't think this part worked too well. I felt that Mark came in
at the wrong places in the song, and that the song would have been
better with just Neil and his keyboard. Anyway, it was good to hear
this song live.
For the next song, Neil played an acoustic guitar, Mark played pedal
steel guitar, Peter drums, Nick bass and a female roadie with blond
hair wearing a sleeveless black shirt played keyboards (she had
previously appeared playing keyboards in some of the songs when Mark
played guitar). The track in question was one of my absolute
favourites, "Private Universe" (according to the set list, this was
originally supposed to have been the 6th or 7th song of the main
set). This one had lots of atmosphere (as on the album) and Neil's
vocals were again excellent.
I think that the female roadie's keyboardplaying really suited the
song, and Peter's drumming was brilliant and sounded almost like the
log drums on the album. Throughout the concert, I was very impressed
with Peter Jones, both in terms of his drumming abilities and how well
he seems to fit in with the other guys. I hope he is or will be a
permanent new drummer.
Nick mentioned how his (Nick's) great great great grandfather had been
sent to Australia by mistake - his ancestor had made bread, but by
mistake the English justice at the time thought he had stolen the
bread, so they sent him to Australia. "I'm surprised you even know who
your father is, Nick", Neil commented.
This was followed by "Fall At Your Feet", which was a strong
performance from all the members and one of the most loved songs of
the evening.
The guys behind me had called out "Chocolate Cake" several times
during the gig, and now finally they got their request played (the
song wasn't on the original set list). There was plenty of energy in
this one, and there were some slight lyrical changes, seemingly
because Neil wanted to make a reference to ABBA. It went like
this:
"I saw...who did I see...
I saw Bjorn and Benny walk out of the Seven-Eleven
And Frida...and what's the other girl's name...they came out soon
after
Now the excess of fat on your *Swedish* bones..."
This song was actually the song that introduced a lot of people in
Sweden to Crowded House so quite naturally this was a major favourite
with the audience.
They closed the first set of encores with "Into Temptation". Last time
they were in Sweden, I was rather disappointed by the rendition they
did of this song, because I felt it lacked the atmosphere of the
record version, but this time around it sounded great and Mark's
keyboards sounded almost exactly like the keyboard (mellotron?) on the
album, and Peter's use of brushes made it sound very similar to how
Paul sounds on the record. I thought it was a very great version of
the song.
After this, the band again left the stage, and the set list had
reveled that they had only planned for one set of encores, but to a
deafening cheering from the large crowd (the venue must have been more
than filled to its capacity as people were literally standing on each
other...) the group returned. Neil and Nick had brought two bowls of
peanuts, and the band walked down into the pit separating the stage
from the audience and handed out these peanuts. Also, Neil and Nick
lifted Mark above the fence and sent him out into the audience, who
carried him around above their heads (Mark having this "Neil and Nick,
I'll get you for this!" look...) before he eventually returned to the
stage.
The first song of the second encore was a major surprise - they played
The Swingers' "Counting The Beat", with Neil trying to sing like Phil
Judd, and you could see that the band had heaps of fun playing this
one. The audience, who wasn't familiar with this song before, also
loved it and thought it sounded great, and even sang along to the 'la
la la la' chorus. Very cool indeed.
This was followed by a medley of a few non-CH songs, first with Neil
on lead vocals and then with Mark and Nick doing the lead vocals. I
think they lost a bit of momentum with this one, and the audience
seemed to get a bit confused and stopped singing and clapping
along. It was followed by a superb rendition of "Better Be Home Soon",
which had the entire audience singing along with Neil.
This wasn't on the set list (none of the songs in the second set of
encores were), actually. After the song had ended, CH played a quick
extract from The Beatles' "I've Got A Feeling" (much faster than the
Beatles album version).
That was the end of the gig, and my impression was that the band were
very happy with it. The audience were very enthusiastic and my friends
thought it was fantastic. We also agreed that Peter Jones did a very
good job and fitted in very well in the band.
Niclas pointed out that of all the songs they had played, not one of
them were from the first album. I hadn't reflected on that until that
moment, but I had noted that they hadn't played "Don't Dream It's
Over". I wonder if they have stopped playing songs from "Crowded
House" or if it was just for this gig. Personally, I was very pleased
with the song selection, particularly as some more "obscure" tracks
were played rather than just "greatest hits".
My friends and I waited near the backstage entrance for quite a long
while, hoping to meet the guys. After a while, Nick came out but
rushed past us and headed towards the bar. Jenny and Cilla went up to
him in the bar and had a chat with him. In 1992, they won a MTV
contest to see/meet Crowded House in Paris, and they had brought some
very cool photos from that with them to Stockholm, and they showed
Nick these photos. He said he remembered them, but Cilla was skeptical
of that. Later, we saw Nick and Peter depart from Gino, but we didn't
spot Neil or Mark anywhere.
I think this was the best Crowded House gig I've been to and also the
best concert I've ever been to. It was really fabulous and the band
seemed to be in great spirits throughout the performances. Truly
excellent.
The full set list was:
1. Whispers And Moans
2. There Goes God
3. In My Command
4. Money's No Object
5. Pineapple Head
6. Sister Madly/I'm So Tired
7. Fingers Of Love
8. Distant Sun
9. I Feel Possessed
10. Black And White Boy
11. Love This Life
12. Nails In My Feet
13. Locked Out
14. Weather With You
encore 1:
15. Walking On The Spot
16. Private Universe
17. Fall At Your Feet
18. Chocolate Cake
19. Into Temptation
encore 2:
20. Counting The Beat
21. (several different non-CH songs)
22. Better Be Home Soon/I've Got A Feeling