Live Review: Neil & Liam Finn, Alex The Astronaut

It's pretty special to be treated to an evening with New Zealand's first family of music, The Finns. It's even more special for that to be at Sydney's Taronga Zoo with the iconic city skyline as the backdrop.

Sydney's own Alex The Astronaut opened up the evening, receiving an enthusiastic response from the crowd with her opening song, What Sydney Looks Like In June. She moved onto William And Georgia, dedicated to anyone with those names in the crowd. There was a song about AFLW player Jasmine Garner, before which Alex shared her own experience of trying out for the Greater Western Sydney team. She pressed on through the set with songs from her See You Soon and To Whom It May Concern EPs, before wrapping up with Not Worth Hiding and I Believe In Music.

The sun had just about set by the time Neil & Liam Finn and their band took to the stage. They walked out silently, with so little fanfare that if you were looking away from the stage that you could have missed their appearance until the music started. They kicked off with Crowded House's Distant Sun and Pineapple Head, which saw a sizeable crowd ditch their picnic blankets and camping chairs to join the growing crowd at the front of the stage.

It wasn't long before Liam took to the microphone to share a long, winding introduction about their next song, only to then have realised that he was actually one song out on the setlist, gaining a big laugh before they eventually started playing Fall At Your Feet.

They worked through songs from their respective, extensive back catalogues throughout the evening, with their harmonies perfectly balanced and enhancing each track further. The zoo setting was certainly not lost on the Finns, with animal-themed jokes aplenty during the evening, including Neil asking the crowd to sing "so high the dingos can't hear it" on Four Seasons In One Day.

It seemed that Split Enz's Message To My Girl was definitely a crowd-pleaser, with a mass of people running from the lawn area to join the crowd in front of the stage. "It's like we're filming a video clip back in the '80s," said Neil as he finished at the piano, with a huge fan blowing behind him. "Just as well it's not a toupee," he laughs referring to his hair.

Liam's track Better To Be offered another serve of comic relief, with the entire band freezing like mannequins for at least 20 seconds right in the middle of the song — only to be broken by Liam's eventual guitar solo.

Of course, the evening wouldn't have been complete without a singalong to the classic Don't Dream It's Over. It's really something to think that Neil and his family singing this just across the harbour from the location where Crowded House used the song to say farewell to the world over 20 years ago.

Quickly enough, it was time for the main set to wrap up. The band reappeared after a short break, with Neil joking that they had a request from the reptile exhibit for Liam's song Cold Feet upon their return. There was a cover of (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay which then, very appropriately, turned into The Lion Sleeps Tonight. They closed out the evening with Better Be Home Soon, seeing Liam swap his guitar for a theremin, before they walked off to a thunderous applause.