Tim Finn

Tim Finn, brother of Neil and integral part of Split Enz and later joining Crowded House, is back playing gigs around New Zealand. We’ve seen Neil on a number of occasions over the last decade or so, but this is the first time that Tim’s broken cover, so of course we went!

First, as always, the obligatory dinner. Recently we’ve been frequenting much the same haunts, principally due to their proximity to Michael Fowler Centre, or wherever we’re due that evening. But tonight we cast the net a little wider, to revisit a place we’ve not been to, I think, since pre-pandemic times: Pravda. This has morphed into a specialist steak restaurant these days, but they do also have other options. They’re also doing a pre-WOW set menu, but we decided to forgo that in favour of a steak. Unfortunately when I asked the waiter about oysters he told me they’d sold out, but we ploughed on regardless. I had baby octopus and hurunui fillet, Nicola had burrata and squid. Still a class restaurant, I’m happy to report.

A short walk took us back to Mickey Fowl’s and this time we were seated in the upper section, at the back – best seats in the house! The support band, Flip Grater, came on and gave us a short set of seven songs which all sounded the same. 

Then time for the main act. The house lights go down, the stage lights go up, and the musicians all take their places; on comes Tim, to a tremendous roar! He trips up, and the whole place goes dark and quiet. What’s happened? The lights return, and “Oops!” says Tim. “That was my mistake”…and they immediately rip into My Mistake. I see what you did there!

The rest of the set followed a roughly chronological order, with the first half made up of Split Enz songs, before heading off to solo material and three songs from Crowded House’s Woodface (Tim wasn’t a founding member of CH and only joined for their third album). At the end, they came on for an encore of two more Split Enz songs and another solo number, Staring At The Embers, from his debut solo album. The title of the tour, The Times And Lives of Tim Finn, seemed to imply a retrospective of his entire oeuvre; what we got was nearly all from the early part of his output, and nothing since 1991’s Woodface. Whilst the prospect of “heritage acts” using the dreaded N-word (for “New Material”) can strike terror into the hearts of audiences, I wouldn’t have minded hearing some of his more recent work as well as the classics. But he gave a good set over 1¾ hours, and definitely had a good time!