Music review: Crowded House, Hydro, Glasgow

With surrealist patter and improvised songs, Crowded House made their Hydro performance feel like a club show, writes Malcolm Jack

Crowded House PIC: Kerry Brown

Crowded House, Hydro, Glasgow ****

It’s a cliché to say a band made an arena feel intimate, but it couldn’t be truer of the personal, funny, and freewheeling way Crowded House treated a night in the Hydro mega bowl like it were merely a club show. Big rooms can scarcely phase Kiwi frontman Neil Finn anymore, after all, following close to half a century of playing them with his various musical projects, not to mention touring the world with Fleetwood Mac 2018-19 as replacement for Lindsey Buckingham.

Doing their cheerful best to fulfil audience requests even if they were screamed unintelligibly from up near the rafters, the 15-million albums-selling Melbourne-formed pop-rock band’s setlist grabbed from across their 36-year recording history, with plenty of their radio-hogging 80s and 90s hits sprinkled throughout including Distant Sun and Fall at Your Feet.

Off-the-cuff and sometimes surrealist patter included an improvised song about security’s hi-vis jackets and a reminiscence about Crowded House’s long history of playing shows in Scotland everywhere from King Tut’s to T in the Park. Australian bassist Nick Seymour ingratiated himself further to locals by performing in a black kilt.

Crowded House has always been a family affair, Finn’s brother and long-time musical collaborator Tim having previously played with the band, and now more than ever with Neil’s seasoned musician sons Liam and Elroy having joined on guitar and drums respectively. Chosen by audience request, scrappy acoustic lament Lester – a song about the Finns’ dearly departed family dog – may have left more than one pair of eyes dewy on stage.

A duo of meteorologically-themed favourites Four Seasons In One Day and Weather With You finally brought the audience to their feet. There they remained for a climactic masterclass in Beatles-y melodies and harmonies Antipodean style, from Don’t Dream It’s Over and It’s Only Natural to a cover of Neil and Tim Finn’s 1970s new wave band Split Endz’ I Got You, and a closer none more sweetly apt than Better Be Home Soon.