• The Piano • Neil Finn • 1984
Fans sent home with warm glow but response mostly subdued as new album kicks off open-air concert
Neil Finn needs more harpsichord. It strikes you halfway through Four Seasons in One Day, during the instrumental break, when the swell of live orchestral strings replaces the brittle textures of the plucked keyboard that is a hallmark of the original.
The song, perhaps the Finn brothers’ best, a miracle of Beatlish harmony and melody, demands its psychedelic swirl. The 40-piece Auckland Philharmonia and 12-part choir give us a silky wash. But I want something more astringent, more abrasive, more harpsichord.
Neil Finn needs a more attentive audience, too. In the open-air Silo Park, as part of Auckland Arts Festival, less a crowded house and more a modestly filled grassy knoll, people were mostly subdued.
The first part of the concert comprises Finn’s new album,
Out of Silence, recorded live in the studio and broadcast in real time online. It may be the album itself. There is, as you’d expect, some quality songcraft, Finn delighting with an ingenious change here, an unexpected turn there. The orchestral arrangements, provided by composer Victoria Kelly, are good too.
But Out of Silence is rather one-paced; it’s all mid-tempo. During the concert, Finn says, “This is the same as the last one”. He’s joking, but it’s true. In concert, as for the album, the highlight is Widow’s Peak, with APO percussionist Eric Renick producing interesting effects.
But the audience doesn’t really get behind him until, almost an hour in, Finn abandons the piano and picks up a guitar for One Step Ahead.
The biggest cheer is for closer Don’t Dream It’s Over. It doesn’t fare quite so well as
One Step Ahead. Finn’s been doing this a long time, though, so even if the musical forces threaten to overwhelm this delicate, interior song, he knows he’s sending his crowd home with a warm glow.
Last night he got another shot, same time, same place; he would have hoped to turn that glow into something more fiery.