Live Review: Hozier - Finsbury Park, London 07/07/2024
Tackling one of his most ambitious headline show to date, Hozier treated London to a career-defining set which will remain lodged in memories for a while to come.
It’s ambitious to take on London’s Finsbury Park, which is known for hosting multi-artist festivals such as Wireless Festival and Community Festival. However, any doubts about Hozier’s ability to step up to the plate turned out to be misplaced as 50,000 adoring fans showed up for one of his most unforgettable shows to date, which saw a career-spanning set from earlier successes like ‘Take Me To Church’ to recent chart-topper ‘Too Sweet’. Despite the vast space, you quickly forgot about how many people there as Hozier brought a heartfelt performance that allowed you to forge a connection with the music and become fully immersed, briefly escaping the real world on a Sunday night.
Irish folk duo Ye Vagabonds were tasked with warming up the crowd on a Sunday afternoon, a task that quickly became more difficult than expected after earlier outbursts of rain threatened to dampen the enthusiasm and risked turning Finsbury Park into a field of mud and bog. Yet in classic British style, avid gig goers trooped on undeterred and were rewarded by the warming vocals of Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn, which harmonised mellifluously to ignite an inner fuzziness. Accompanied by cellos and double basses, Ye Vagabonds did not shy away from their traditional influences and brought an intimacy that eased you into a placid mood, soothing any lingering worries and transforming you into a metaphorical blank canvas for all to come. Ending on ‘Blue is the Eye’, a track inspired by a late friend, its mournful but rousing chorus left you feeling melancholic with its final line ‘lie down and sleep, sleep well my darling / blue is the eye that looks after thee’.
The solemnity didn’t remain for too long as Lord Huron arrived onstage. Decked out in tuxedos and cowboy hats, the seeming contrast was similarly reflected in their music. Between upbeat opener ‘Meet Me In The Woods’ to stomping ‘The World Ender’, trying to resist the electrifying energy would have felt rude, while the tender ‘The Night We Met’ drew one of the loudest singalongs of the set. There was never a falter in energy as we were charmed with harmonica solos in ‘Ends of the Earth’ and frenetic tambourines in ‘Hurricane (Johnnie’s Theme)’, which made it near-impossible not to dance along. Lead singer Ben Schneider had joked that Lord Huron were a band that would cater to dancing, crying, and all manners of expression in between except ‘pure warm and fuzzy feelings’ as ‘everything we do has a bit of terror baked into it’, and he was not wrong as the set closed with ‘Not Dead Yet’, a track twinged with wryness but nonetheless welcoming the experiences that are yet to come.
Capturing you in a whirlwind of dazzling harmonies and searing vocals, Brittany Howard was a tour de force with a magnetic stage presence to match. ‘Earth Sign’ gently guided you in, stacking layers of vocals before bursting into kaleidoscopic melodies interspersed with synths, fuzzy guitars, and a host of miscellaneous mellifluous sounds that seamlessly melded into one another. Howard brings a richness and complexity in her music that is rarely seen nowadays, yet delivers it with such effortless charisma and confidence that the tempo changes and rhythmic modulations between triplets, syncopation and quadruplets in ‘13th Century Metal’ flow smoothly without any hint of resistance. ‘Prove It To You’ saw the crowd dancing along with raised hands, while jazz-inspired instrumental improvisations brought an exciting spontaneity as you never quite know what’s around the corner. One moment, you would be treated by the intimately hushed ‘Georgia’, while another you were enveloped in the musical hedonism of ‘Stay High’ with rhythmic snaps from Howard’s back-up singers melting away any stress on your mind. Declaring to the crowd, ‘I just want to get connection, I just want to live’, Howard’s explosive set lived up to the sentiment and as the last notes faded, you felt like you had just been granted a new lease of life.
The timing of that could not be more apt as the staccato opening of ‘Eat Your Young’ marked the moment that fans had all been waiting for, with Hozier confidently striding onto stage and going straight for the falsetto notes in the chorus without any challenge. Armed with his intimate and narrative style of songwriting, Hozier’s performance was marked with an air of graciousness that allowed you to forge your own connection with the moment, whether it was during the heart-tugging ‘Like Real People Do’ or the bluesy rocker ‘Jackie and Wilson’. His impeccable vocals soared across tense riffs in ‘De Selby (Part 2)’, which showcased his ability to hold his own against the crashing harmonies of gritty guitars, stirring strings and thundering percussion. ‘Would That I’ garnered a rousing singalong of ‘whoas’ from the crowd, almost transforming the crowd into an eclectic backup chorus which sang so loudly that any musician would feel proud of the resonating support that they conducted, and this was reinforced by ‘Too Sweet’, Hozier’s first single to top the Billboard 100 - with its impassioned chorus showcasing Hozier’s powerhouse vocals, it's easy to see how he achieved such a feat.
‘Take Me To Church’ similarly evoked a thundering response from the crowd, with its aching lyricism and bluesy harmonies concocting the ideal formula to make you forget you’re in a field with thousands of other fans; in that moment, it felt like it was you, Hozier, and the music. The encore saw Hozier stripping back for ‘Cherry Wine’, which made the space feel even more intimate as Hozier armed himself with only an acoustic guitar, before he delivered a call-to-arms for political causes and a ceasefire to ongoing conflicts and plunged into the acerbic ‘Nina Cried Power’. The broodiness carried into a sombre ending with ‘Work Song’, and allowing the crowd to sing the last few lines of ‘when my time comes around, lay me gently in the cold dark earth’, it felt like a cohesive conclusion to draw the day to a close. Hozier’s Finsbury Park show marked an unforgettable set in the capital, and as far as career-defining shows go, it would be hard to top 50,000 people singing back ‘Amen’ at you but it’s clear that Hozier still has more to offer - and we remain in eager anticipation for the next time he returns.
Words by Athena Kam
Photography by Stefania Semini / @arach.nee
