You know you’ve built a special community when 10,000+ people cheer the mention of a 5000 year old Greek Myth like you’ve just brought out a surprise guest. Where else are Icarus and Charon getting woops and claps and spoiler alerts at this magnitude in 2024?
Hozier brought the noise, the voice, and the literary euphoria to Auckland’s Spark Arena on November 20 – filling the sold out venue with excellent vibes for just over two hours of musical excellence. If this show is anything to go by, his two shows in Christchurch are going to make a lot of people in Te Waipounamu very fulfilled.
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Being the Unreal/Unearth Tour (supporting the Best Album of 2023 in my opinion), we were greeted with the gentle and gorgeous album opener ‘De Selby Pt 1’ – along with some helpful subtitles on the big screens to translate the Gaelic.
“Is claochlú an ealaín
Is ealaín dubh í”
It’s metamorphosis of the art,
She is dark art.
Now that right there is some good foreshadowing.
Just as the album does, Pt1 exploded into the hooky riff of ‘De Selby Pt2’, and the night did not let up from there. Right off the bat, the funk filled band jam is joined by the giant back screen filled with the official music video featuring Domhnall Gleeson.
His dirt and soil stained face almost overwhelms the musicians on stage – but it’s just an opening punch, and we quickly recalibrated to the size of the spectacle. The music video timed perfectly with the live rendition, showcasing the technical skill of the band members on stage.
The two most common words to describe Hozier are, in order – Tall and Genuine. So his multiple thank yous and apologies for taking so long getting back to New Zealand felt very believable. Plus it meant we were treated to a rare live version of ’Someone New’, still a crowd pleaser 10 years after its release. It was a nice pay off for patient fans, but hopefully he doesn’t keep us waiting for too long before coming back to our shores.
Throughout the show we got a healthy dose of early Hozier, an ample amount of Unreal/Unearth cuts, and a surprisingly decent amount of Wasteland, Baby songs. One of the highlights of the night was watching the crowd transform during the latter’s ‘Dinner & Diatribes’.
The spiky guitar, stabbing rhythm, and eclectic lighting put the whole stadium on the backfoot after a diet of beloved hits, the room’s energy changing from “this is awesome” to “what is this?” But the more the spike drove in and the bigger the echoing chorus grew, the pulse of the crowd rose in intensity until everyone was jumping up and down in unison losing their minds. I guarantee this will be the song most concert goers lined up to listen to the next day. It was the epitome of Hozier’s underlying theme – “we are in this together, for good and bad.”
The only downside, no Anya Taylor-Joy on the big screen to further incite the wildfire that took over.
Tears were shed during the main set finale ’Take Me To Church’ – a song that has taken on a life of it’s own as an anthem for Gay Rights – cementing the community feeling fostered throughout the night.
However the undisputed emotional highlight was Hozier’s passionate and poignant monologue during the encore. Touching on the plethora of devastating situations happening around the globe right now, connecting the histories of people who have had to fight for every right and act of self determination, and celebrating the act of protesting, standing up, and making your voice heard. The mention of the historic Hīkoi taking place in retaliation to the Treaty Principles Bill being introduced to Parliament – “feet on the ground” – was met with a righteous and affirming cheer – a true glimmer of communal hope in what has been a hard year.
The fact that it led into his most powerfully political song ’Nina Cried Power’, featuring impressive backup singer Melissa McMillon, meant it was the perfect catharsis to the pent up indignation of the crowd.
Emotions were stirred at almost every point in the show. ‘Francesca’ had everyone swooning, and the extended introduction of ‘Abstract (Psychopomp)’ was a masterclass in explaining your art in a way that both enhances the music and the connection you feel with the artist.
The arena leaned in to the long spoken history lesson of mythological transportation mixed with an earnest personal story of Hozier witnessing an animal being hit by a truck in traffic, and someone running onto the busy road to carry the slowly dying creature to safety (“There’s no punchline here, sorry” he apologised, letting us know that he knew it was pretty heavy stuff).
That introduction took the already excellent song to a whole other level, rendering some of the lyrics more literal than you would ever have expected.
The setlist had something for every Hozier fan. ’Too Sweet’ was a great jam for the brand new fans, while ‘Angel Of Small Death And The Codeine Scene’ was an absolute blast for the older fans – and it let drummer Rory Doyle have the most fun out of all the songs.
The crowd was engaged, singing along, dancing, and hanging on every little thing that happened on stage. Shout out to the person in the seats above me who brought a bubble gun to add to the ambiance.
An intimate two song encore standing solo on a mini stage at the back of the arena showcased Hozier’s beautiful hands and voice (seriously those fingers looked incredible on the big screen, it can’t just be me that thought that). ‘Cherry Wine’ and ‘Unkwn/Nth’ were delightful under a single spotlight and sea of firefly phone lights. It’s standard concert behaviour by now, but it can still make a moment feel truly special.
Adding to the genuineness of the man, a respectful role call of every single band and crew member (first and last names!) made sure we knew a concert of this size and quality was a team effort. The stage design, complete with skeleton trees descending from the roof, was solid enough to justify the full sized arena, but didn’t overshadow the music and band at all.
The night ended with a celebration of his team, and a special spotlight sharing with his opening act Joy Oladukin, whom Hozier is a BIG fan of, as the dark and murderous ballad ‘Work Song’ took us ominously back into the real world.
Hozier is a man with an angel’s voice and a poet’s heart – and he delivered a live experience that felt both epic and intimate.
She is a dark art, indeed.
