Sun 4 Oct – Liam Finn & Eliza-Jane Barnes
This performance was an anomaly in quite a few ways. For one, it was held the same day as Madison's annual marijuana legalisation rally. For another, it was a break in Liam and Eliza Jane's regular schedule, which consists of warming up for
Wilco. Whereas the duo would probably get 30-45 minutes tops in their supporting role, here as headliners they had all the time they needed. Although the crowd of 40-50 people was sparse, Liam & Eliza-Jane treated them to a freewheeling, good-natured 90 minutes of upbeat pop-rock.
The duo are supporting the recently released
Champagne & Seashells and so began proceedings with the first two songs of that. The rest of the set alternated between the EP and Liam's solo debut
I'll Be Lightning with a few surprises here and there. Although Liam's known by some as
Neil Finn's dad or
Tim Finn's nephew, his stage approach differed slightly from his elder relatives manning
Crowded House and
Split Enz. The billing of the duo was completely accurate: there was no opening act, and the two handled all the vocals and instrumental duties. In order to do this, the two leaned heavily on a bank of pedals, effects and machines, almost like a electronica act. Eliza-Jane stood in front of a bevy of percussion tools, as well as a box that triggered sound loops, and provided vocal assistance. Meanwhile, Liam sang and played guitar, and technology intervened when he felt a song needed a little extra oomph towards the end. He would play a main guitar line, loop it, discard his guitar and rush to the nearby drum kit. Liam used this looping technique quite often, which sometimes led to a song's conclusion sounding like a
My Bloody Valentine jam session. That same desire for cacophony extended to the drumkit; his family's musical legacy allowed him access to more than a few great drummers, but the drummer he seems to emulate the most is Animal off the Muppet Show.
With the two seemingly bent on filling the Theatre with tons of sound, some of the nuances of the album material were lost. But any loss of texture was replaced by the duo's affable stage banter and devil-may-care set list (there wasn't one made in advance, as Liam admitted) It was easy to tell the two are used to playing together, and seemed overjoyed to be on stage as headliners. The two joked about the legalisation festival, as well as learning about the previous night's harvest moon from PBS presenter Jack Horkheimer. (This led to one of the surprises of the night, which was a lovely spare version of
Neil Young's
Harvest Moon.) Towards the end, Liam invited audience members he met from the festival on-stage, and played an extended instrumental jam where one played his bongos and the other freestyled. (The bongo player even stuck around to add to
Lead Balloon.) All in all, Liam and Eliza-Jane entertained the crowd, made a ruckus, and got to experience Wisconsin's state capital for the first time -- and perhaps not the last.
Crowded House
