This was a night of many firsts. My longest round trip to cover a concert (344km trip from Launceston to Hobart); our two-year-old son's first ever concert; and correct me if I'm wrong, this was Crowded House's first ever Tasmanian concert.
Was it all worth it, absolutely! And the few odd thousand Tassie fans would also agree.By the time we checked in to our hotel, fed ourselves and convinced our little one to wear his pants and shoes, we high-tailed to MyState Bank Arena (17 November) and arrived a couple songs into Julia Stone's set.
Our little one straight away got himself accustomed to concert life by sitting in pool of spilled beer, refusing to wear his ear protection, shaking his booty, and clapped with glee at the end of every song – Julia Stone definitely won over a new young fan.
Julia Stone - image © Stephen Sloggett
Who could blame him for loving Julia's set; a beautiful performance and she warmed up the crowd nicely.
In between sets I did 15 minutes of Google research re: if Crowded House had ever played a show in Tasmania and came to the conclusion this in fact was Crowded House's first ever Tasmanian show since their incarnation.=
They came out blazing with the set beginning with 'Distant Sun', 'World Where You Live', 'To The Island', 'When You Come' and with not much encouragement to get the crowd involved with singing 'Fall At Your Feet'.
Crowded House - image © Stephen Sloggett
Personally, my highlights of the night was a Split Enz cover of 'Message To My Girl' and the CH original 'Pineapple head' – for my son, it was the light show.
As a performance there is nothing to fault; masters of their craft, the band chemistry was infectiously funny with band banter between Neil and his sons Liam and Elroy over song rights and the why the kilt-wearing Nick Seymour must always have his wallet on him at all times.
Crowded House - image © Stephen Sloggett
Clocking well over two hours, our little was well boogied out and asleep in my arms by set's end. I was surprised to see a lot of people do the rookie mistake by leaving thinking the show was over when the band left the stage; only to see some of them rush back in when the encore started.
Crowded House - image © Stephen Sloggett
Those who did leave early missed out on Mark Seymour, of Hunter & Collectors alumni, joining the stage, belting out the Aussie sing-along classic 'Arms Around Me, plus the final two songs – Crowded House crowd favourites: 'Weather With You' before finishing with 'Better Be Home Soon'.
Crowded House - image © Stephen Sloggett
With that, Crowded House better be coming back to Tasmania soon.
More photos from the show.
