SPLIT ENZ: will protect and prevail

I last saw Split Enz about 20 years ago on their first reunion tour. Whilst I was a long-time fan, I never saw them before that, as I was too young.  It was at the old entertainment centre in Sydney and we had great seats on the floor and it was a great concert.

I came to know Split Enz like many others via Countdown as a child. Their bright colours and face painted and quirkiness drew me in, as it did for many other artists in the mid to late 70s. 

And then Neil joined the band, and they went from indie to super stars. Now I loved Tim, the weird and strange came from him, he was the quirk behind the quirky. But Neil had a smooth voice and wrote these pure pop songs. My love for them grew, and then it was the End of the Enz, and from there Crowded House grew.

Whilst I have always loved Neil, I have had a love-hate thing with Tim. I was not impressed when he joined Crowded House on their third album. Stick to your solo albums Tim, I thought. I did like his solo stuff, Escapade being a highlight. But there is no doubt about siblings performing together is pretty special.

So, to this new tour, I was happy to have fond memories from 20 years ago but my partner, Andrew, had never seen them, so I got us tickets. Which was harder than you would think. I really wasn't sure what to expect, I knew Neil would be fine, but they are both getting on and Tim never had a great voice or a strong voice to start with.

Cut to Monday 18 May and we had just arrived in Sydney, checked into our hotel, dumped our bags, and headed to Darling Harbour. They are playing the new entertainment centre, formerly called the ICC now embarrassingly called the Tik Tok Arena or Tik Tok Entertainment Centre...what is this? A venue for 12 year olds!?!

Silliness aside, we took to our seats, towards the back of the second tier. My vertigo set in, so it took a few minutes to breathe through that. The view of the stage wasn't too bad, but we were hardly close.

The support act were National Treasures, Vika and Linda Bull. Sisters, again with siblings singing together, with the most spectacular voices. They gave us a phenomenal 30-40 minute show, singing a range of new and old. They were excited to be supporting childhood heroes!

It wasn't long until the main act appeared. There was that usual anticipation that I love at a gig, those moments before the commencement! And someone covered in a red satin type sheet came out, rustled around and floated off stage. Next up a much larger sheet, this time Orange came out. I was filming it when a bunch of idiots arrived late and blocked my view and the reveal of the band under the sheet. 

The crowd went wild and they launched straight into Shark Attack!!!

They sounded so good! I cannot begin to explain how good. Their sound was big and full. Vocally they sounded terrific, even Tim! Musically they were on fire. I have been to a LOT of concerts, and it is rare to go to a bad one. But occasionally you see a gig that is next level, and they are less common and more difficult to explain why. I think it is when the energy, the sound, the music, the musicality, the vibe all mix together in equal parts and you get a feeling that is different to how you would usually feel at a great gig, better than a great gig.

They went from Shark Attack straight into History Never Repeats. At the end of that we looked at each other and were like wow, just wow!

And then there was their usual artistic flair. Great set design, great visuals on the screen, even how they put themselves up on the large screens for those (us) in the far seats to see was incorporated into the design in a really cool way. They wore quirky suits, designed and made as always by Noel and his wife.

Split Enz these days are the Finn brothers on guitars and vocals, the gorgeous Noel Crombie on percussion and occasional drums (and spoons - always spoons!), Eddie Raynor on keyboards, and 2 newbies in the rhythm section, Matt Eccles on drums, and James Milne on bass.

And they kept pumping it out, keeping up that opening sound and vibe for the entire concert!!! The entire concert!!!

They were loud and poppy, punk and quirky. It was hit after hit after hit. I have never heard those songs sound as good as they did at this gig. They sounded better than the album tracks.

Everyone played and sounded brilliant too. Neil's voice was, well, Neil's voice...perfection. Tim commanded the stage with years of understanding and musicality, the ultimate frontman. He sounded amazing too. He did mess up some lines on, ironically, My Mistake, so they did a restart. And by the time he took to their most difficult song, I Hope I Never, his voice did sound, understandably, strained, but that gave the song that bittersweet edge.

Highlights for me were Shark Attack (the essence of who they are), Dirty Creature, Message to my Girl (undoubtably the most perfect pop song ever written), Six Months in a Leaky Boat with the lovely extended piano opening, I See Red, and ending with Strait Old Line.

We just didn't want it to end. It didn't matter we were toward the back, the sound came straight to us, and we were close enough to see they were enjoying themselves as much, maybe more, as the audience.

This was easily a Top Ten concert.



Setlist

1. Shark Attack

2. History Never Repeats

3. Poor Boy

4. Nobody Takes Me Seriously

5. Give It A Whirl

6. Dirty Creature

7. Time For A Change

8. One Step Ahead

9. Missing Person

10. Message To My Girl

11. Double Happy

12. Stuff and Nonsense

13. Matinee Idyll

14. My Mistake

15. Hard Act To Follow

16. Pioneer

17. Six Months in a Leaky Boat

18. I Got You

19. I See Red

Encore

20. Spellbound

21. I Hope I Never

22. Strait Old Line