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So was the 3/19 Auckland show actually short 2 songs, or is setlist.fm just mistaken? It suggests they skipped Silent House and Locked Out, I find that a bit unlikely because you probably wouldn’t skip them both for the same reason (Silent House if you’re cutting things they audience doesn’t know because of curfew, Locked Out if Neil’s voice needs a break).

Cool. The last show had a reshuffeld set. Tour debuts of "Either Side of the World", "Start of Something" and even "Message to My Girl".

"Into Temptation" gets its second airing of the tour, "Don't Stop Now" its third.

Not on the printed set list, but also played judging from clips on Instagram is "I Got You"

Neil's voice is sounding really good, better even than 10 years ago during Intriguer.

I think his Fleetwood Mac experience, and the vocal coaching he got, must have really helped. Seems like he's dropped some tendencies that have bothered me for a long time. Sometime post-Time On Earth he seemed to develop a less supported singing technique that was kind of airy and flat and less powerful.

Now he sounds much more like the old days, more supported and from the chest, powerful, assertive. Even if I don't end up liking Dreamers are Waiting, I'd love to see them should they tour America, because Neil and the band are sounding really, really good!

So having got the band up to speed with this tour, and with the album launch about ten weeks away , and with multiple countries / jurisdictions still not tourable, what is the plan for the band now?

it’s unimaginable they disband again and do zoom promotions ... they cant go and do big shows in the uk or US now arguably ... (sorry, frenz).

from what i can tell the only likely place they can launch and do anything soon having built up a head of steam is ... australia .

Apart from brisbane which is having a small flare up, sydney and melbourne (the two biggest markets) are essentially covid free with sporting events back to 100% this week.

Coming into winter tho is not the traditional time for concert tours in oz ... we r into autumn now and its winter by the time the album drops.

Footy stadiums r largely booked and unavailable (and could the crowdies fill them?). Mid size theatres would gladly have them.

i just reckon the boys dont have many options in front of them for this album release. US and UK just look really doubtful. Look at the headlines from florida and spring break over the past fortnight. Continental europe is a mess.

a mid size, indoor, oz winter tour? Most likely for mine.

Can't remember where I saw it, but I definitely saw Crowded House being advertised as headliners or co headliners at an event here in Aus this year. It was for around June or July O think. I remember being surprised it wasn't mentioned on here at the time.

Edit - quick google search doesn't shed any light on the ad I saw. Maybe the advertisers jumped the gun?

Last edited by Zephyr

I made the Sat night Napier concert but am now kicking myself that I didn’t do the Sunday one. The Sat set list was identical to the Wellington one I went to except for the addition of I Got You in the encore. The Sunday set list was a massive change up!

It was nice to be seated up the front and to see the band in action up close though. I noticed that Nick’s outfit is a bit more Crowded House than I first realized - He has the flaming building logo on his jacket pocket, to match the one on Elroy’s Drum!

The band were on fine form again. It really is a fantastically planned set, perfectly executed. Musically, I don’t think the band have ever sounded better. Clearly A LOT of work has gone into this tour. It is a travesty that they have had to delay the rest of the world. I do think the Wellington concert was a better gig (it was a better all round performance) than Napier night 1. The winery crowd were (in places) a bit... how can I say it... ‘feral’... Clearly some were there primarily for the drinking/party scene and it wasn’t just in the GA areas.

What made it stranger was the over zealous security guards who wanted to prevent anybody from taking photos on their phones but ignored the aggressive drunken behavior! I think it was a distraction for the band who were clearly looking down on the rather interesting crowd dynamics. Neil did try to tell security to leave people alone after they spent most of Weather With You running through the aisles confronting anybody who pulled out their phone (note - there was no rule saying photos or videos couldn’t be taken on your phone!).

Later Liam commented on somebody have “way too much fun” and asked those seated around him if they were OK (because clearly security didn’t care!) and Liam was concerned. Being a seated concert at the front you had the issues of people not drinking and trying to enjoy the show that they had paid good money for being seated next to a bunch of drunks more focused on the drinking than the concert - then everything in between!

In the encore, the band stopped to ask that the person “throwing the chair at someone” be ‘taken out... from the venue’ (nicely but to never return... )! As Neil remarked: “Chairs are for sitting, occasionally standing, but never throwing”!

Then you had the group at the front shouting constantly for “I See Red”. Neil did at one stage acknowledge by singing a line from the chorus. I think he thought that would stop them from calling out in between each song ... It didn’t!

It was a shame that a pretty small minority probably impacted the concert experience of many and I do think this affected the band. There was no throwing the guitar high in the air tonight at the end of Locked Out and at times the the band seemed fairly subdued compared to Wellington, almost not to stoke the fire of some of the elements in the crowd.

Towards the end, the security guards were either told to stop enforcing the imaginary ‘no phone’ rule or just had their hands too full with the drunks, so I did get some pretty good video footage on my phone to share with you guys. I know it’s hurting that the concerts outside NZ have been postponed. I got the whole of Heroes and much of Locked Out, Something So Strong and Chocolate Cake and the end of Distant Sun and I Got You . I just need to work out how to share - I’m not big on Social Media but can look to upload to YouTube.


i just reckon the boys dont have many options in front of them for this album release. US and UK just look really doubtful. Look at the headlines from florida and spring break over the past fortnight.

There might be a spike, but as a Covid contact tracer, I'm feeling pretty optimistic. Here at University of Wisconsin-Madison, they're not expecting a spike from spring break, in fact they just laid off most of their tracers. Partly because many students are expected to go back home and finish the year remotely after break, rather than returning to dorms or fraternities.

Almost all adults (anyone who wants it) will likely be vaccinated here by the time the album is out. Touring here could be an option this summer or fall, easily.

Last edited by slowpogo

i really hope yr right from the view of getting the music out there and for people to be able to go see them and enjoy them - but from the antipodes where we still have international borders closed and months of zero cases and occasional single digit daily community transmission cases, we still find it terrifying to consider some 500 people are still dying every day in the US with community transmission in the thousands every day in europe.

i dont wish to go too far off topic - just offering a view on what their options may be around touring and promoting this album and from this end of the world the idea of mass gatherings on the numbers we are seeing is pretty scary.

wishing you best of luck on a health front and on hopes of seeing the boys in action ... if they can't get to you guys, we'd love to see them back in oz.

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