concerts

Recently I came across a question on social media: “which musical act have you seen play live the most times”? I can answer that question very easily: Crowded House. In reading the responses to that question, it struck me that I should write something about all the Crowded House shows I’ve seen.

I first became aware of Crowded House when I saw them doing a live interview on the MuchMusic TV channel. I knew about Split Enz, the band that Neil Finn was previously part of – I actually interviewed them in 1980, when their single “Six Months In A Leaky Boat” was a big hit in Canada, and they played a show in Vancouver. The interview was at their hotel (the Holiday Inn on Broadway, for trivia fans) and I spent most of the time talking to Eddie Rayner, the keyboard player, because as soon as I arrived at their hotel suite, the rest of the band members seemed to disappear. I remember them all being kind of shy and sweet, and somewhat overwhelmed by the publicity that was suddenly whirling around them. So when I saw Crowded House on MuchMusic, I clearly remember saying to my husband, “Oh, look, Neil Finn has a new band.”

Crowded House’s music hits me in a way that I really can’t explain. The songs are brilliant in and of themselves, but it just seems like so many of them spoke to whatever I was feeling or doing at the time I first heard them. I can’t imagine my world without that music.

It’s funny, though, that in thinking back on these shows, I don’t remember a lot of details, like specific songs that were played. That may be because every show has been incredible. There’s not a single show on this list that was boring, or a shameless money grab, or not worth the price of the ticket. Not too many bands can be that consistently excellent for nearly 40 years.

So here’s the stories of the shows I’ve seen, including a few extra ones. To shorten this very lengthy narrative somewhat, I’ll refer to Crowded House as “CH” throughout. And if this post is too long for you, don’t TL:DR me – read as much or as little as you want, it’s all good. Continue reading →

During the first part of my music writing career, which lasted from the late ‘70s to the mid-‘80s, I worked at two different daily newspapers, and wrote a lot of concert reviews on deadline. This usually meant writing the review the same night as the show, sometimes while I was still at the concert venue, and getting the review to the newspaper’s editorial offices so it could go into the next day’s newspaper.

At that time, there were no cellphones and no portable computers, which meant that filing a concert review from outside the office was always an adventure. To illustrate what this was like, I would like to share with you a story of one such adventure: the night I didn’t meet David Bowie.

To set the scene for this story, Continue reading →

Writing on Music

Love You ‘Til The Day I Die

The Night I Didn’t Meet David Bowie