Hozier, who is perhaps known more for being a folksy, whimsical romantic takes no issue with belting out a ballad when he wants to, with his powerhouse vocals. As we saw on Friday night.
Friday night’s show was a triumphant success. The night was wholesome. The fans were clearly enamoured by their leading man and, in all fairness, his delivery was faultless and his performance switched from being beautiful, intimate (even in a venue like Wembley Arena) and ethereal to rocking out. There was even on-stage headbanging (by the band). There was a lot of singing along and it was just a really great atmosphere.
There was a real sense of suspense in the crowd when Hozier took to the stage as fans were eager to learn which song would be played first. It was a really sombre one. Perhaps an odd choice for a Friday night show, but no complaints from us! The initial screams which had started when the first glimpse of Hozier and his band emerged settled as he played some chords from his guitar – the beginning of ‘De Selby (Part 1)’.
There was total darkness, apart from camera lights shining from mobile devices, and a spotlight on Hozier as he sang like an actual angel. ‘De Selby (Part 1)’ melted into the more high energy ‘De Selby (Part 2)’ as the music video for the previous single, starring Irish actor Domnhall Gleeson was shown in the background.
‘De Selby’ parts one and two and both taken from ‘Unreal Unearth’, Hozier’s recent (and first) UK number one album. Songs from this album were played but in such a way that they were interspersed between his other well known tunes so you didn’t necessarily have to have listened to the newest album to enjoy the night.(Although if you haven’t heard it by now, we highly recommend you check it out). ‘Jackie and WIlson’ and ‘From Eden’, both from his self-titled debut album, were played quite early on in the set.
The Last Dinner Party were Hozier’s support for the night and lead singer Abigail Morris was invited back onto stage for a rousing performance of ‘Would That I’.
Most artists threaten their audience with a good time. Not Andrew Hozier-Byrne. “You still feeling good, Wembley?,” he asked to inevitable whoops and cheers. He teased the crowd by saying: “I’ll change that, don’t worry.” He laughed, before continuing to allude to his melancholic lyrics. “We can’t have that, no. It is Friday? [I’m] going to make it feel like a f*cking Dublin Monday by the time we’re done. There is such a pain…”
He than launched into ‘To Be Alone’ and asked the crowd to join in to create “organised collective sound”, adding that there was no criticism or judgement on his part. “There’s no wrong notes, even,” he added.
Despite this, there wasn’t a great deal of talking from Hozier in between songs, but he did take the time to explain the meanings behind the next track that would be played, often in great detail. For example, before the emotional track ‘To Someone From A Warm Climate (Uiscefhuaraithe)’ he spoke about the origins of the word ‘Uiscefhuaraithe’ and how it is an Irish word to depict the “cooling action of water”, a word he didn’t know until a few years ago.
It really feels like Hozier is meant for even bigger stages and, having said that, he doesn’t have to wait much longer to find out as there is a Finsbury Park show awaiting him in July 2024, so we’ll see if his powerhouse vocals meet their match then or if he will continue to keep blowing us all away with his astonishing performances!
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Words: Narzra Ahmed
