Tim Finn's Number One Fan (All of Them)

I'm a bit shocked, actually a lot shocked, that the El Rey was so sparsely populated for Tim Finn's show last night. The club was maybe a bit more than half full and, oddly, all seated (there were folding chairs on the dance floor). I expected something much closer to sold out for the event given Tim Finn's history with Split Enz, Crowded House and the Finn Brothers. Plus, he's an Officer of the British Empire and one of those dudes that KCRW loves to hype (strangely, the show was actually presented by Indie 103.1, who I think only plays his Split Enz stuff). The people who were there, though, were diehard. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if a few were following the bus along the tour route.

For example, we were outside when one guy, probably in his mid-40s, was educating some other guy about Split Enz's transition from prog rock band to new wave band. Then he mentioned Crowded House and the younger guy said, "I didn't realize that they (Tim and Neil Finn) were brothers." Then there was a girl who standing on the other side of the patio, completely unconnected to the conversation, but within earshot, who proclaimed, "Oh, my God, I can't believe he didn't know they were brothers."

I think this might have been the same girl who kept standing up and shaking her thing during the show (see photo above), which was pretty entertaining. Then there was the guy behind us. He couldn't deal with polite applause between songs, so he shouted out a bevy of compliments.

"That was amazing!"

"That was phenomenal!"

"That was phantasmagoric!"

Okay, I made up the last one. He totally should have said that.

I'll admit, I really don't know that much about Tim Finn outside of his work with Split Enz and his brief stint in Crowded House (which, for the record, is his brother Neil's project). But seeing people get all bat shit insane made a deep impression on me. Having lost my voice from screaming through several Morrissey concerts, I can relate.

I thought a lot about hype during the show, how I've been to so many shows over the past few years that were touted as being the event of the year or month (in actuality, though, it's only the event of the night) headlined by a band that's featured in all the magazines and newspapers and all the blogs. And at a lot of the shows, the venue is packed beyond capacity, but everyone is just standing there, like the only reason they are at the show is because you have to be able to say you were there. Then there was this concert, something that was clearly not hyped, headlined by someone who was the Next Big Thing over 25 years ago, but nothing could match the enthusiasm of the crowd.

As for the show itself, I did recognize some of the older songs, like "Chocolate Cake" (Crowded House) and the two big Split Enz hits, "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" and "I Got You." (Oh, and I think he did "Weather With You" and "I See Red" too, but since I wasn't on the clock, I didn't take notes.)





Of course, I got you sounds quite different now. This video, which was apparently taken in 2007, is a good representation of last night's rendition. (It's also of an unusually good quality for YouTube concert clips, kudos to Rosey of San Diego: Dialed In)



There's a difference, though. Right before the third verse, Finn broke a string, began singing about the broken string, and then had to stop to get it repaired. During the downtime, he played another song on the keyboard. When the guitar was returned, he picked up where he left off, asking the crowd to sing the third verse. But, since everyone (including Finn, as he said) seems to get the verses mixed up, the crowd started singing the second verse. Even the number one fans, all of them, got it wrong. It's a confusing song.