crowded house dreamers are waiting tour

Crowded House Announce North American Tour 

Following their 2023 North American Tour, Crowded House will hit the road again for a trek spanning from late summer through fall in support of their upcoming album, Gravity Stars .

The 15-city run will kick off August 29 at The Saint Augustine Amphitheatre in St. Augustine and then head to several cities across North America including Atlanta, New York, Niagara Falls, Highland Park, Bend, and more before wrapping in Paso Robles on September 28 at Vina Robles Amphitheatre.

We're so excited to announce the North American Tour in support of our upcoming album Gravity Stairs! We can’t wait to see you all! Pre-sale begins 4/12 (10am local) through 4/18 (10pm local) 🎫 General on sale Friday, April 19 @ 10am local. https://t.co/ZCxsFVWniY pic.twitter.com/Ny9Dy5bc2k — Crowded House (@CrowdedHouseHQ) April 11, 2024

The band is gearing up to release their forthcoming eighth record Gravity Stairs , due May 31. They already unveiled two tracks from the album, “Oh Hi” and the recent release “Teenage Summer.” Their 2021 album, Dreamers Are Waiting , fulfilled fans’ longing for new music, marking their first output in 11 years after the release of Intriguer in 2010.

Crowded House formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1985 and first tasted global success with their massive 1987 hit “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” They continued to drop hits for a decade, including “Something So Strong,” “Weather With You,” and “It’s Only Natural.”

In Australia, the band won 13 ARIA Awards (The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards, an annual event celebrating the Australian music industry) from 36 nominations.

Ahead of their North American run, Crowded House will tour across the United Kingdom at multiple venues throughout June. Tickets for the run are available via the band’s official website . Additionally, a presale is set for Tuesday, April 16 (use code RIFF), ahead of a public ticket on-sale on Friday, April 19.

A complete list of dates tour dates and ticket buying options can be found below:

Crowded House Tickets

Crowded House tickets at MEGAseats Crowded House tickets at StubHub Crowded House tickets at Ticket Club | Free membership code TICKETNEWS Crowded House tickets at Vivid Seats

Crowded House 2024 Tour Dates

08/29 – St. Augustine, FL @ The Saint Augustine Amphitheatre 08/30 – Atlanta, GA @ Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park 08/31 – Cary, NC @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre 09/03 – Vienna, VA @ Wolf Trap 09/04 – New York, NY @ The Rooftop at Pier 17 09/08 – Niagara Falls, ON @ Fallsview Casino 09/10 – Huber Heights, OH @ Rose Music Center at the Heights 09/11 – Highland Park, IL @ Ravinia Festival 09/13 – Omaha, NE @ The Astro 09/14 – Waite Park, MN @ The Ledge Amphitheater 09/17 – Vail, CO @ Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater 09/21 – Woodinville, WA @ Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery 09/22 – Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater 09/25 – Saratoga, CA @ The Mountain Winery 09/28 – Paso Robles, CA @ Vina Robles Amphitheatre

NBA Play-In Tickets Cheapest in New Orleans, Philadelphia

Live Nation (LYV) Stock Dips on News of DOJ Antitrust Lawsuit

Username or Email Address

Remember Me

Registration is closed.

• Share onFacebook
• Share onTwitter
• Share onInstagram
• Share onYouTube
• Share onSubscribe to our Newsletters

Get The Magazine

The best in culture from a cultural icon. Subscribe now for more from the authority on music, entertainment, politics and pop culture.

Newsletter Signup

The Long-Awaited Return of Crowded House

As Crowded House release their first new album in over a decade, Neil Finn discusses how the iconic band's latest era came to be.

For more than 35 years, Crowded House have served as unofficial ambassadors of the Australian music scene, helping to put the country’s talent on the global stage, and becoming a beloved group of musicians in the process. First forming in 1985 with New Zealand-born Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, and Paul Hester serving as the core of the group, it didn’t take much time at all for Crowded House to receive critical and commercial acclaim.

With their first two albums – 1986’s self-titled effort and 1988’s  Temple of Low Men – topping the Australian charts, so too did international acclaim follow, with “Don’t Dream It’s Over” peaking at #2 in the US (beaten only by Aretha Franklin & George Michael’s “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)”.) While 1991’s  Woodface and 1993’s  Together Alone scored silver on the Aussie charts, they also spelled the end of the Crowded House’s initial run, with their Farewell to the World concert at the Sydney Opera House seemingly putting an end to the band’s enduring legacy.

Though Hester would sadly pass away in 2005, Crowded House once again found themselves active during the latter part of the decade, with two more chart-topping albums arriving before another split. In 2016, a brief run of shows served as another reunion of sorts, with hopes for more material and shows seemingly put on hold in 2018 when Finn was recruited into Fleetwood Mac alongside Mike Campbell following the departure of Lindsey Buckingham.

About 18 months ago though, new seeds of hope were sewn, with Finn revealing that he had constructed a new lineup of the band – now comprising Seymour, sons Liam and Elroy Finn, and  Crowded House producer Mitchell Froom – to embark upon “another chapter of Crowded House”. Unfortunately, 2020 soon showed its teeth, with recording plans somewhat upset, and a live return as part of Bluesfest being cancelled, therefore seeing the group make their public return by way of a livestreamed performance for  Music from The Home Front .

The positivity soon ramped up once again, with Crowded House not only revealing their first new single in a decade by way of “Whatever You Want” , but by also announcing the release of  Dreamers Are Waiting , their first album since 2010’s  Intriguer .

Now, with 2020 behind us and Crowded House set to make their full-scale return to the world with their new album and live shows, Neil Finn spoke to  Rolling Stone to discuss the group’s long-awaited reformation, the creation of their new record, and their return to live shows.

First of all, congratulations are in order for the ne w record, it’s quite an amazing piece of work.

Thank you, that’s nice to hear. We’re very proud of it, and it’s obviously been quite a big part of keeping our sanity last year. It’s got a good spirit to it, and it’s good cohesion to it as well.

That also leads into the question I feel we should start things with – how did you manage to deal with 2020? Did you get through everything safely?

Yeah, we had the good fortune to be in the studio just before the lockdown in LA. We had rehearsed and written up new songs, and we were in the studio and got rhythm tracks as a band live on the floor, and then we were interrupted in the last week that we were supposed to be in there with lockdown like everybody else at the time. So we were able to withdraw into our own spaces and have these tracks to work on in our own little pods.

[We’d] send files to each other, and I don’t mean to say that work was our only consideration at the time, but we felt very blessed to be able to have a network that was supportive, music to work on, and that we were in safe circumstances in Los Angeles in a good house. It’s the delivery capital of the world in LA, so you could have anything you wanted delivered to your door. We had the family down the road, the grandkids. So I don’t want to be quite glib about it, because there were a lot of people having a real tough time, but our circumstances were good. We can’t complain.

It definitely could have been far worse.

We came back to New Zealand in October at a point when the picture in LA got a bit grimmer. So we were able to enjoy summer in New Zealand as well. Obviously that was the golden ticket at the time because of– and I would say Australia has had a reasonably similar trajectory; Melbourne wasn’t so fortunate. But we were very fortunate in this part of the world not to have the worst of it.

Most people likely wouldn’t have expected 2021 to bring with it a new Crowded House album. However, it was something you first alluded to back in late 2019. At that point in time, what were you and the band up to? What was the plan as it stood?

Well coming off the back of the Fleetwood Mac tour, I just had the various scenarios floating in my head of what might be next and a fresh memory of being in a classic band most unexpectedly and seeing the vitality that existed within that band… Y’know, that band has gone through so many twists and turns. It gave me some good heart for the idea of a band first and foremost, and realising that I had my own experience – albeit not on the same level as Fleetwood Mac – of a classic band and that it could be redefined and renewed and revitalised. Because I had felt that there was more to be done with it, and as it stood we actually had tried to do some new music a while ago and it hadn’t really lead anywhere conclusive.

But the idea formed in my head that the addition of Liam, who I had just done a record with –  Lightsleeper – and Elroy, who is probably my favourite drummer in the world (and my son), and we had a gig with Mitchell not that long before that. [He] shares a great appreciation for the aesthetic and the vibe of [the band], and his presence was a big part of what got Crowded House going to start off with.

That formed as kind of a cool idea and I though, “I wonder if anybody else would think that’s a good idea?’, and as it turned out, everybody kind of… eyes lit up at the mention of the idea, including Nick’s, who was the first person I spoke to. And yeah, there was a kind of ‘rightness’ about it. So that was the kind of origin of the idea, and then pretty soon it got down to playing music together: rehearsing, and figuring out what songs sounded like Crowded House in this new form.

You mentioned before there was a period of time when the band had attempted new music. When did that happen? The only real period of activity Crowded House had over the last decade were the 2016 Sydney Opera House shows, so I assume it was around then?

It was just before that. We had gone into the studio and jammed quite a bit and tried to work up some new songs, and it just didn’t lead anywhere. I ended up making  Out of Silence off the back of that – a completely different enterprise, maybe that was the mood I was in at the time. But it seemed like all the material that came out of that time, I just found it hard to work on. That lineup was playing as well as it ever did at the Opera House shows. It felt like a really good event, but it didn’t – in my heart – lead to anything new.

The first taste that folks received of the latest era of Crowded House was back on the Music from The Home Front series last year. Now, Bluesfest was set to be the official return, but what was it like to be involved in not only an event like Music from The Home Front , but to sort of welcome the band back with it as well?

Well it was really nice, and part of what we were doing with swapping files for the record and working on the record on our own was that we were Zoom calling like everybody else, and that was the impetus for us to do something like that. We tried to put a bit of quality into that, the Zoom format, and everybody filmed themselves individually and I ended up at home and did the music. The music had been created almost live, we couldn’t quite do it all together at the same time, but it had the effect of being the sound of the band. It was a great opportunity, and when it came along obviously the organisers and all the people taking part in the  Home Front were… It was a great cast and really notable idea; timely, well received.

We did “Don’t Dream It’s Over” which I don’t want to pull out too many times, but it seemed to go really well for the day. I really liked the version of “Better Be Home Soon” that DMA’S did. I thought they did a real nice job. So it was nice to have a presence in the whole thing, and it’s one of the great mysteries about songs is that they become appropriate in their own time and mysterious ways. It’s always a blessing.

I would assume the ideas of livestreams would have felt like such a strange experience around the time that was recorded, though it became quite standard rather quickly.

Yeah, and we did a bunch of stuff where I was putting together [material from] each individual member who sent me their footage. I had a good little work room in my house in LA and a home studio just down the road. We ended up doing a lot of Fangradio stuff which just became a spontaneous thing one day when I opened the lid of my laptop, and it just became a daily thing for two or three months where I played for 25 minutes or so every day. It was just a way of keeping connected with the world and each other.

That was also the first time folks got to see the new lineup of the band – which is less of a ‘new’ lineup and more of an ‘expanded inner circle’, in a sense. But how does the band feel to you now that you’ve got Mitchell as an official member at long last, along with Liam and Elroy? I would assume it would feel a lot more home-like in a way.

It is, it feels incredibly natural for obvious reasons, and there’s not three other people on the planet who have more depth of connection to Crowded House than Liam, Elroy, and Mitchell. I’ve got video that I was looking at recently of being in the tour bus in the early days of Crowded House, and there’s Liam sitting on Nick’s lap in the front seat of the tour bus, and there’s Elroy mimicking Nick’s moves from the side of stage – kind of gently mocking his pirouettes at the age of three. These things feel quite resonant now, and what a beautiful thing it is for me to look over.

And they’ve got a great reverence for the arrangements, so Elroy has made the point of learning one particular fill of Paul’s that he was always fond of on the record that, to be honest, we probably abandoned through years of getting it a little wrong. And Liam, similarly, his little details that he’s really bothered to learn – not that I’ve insisted – they’re kind of key little emotional remnants on the record. So in a way, the band sounds closer to its origins than it probably did for many years.

It feels like a perfect situation for yourself, especially considering you’ve not got anyone in the band who hasn’t lived with the band for most of their life.

I think it is, and they get the humour and the underlying aspects. We got on very well, and it’s very personable. I mean, everyone really feels it very deeply when there’s trouble brewing with songs and arrangements and everything. There’s intensity, it’s not like holiday camp, but there’s a great respect and abiding love between members of the band, there really is. And the humour is definitely to the fore. It might be a corny thing to say, but I kind of know that Paul would love the idea of it as well.

Moving back a bit to the creation of the new record, at what point after the announcement of new music back in 2019 did things first begin to take shape?

Well we went into the studio in February, and lockdown, when it happened in March, we’d had a three or four week period in the studio. So we were talking about the band doing new music in October the year before, and then sending a few demos around, and then we got together in January for the first time, I think, and rehearsed. We started to see what it looked like, and then into the studio in February to record. So it wasn’t long, the process.

When that happened, what was the general mindset? Were you thinking of ways to keep the recording going, or had you been thinking it might need to be shelved until some normalcy returned?

Well we had a bunch of tracks record, and they were really lively tracks recorded to tape, live in the room. So we wanted to keep working. Initially, we thought we might finish it quite quickly and get it out quite quickly, and it just soon started to become obvious that we wouldn’t be able to tour for probably a year, and putting an album out without a tour was less appealing.

And we could take the opportunity to sort of throw the album up in the air a little bit, disassemble it, and maybe reassemble it in some fashion. Not all the songs, some of the songs stayed pretty true to how we recorded them in the studio. But some of them were completely reimagined. I’ve always quite enjoyed that idea of working quite hard on something for weeks on end and then actually destroying it and finding the bits you really like floating to the ground again, and starting again. There’s something liberating about that. A couple of times we did that and it enabled us to be a bit more exploratory and experimental.

The notion of wrapping up a record from a distance would’ve been a bit of a learning curve as well, because that’s not something you would’ve done too much previously, would you?

Not really, and god, if we didn’t have the internet during this period, I don’t know what would’ve happened in terms of people’s relationships and feeling connected, but it’s been a blessing in that regard. I’ve been sending files around the world quite a few times to get people to play on things, and y’know, it wasn’t a completely [new experience]. I was in upstate New York, and I was recording an album with Dave Fridmann, and we had a string session while it was the middle of winter, it was snowing outside in upstate New York, and we had a string section in the middle of Auckland. They came in during the day and they were all wearing shorts and jandals.

So that was very memorable, and getting that live, coming through the speakers at night in the snow, the idea of music travelling across the ether is not entirely new, but this is the first time we’ve constructed music and sent files to each other. It was really enjoyable, and mixing like that was really enjoyable too. We were all getting together on Zoom to talk about the mixes, but we had the mixes coming through on a pretty good [sound system]. Everyone’s hearing it simultaneously and everyone’s making comments, it’s getting adjusted as we speak. It felt better than being in the studio where the clock’s ticking, you’re loathe to bring up small details that need to be addressed… I don’t know, it just felt more free somehow.

There had been a quote from yourself about the record which noted you were “afraid of just repeating the same formulas” when it came to Crowded House. What was it that sort of helped you realise, “We’re breaking new ground here. We’re onto something that could be a ‘new chapter’ of the Crowded House story”?

Well the combined sound of Crowded House was different, the sum of its parts. And that’s what a band is and always should be. Everyone brings something to it. Liam and Elroy both are accomplished players, writers, arrangers, and Mitchell, we asked him to take off his producer’s hat and become a keyboard player, which he did, but he can’t stay in one spot, so he’s always got ideas for the arrangements. But everyone’s character was influencing the way that the record was, so it had a freshness to it.

I was pretty determined to make the record sound fairly outgoing. I didn’t want to make a slow, sad record in lockdown. It’s not like it’s a rock’n’roll… it’s not a punk record or anything, but there’s an outgoing quality to it, which I’m happy about. We all had that as the undercurrent that we were trying to tread, so there’s a lot of personality in the tracks that’s new, and it does remain sounding like Crowded House somehow.

That’s the thing about this album: it feels so familiar and yet so new at the same time. It sounds exactly like what you’d expect a Crowded House album to sound like, but it doesn’t sound derivative or tired. Which I guess would be as a result of having these new personalities at play as well.

Yeah, I think so, but it’s also that they’re not all coming from a completely different place as well. They get the aesthetic and they’re reminded of, and wanting to remind people of, some of the things that make Crowded House. The way Mitchell approaches keyboards is so cinematic in a way, he’s always thinking of something that’s going to colour or change the tonal spectrum of the song in just the right way. It’s a joy to hear what he comes up with.

The first taste that folks got of the new record was “Whatever You Want” back in October. What was the reaction from fans like at the time?

I’m not sure really what the reaction was, actually. The people that I knew really liked it. I don’t think it commercially had much impact, but it’s hard to judge that these days because it’s almost more Spotify plays and radio seems quite remote these days when it comes to a possibility [laughs] – when I see what’s on it. So we were delighted with the fact that song really up, it seemed appropriate for the time,, it had the great groove that Elroy’s drumming on there which I’m particularly fond off, and it seemed to show off the band in a live and upbeat way.

It felt like a great way to reintroduce the band to Crowded House, especially given how – again – it feels so new yet so familiar.

Yeah, it does show off the band pretty well, I think. Just the colour that everyone brings to it. I never have really known on any record what the best calling cards for records are, so we’ve always been following our nose and so far there seems to be a lot of good will for the record, and I can’t wait for people to see it live, because we’ve just finished a tour of New Zealand and the songs are really fun to play live.

You also had MacDeMarco in the film clip for “Whatever You Want”. How did you get involved with him?

We know Mac, have done for quite a while – Liam and Elroy are good mates, really. But it wasn’t really through us, actually. The director we worked with [Nina Ljeti], she’s friends with as well, and it was her connections that [made it happen]. She was looking for either a Hollywood actor, or someone that could act a role basically, and have this person who was on the back end of a really big night out. Some successful guy who’s suffering the next day and trying to work his way back. She suggested Mac, and it just seemed perfect. He was immediately into it, but it was something a bit different for him. But he’s a natural, and he’s got a great face and a good presence, and I think he did a good job.

He felt like an absolutely perfect fit for the role, really.

I think he could relate to the sentiment, and I think he enjoyed doing it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he does some acting at some point. I think he’d be good at it. This is just his little introduction.

We also received the Tame Impala remix of “To the Island” , which was a collaboration many wouldn’t have expected. How did this come about, or was it something Kevin Parker was focusing on more independently?

Because we had a bit more time to put onto these things, and we making our own video remotely – our own video for it which I kind of edited myself – and everyone sent their own bits from remotely around the world. So we were thinking about the song a lot and I think it was Liam who said, “Maybe we should send it out to some people seeing that we’ve got a bit of time, and see what a couple of remixes would do.” We looked out at people, and we had some contact with Kevin a little bit, and also Ruban Nielson from the UMO [Unknown Mortal Orchestra].

They’re both amazing record makers and have a foot in the traditional song making as well, so we just sent the songs to them to see what they thought, and they both came back really positive saying, “We’d really love to have a crack at it.” We’d expected something very different, and we got it. [The UMO one] is a very different sort of pumping glam-stomp. It’s very different to the Tame Impala remix, but both of them we were delighted to get, because the song still comes through but in a completely new set of clothes. It’s just a delight, and it seems that in these modern times when nothing is quite in its place, everything’s a bit topsy-turvy, let’s reimagine.

You mentioned the New Zealand tour just before, and while that must have been a relieving experience to be back on stage, it must have felt even more fitting doing so in New Zealand?

We were just excited to play anywhere, and New Zealand was the first cab off the rank since they managed to get their elimination working. But even then, there was a lot of risk attached. We booked the dates, and we had to put them off by a week because there was a return to level three [restrictions]. So it was touch and go, and we’d put a lot stake in it. We got Nick out from Ireland, Mitchell from LA, and then had gone through quarantine which we’d done the whole process of. So there was a lot riding on it, and it could well have fallen in a heap, but thankfully, it all held and we were able to do the tour a week late. And it was just a joyous thing, it was quite a profound feeling to be on stage that first day. We were well aware of how lucky we were, and we were also well aware of how lucky we all are, so there was a lot of celebration, a lot of joy.

It definitely seemed as though the shows got an amazing response.

Well we knew that the band was pretty hot, ’cause we’d rehearsed and that, but when we got on stage it just felt like this really beautiful machine, and the songs were very vibrant and restored and powerful. And with a five-piece lineup, we were able to do things which I hadn’t been able to do before with the vocals; the family vocals. Everything just made us so excited about the ability to be able to play, also in Australia and elsewhere.

On that note, are there any plans for an Australian tour at this stage, or is it still a bit up in the air?

It’s very close to being settled, and yes, there are definitely plans later in the year. I can assure the good folk of Australia we will be there and playing extensively around Australia before the year’s end.

Crowded House’s  Dreamers Are Waiting , is out now via EMI, with pre-orders available now.

In This Article: Crowded House

• Album Reviews
• Live Reviews
• Australian Music Festivals
• Sustainability Expand the sub menu
• The First Time
• How I Wrote This
• Cover Shoots
• Rolling Stone Daily News
• Rolling Stone Interview
• Rolling Stone Australia Awards 2022 Expand the sub menu
• The 200 Expand the sub menu
• Competition Ts & Cs
• Terms of use
• RS Recommends

Alerts & Newsletters

• Submit a Tip
• Submit an op-ed
• Submit a video

Support long-form journalism. Subscribe to Rolling Stone Magazine

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Crowded House review – a joyous and long-awaited return to Australia

Adelaide Entertainment Centre Over the last decade, Neil Finn joined Fleetwood Mac, his sons joined Crowded House, and they finally released a new album. For some in the packed arena, their return feels quasi-religious

N eil Finn has spent much of his life onstage, but he’s the first to admit his between-song “patter” is a little rusty. He stops himself in the middle of an anecdote about spending the previous day cycling around Adelaide , perhaps sensing it’s one dad joke too far – even for the demographic mix of a Crowded House show in the year 2022.

“It’s a great story isn’t it, Liam?” he says, looking to his eldest son on his right.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Liam replies drolly. “It’s the first night and all.”

It’s been a decade since Finn’s signature band last toured Australia, and almost three years since his most recent lap of the country as the unexpected new member of Fleetwood Mac. And while there’s been turnover in Crowded House’s ranks of late, it’s of a different sort to the turbulent revolving door of Finn’s other band.

This incarnation of the group he founded with bassist Nick Seymour and the late Paul Hester in 1986 might technically be a new lineup, but they’re all familiar faces. Finally hitting the road after reuniting just before the pandemic, Finn and a kilt-wearing Seymour are now officially joined by Neil’s sons – Liam on guitar and vocals, and Elroy on drums – while Mitchell Froom, the American producer who cut much of the band’s early, seminal work, sits up the back on keys.

For the younger two, this band is in their DNA. On opening song Weather With You, Liam’s indelibly Finn-ish voice effortlessly slots into place alongside his father’s, singing a harmony originated by his uncle Tim during the band’s first family crossover era back in 1991. On 1993’s Pineapple Head, they play along as their dad sings lyrics partly inspired by the incoherent ramblings of a young, feverish Liam.

Liam and Elroy are no longer kids, but seasoned performers in their own right – and at 38, Liam is now the same age his father was when the band first farewelled the world back in 1996. Backed by his brother’s steady rhythm, he confidently, reverently metes out those instantly recognisable 12-string guitar melodies – and adds a few chaotic squalls of his own.

A few songs in Seymour admits he’s a “a bit puffed”, having contracted Covid around six weeks ago and still feeling it in the lungs. He needn’t worry; this is a crowded house in every sense, and the near-capacity Adelaide Entertainment Centre sings along with gusto. A grinning Neil basks in the sound of several thousand people belting his words back at him, and on hits like Fall At Your Feet and Something So Strong he can’t help but keep the song going, inviting us to sing along once the rest of the band have finished. He even splices in the chorus of his 1980 Split Enz hit I Got You and The Kinks’ Sunny Afternoon for good measure.

After such a rousing response to the classics, generous helpings of new material from the band’s recently released seventh album Dreamers Are Waiting inevitably sacrifice some of the energy in the room. While songs like Playing With Fire and the defiant Whatever You Want bring some earwormy hooks and a familiar, dreamlike quality, they are unlikely to upset the tracklist of the next Greatest Hits compilation just yet – but it’s hardly their fault they haven’t had decades to grow on us. For now though, they show us a band with purpose beyond revisiting past glories.

To make up for the dip in crowdsourced backing vocals, Neil invites the members of opening band Middle Kids onstage for a few songs, telling the audience it’s one of the few places these tourmates are able to hang. “We can’t really mix backstage – all that bubble shit,” Neil says. When Middle Kids songwriter Hannah Joy makes a joke about a subsequent lack of backstage rock’n’roll antics, he muses that they were never particularly “rock’n’roll”. “These days, just rolls,” he adds.

This is a band that after all these years plays with an unspoken, familial fluency, and a lot of love. It’s hard to tell who appreciates it more, the audience or Neil. For some though, it’s a quasi-religious experience: the man beside me leaps to his feet after every song while texting excited observations to his own two sons, and a woman a few rows over gets busted trying to send a scribbled note on to the stage via paper plane.

Returning to the stage had been a “joyous occasion”, Neil says in a final thank you to the crowd, but that’s been obvious all night. It’s certainly evident during their biggest hit, Don’t Dream It’s Over, where once again the Finns and their comrades start the song, but the audience helps bring it home. As that big, wistful chorus hangs in the air, Finn beams at the crowd: “Makes me believe it when I hear you sing it.”

Crowded House’s Dreamers are Waiting tour continues through April

• Pop and rock
• New Zealand

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

• Latest News

‘El Rey Bravo’: Tito Puente’s Latin Jazz Masterpiece

‘oh darling’: the story behind the beatles’ song, ‘mezzanine’: how massive attack took things to a whole new level, best reggae producers: 10 pioneers of jamaica’s musical legacy, ‘ain’t no mountain high enough’: marvin and tammi’s towering pop classic, ‘flashpoint’: the rolling stones rock the world with ‘undiminished soul’, best lionel hampton songs: 20 jazz essentials, elton john celebrates 50 years of ‘caribou’ with vinyl reissue, new live video, pearl jam share new album ‘dark matter’, benny the butcher announces ‘everybody can’t go’ tour, ringo starr and his all starr band announce fall tour dates, taylor swift shares new double album ‘the tortured poets department: the anthology’, frank zappa & the mothers of invention to release ‘whisky a go go, 1968’ live album, queen rock montreal heading to disney+ with imax enhanced sound, crowded house announce ‘dreamers are waiting’, their first new album in over a decade.

’I’ve always been afraid of just repeating the same formulas, and somehow this feels like a fresh and authentic way to re-approach Crowded House today with an awareness of all our history,’ said Finn.

Published on

Crowded House have announced their first new album in over a decade. On June 4, the legendary New Zealand group will release Dreamers Are Waiting via EMI Australia.

The band had teased new material back in October with the release of “Whatever You Want,” which will appear on the new album. Now the band has revealed their lead single titled, “To the Island,” along with a new video for the track, directed by Neil Finn and Mark Simon Brown and shot in a variety of locations worldwide, including Los Angeles, New Zealand, and Ireland.

The band’s line-up on Dreamers Are Waiting includes founding members Neil Finn and Nick Seymour, in addition to producer and keyboardist Mitchell Froom, singer and guitarist Liam Finn, and drummer Elroy Finn, Liam’s brother.

No Doubt, The Ink Spots, And Amy Winehouse: Currently Trending Songs

The beatles’ ‘let it be’ film to launch on disney+.

“I’ve always been afraid of just repeating the same formulas, and somehow this feels like a fresh and authentic way to re-approach Crowded House today with an awareness of all our history and where, how and why it began in the first place,” said Finn in a statement. “The original band mentality and philosophy is still in there, especially with Mitchell now part of it again, working in a different way along with Nick and I.”

The band previously announced they had lined up a tour of New Zealand, which has been allowing concerts to happen since last June due to proactive Covid-19 containment measures.

“We were fortunate to be recording in the studio right before lockdown and so began this album with band tracks recorded live in a room, all brimming with character and energy,” Finn said. “We then spent our strangest year, 2020, at distance from each other but connecting daily, swapping files and making those tracks complete. We’re so excited and grateful to be back in one room together now, rehearsing, first to play live in front of audiences in NZ and soon we hope for the rest of the world.”

This news also comes on the heels of Finn’s new radio shows that see the acclaimed singer-songwriter revisit a different Crowded House album and play new acoustic versions of the songs from them. The first broadcast was on February 11 and is available on Fangradio on Mixlr.

Dreamers Are Waiting is set for release on June 4 can be pre-ordered here .

Dreamers Are Waiting tracklist:

1. Bad Times Good 2. Playing With Fire 3. To The Island 4. Sweet Tooth 5. Whatever You Want 6. Show Me The Way 7. Goodnight Everyone 8. Start Of Something 9. Too Good For This World 10. Real Life Woman 11. Love Isn’t Hard At All 12. Deeper Down

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Discount Codes

Crowded House reborn: Neil Finn talks ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’, their most experimental album in decades

How touring the world with Fleetwood Mac and the maelstrom of 2020 led Neil Finn to revitalise the beloved band

“We’re not going to sit here like dorks,” Neil Finn recently declared to media who’d assembled virtually and in-person in Auckland’s Roundhead studios to hear Crowded House’s first album in over a decade. The band, Finn said, would not adopt what he called “the Nick Hornby model with sad old wankers staring at the floor”.

“We will play along – it’s a good rehearsal for us, really,” he assured the media coterie.

A man ran to the corner of the room to drop the needle on a vinyl copy of ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’, and Crowded House crackled into life. Gone was the orchestral grandiosity of 2010’s ‘Intriguer’ – replaced by the sound of a band simply “playing in a room”, as Finn put it. That’s no doubt in part due to how Crowded House’s new members aren’t all that new, after all: Finn’s two sons Liam and Elroy have joined on guitar and drums, respectively, as well as Mitchell Froom – the producer of the band’s first three albums – on keyboards.

More rehearsal couldn’t have hurt, either, since it was a day before the start of Crowded House’s 12-date New Zealand To The Island tour, their first live shows since 2016’s ‘Encore’ Sydney Opera House concerts – a greatest hits victory lap marking 20 years since they broke up in 1996. The band went on an “indefinite hiatus” after that, and it almost looked like Crowded House would be consigned to history when Finn accepted an offer to replace Lindsay Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac in 2018.

But as it turns out, working the glitzy global tour circuit with Stevie Nicks actually prompted Finn to return to his band from the Land of the Long White Cloud. “I started thinking differently about what classic bands could be: they could be vital and not nostalgia,” he explained.

Vitality is the elemental force behind ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’, easily Crowded House’s most experimental record since ‘Woodface’ in 1993. When the ever-affable Finn calls NME from a “bright-ish” Auckland two months later, the 63-year-old is practically effervescent after their nationwide tour previewing the new material.

“We found out on the tour… that the five of us sound really, really good,” he laughs down a hissing phone line. “There will be a live special that we recorded and filmed, which we’re just mixing now, and it’s blowing me away a little bit to hear it.”

Recommended

That special is Live From The Island, an upcoming Crowded House livestream of a New Zealand concert they filmed in March. Taking place June 12, it’ll be the first opportunity for most of the world to see the newest iteration for Crowded House – sans former drummer Matt Sherrod and keyboard-guitarist Mark Hart.

Sherrod, who’d played with Crowded House since 2007, and Hart, who’d been a member since 1993, were dismissed without much public explanation. “That was a tough call,” Finn muses. “Mark is a good friend, a great player, and was obviously a big part of Crowded House for a number of years. Probably to some of the fans, that was a great mystery.”

Finn reveals that after the 2016 Opera House shows, the band tried working on some new music “and it just went around in circles a bit. And to be honest, it didn’t feel like we had a new direction. And I don’t mean that to sound harsh about any of the people in the band, but I just wasn’t feeling it… I think there wouldn’t have been another Crowded House record at this point [with the old line-up].”

“There’s some really lovely things that happen only when a band plays all at once”

‘Dreamers Are Waiting’ came about through the collision of traditional record-making with the warped circumstances of 2020. Sessions began in the classical fashion at the ageing Valentine Recording Studios in Los Angeles.

“It looks like a timepiece, it’s got lime green carpet on the walls,” Finn recalls. “It isn’t an easy place to get a great sound. But once you get the room working and everybody set up in the right positions, it really came down to using some old skills about balancing in the room.”

Those old skills, as it turns out, refer to shunning headphones and click tracks in favour of the ad hoc magic of a band counting in and playing live.

“There’s some really lovely things that happen only when a band plays all at once. That just doesn’t seem to happen in another context,” Finn says, with a quick caveat lest he be perceived as a grouchy rockist: “Not to say that modern record-making has anything wrong with it.”

But when the pandemic hit, liveness had to be substituted for strangeness. Finn lived in LA with Liam and Elroy throughout the first wave of lockdowns, and worked out of a single room in their home, interrupted only by hummingbirds fluttering outside his window. The band agreed to push the album’s release past 2020 so Crowded House could return to the stage to introduce it – giving them time to make “radical changes” to the material.

Finn embraced his tinkering spirit during this period – something he says comes through particularly on ‘Show Me The Way’. “I actually had quite a strong inclination to destroy the work I’d been doing for the last few days, in the thrill of watching it float to the ground, grabbing the best bits and making something new out of it,” he explains.

In the March listening session, Finn tried to underline the joy ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’ offers amid global sadness – but contemporary paranoia still eats away at its songs. “ Let’s all be quiet / The next generation’s talking / We’re behind the wheel / We’re driving straight to the wall ,” he cries on ‘Playing With Fire’ .

“We’ve got the celebratory feeling about having the band back together. But, you know, I’m one of those people… when things are going really well, there’s just a hint of worry about impending doom” Finn admits. “At the moment, I think we’ve all got that feeling a little bit. We’re emerging, possibly, from this pandemic, and a little bit of hope is starting to creep back – but then there’s this sense that there are bigger problems ahead.”

He halts mid-explanation. “Anyway, I don’t want to dwell on that as a message for the song.”

“I’m fully aware of my own limitations and I’ve decided at some point to make the most of it”

But again, it leaks out. In ‘Whatever You Want’, Finn rails against the “ cult of yes men ”, from the music industry to demagogues in the age of misinformation. The singer is never didactic, however, in large part because he can’t affect narrative songwriting, instead exploring big ideas and feelings with free association.

“I’m fully aware of my own limitations and I’ve decided at some point to make the most of it,” he says. “If I allow myself to be a bit free, and not pinned down by having to be linear, then I can come up with some great lines.”

A vivid example is in ‘Sweet Tooth’ – “ There were six of us / Somehow / Now there’s 17 ” is a vignette of bringing a bag of chips to school, and seeing more and more “friends” asking you to share. It’s a comforting callback to the non-sequiturs that riddle some of the band’s old hits (think ‘Chocolate Cake’). Evidently, the chaos of modernity and a personnel shake-up aren’t enough to erase the wry Crowded House DNA.

But will the band fall into another indefinite hiatus? Not if Finn can help it. Unprompted, Finn says another album from the renewed group might be possible next year, declaring they will “move through the next phase much quicker”.

“I think we’ll make some great gains from having done this touring. It really feels like we’re poised with this great energy and a sense of purpose. We are reborn.”

Crowded House’s ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’ is out now. On June 12, the band will stage Live From The Island. Get tickets here

• Related Topics
• Crowded House

You May Also Like

Jack antonoff: “i’ve always felt really misunderstood – it’s like a driving, pounding feeling in me”, ben schwartz is on a mission to save improv: “so much comedy has been dying”, touring luxembourg with francis of delirium, the indie star making big waves in a tiny country, ‘fallout’ review: learn to love the bomb in this fun yet flawed adaptation, ‘life eater’ review: twisted kidnapping simulator strikes at the heart, more stories, brian eno talks remixing david bowie on “powerful” new release ‘get real’ to combat climate change, stalker who sent harry styles 8,000 cards is jailed and banned from gigs, glastonbury 2024 to debut first ever south asian dedicated stage, courtney love says after kurt cobain died, “the hatred towards me reached a completely new level”, taylor swift namedrops the blue nile on ‘tortured poets department’ track ‘guilty as sin’, watch creed reunite for first show in 12 years.

Crowded House

'dreamers are waiting' north american tour.

Crowded House

View all concerts, sep 8, 2024.

Find a place to stay

Crowded house merch.

Live Photos

What fans are saying

Share Event

Crowded house biography.

Crowded House: Dreamers Are Waiting North American Tour presented by Live Nation

Support: spirit of the bear, sunday, may 14, 2023 at 8:00 pm, state theatre.

View performances

This show has been rescheduled to Sunday, May 14, 2023 at 8 p.m. Patrons who have already bought tickets will have their tickets honored. 

Neil Finn on behalf of Crowded House :

Crowded House are disappointed to announce that we must postpone our upcoming North American tour. Our drummer Elroy is currently suffering a painful lower back injury and is receiving medical treatment for it. We are advised that there may be some risk in the recovery process for him to play shows at this time. The good health and future well-being of the band members has to be our priority and we have been assured that Elroy will fully recover in a matter of weeks given rest and rehabilitation.

As I’m sure those who recently saw us play in Europe and U.K will attest, we have developed into a formidable live band over the past year and want to bring our fans in North America the show at full strength, which is what you deserve. We apologize to all those who bought tickets for this tour but we will be announcing a new schedule as soon as we can.

Crowded House is a long standing and much loved vehicle for the song writing talents of Neil Finn. Formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1985 out the ashes of New Zealand’s Split Enz by Neil, Paul Hester and Nick Seymour, their eponymous self-titled debut album on Capitol Records went on to global success with the hits “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and “Something So Strong”. Those songs and many that followed are still resonating with audiences today, the former in particular being one of the most covered songs of the last 20 years. The bands first incarnation lasted from 1985 through 1995 with four studio albums and enjoyed much success worldwide, becoming beloved for their freewheeling and interactive live shows. This lineup said “farewell to the world” on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in 1996 with a now legendary performance in front of 150,000 people.

In 2005 following the tragic death of Paul Hester, Neil and Nick felt emotionally compelled to bring Crowded House back, to put some more good history, as they described it, into the story of the band. Drafting in new drummer, Matt Sherrod, and with long time touring member, Mark Hart, they released the album Time On Earth to critical acclaim and toured the world. Another album, Intriguer , was recorded in 2009 and Crowded House was inducted into the Aria Hall of Fame in 2016, at the same time reprising its farewell shows at the Sydney Opera House with three nights of stunning performances.

Following Neil’s surprise star turn and a very successful world tour with Fleetwood Mac, Neil and Nick have been energized and inspired to begin a new chapter in the Crowded House story. Much like Fleetwood Mac, a new generation seems to have grown up and connected with their songs and now want to experience the band live. Crowded House will be kicking off the next chapter of their story by appearing as a headliner at the Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival with an exciting new lineup, which will include a special guest appearance by Crowded House producer and respected keyboardist Mitchell Froom.

VIP Crowded House Dreamers Are Waiting Package – $299 (Limited availability)

•  One premium reserved seat in the first ten rows
• Specially designed Crowded House long sleeve shirt
• Limited edition Dreamers Are Waiting vinyl
• Custom Crowded House tote bag
• Exclusive merchandise item
• Commemorative Crowded House laminate

Presented by:

• Statistics Stats
• You are here:
• Crowded House
• Tour Statistics
• Song Statistics Stats
• Tour Statistics Stats
• Other Statistics

All Setlists

• All setlist songs  ( 1092 )

Years on tour

• 2024  ( 4 )
• 2023  ( 18 )
• 2022  ( 47 )
• 2021  ( 21 )
• 2020  ( 2 )
• 2019  ( 1 )
• 2016  ( 7 )
• 2011  ( 5 )
• 2010  ( 83 )
• 2009  ( 1 )
• 2008  ( 43 )
• 2007  ( 102 )
• 2001  ( 1 )
• 1998  ( 1 )
• 1997  ( 1 )
• 1996  ( 16 )
• 1995  ( 17 )
• 1994  ( 92 )
• 1993  ( 63 )
• 1992  ( 88 )
• 1991  ( 130 )
• 1990  ( 18 )
• 1989  ( 48 )
• 1988  ( 53 )
• 1987  ( 153 )
• 1986  ( 48 )
• 1985  ( 29 )

Show all tours

• "Concert of the Decade Tour" with Split Enz  ( 4 )
• 2008 Tour  ( 40 )
• 4 Seasons in 8 Weeks  ( 36 )
• Better Be Home Later Than Never  ( 16 )
• Breaking the Dry  ( 9 )
• Burning Up Australia 1987  ( 15 )
• Coaster to Coaster  ( 27 )
• Crowded House - Album by Album 2021  ( 5 )
• Dreamers Are Waiting Australian Tour 2022  ( 24 )
• Dreamers Are Waiting North American Tour 2023  ( 18 )
• Dreamers Are Waiting World Tour 2022  ( 21 )
• Encore  ( 6 )
• Farewell to The World  ( 5 )
• First American Tour 1987  ( 59 )
• Get Woodfaced  ( 123 )
• Intriguer Tour  ( 77 )
• Live On Earth  ( 74 )
• Live on Earth Warm-Up  ( 26 )
• New Zealand Winery Tour 2011  ( 6 )
• Now We've Been Somewhere  ( 10 )
• Recurring Dream  ( 9 )
• Temple of Low Men Tour  ( 30 )
• Then There Were Three  ( 31 )
• To The Island New Zealand Tour 2021  ( 12 )
• Together Alone Tour  ( 126 )
• Tour of Low Men  ( 43 )
• W.O.M.A.D.  ( 9 )
• Woodface Promo  ( 14 )
• World Where We Live  ( 12 )
• Avg Setlist
• Concert Map

Average setlist for tour: Dreamers Are Waiting Australian Tour 2022

• Distant Sun Play Video
• Fall at Your Feet Play Video
• World Where You Live Play Video
• Don't Stop Now Play Video
• To the Island Play Video
• Pineapple Head Play Video
• Show Me the Way Play Video
• Playing With Fire Play Video
• When You Come Play Video
• Mean to Me Play Video
• Private Universe Play Video
• Goodnight Everyone Play Video
• Four Seasons in One Day Play Video
• It's Only Natural Play Video
• Sister Madly Play Video
• Whatever You Want Play Video
• Don't Dream It's Over Play Video
• Something So Strong Play Video
• Message to My Girl ( Split Enz  cover) Play Video
• Into Temptation Play Video
• Weather With You Play Video
• Better Be Home Soon Play Video

Show Openers

Main set closers, show closers, encores played.

This feature is not that experimental anymore. Nevertheless, please give feedback if the results don't make any sense to you.

• Apr 18, 2024
• Apr 17, 2024
• Apr 16, 2024
• Apr 15, 2024
• Apr 14, 2024
• Apr 13, 2024
• FAQ | Help | About
• Terms of Service
• Ad Choices | Privacy Policy
• Feature requests
• Songtexte.com

Crowded House release new single Teenage Summer ahead of album launch

Share this article

Neil Finn of Crowded House performs at Spark Arena on March 19, 2021 in Auckland. Photo / Dave Simpson / WireImage

Crowded House, Neil Finn’s rock band, have just revealed a second taste of their new album, Gravity Stairs , with the new single Teenage Summer .

Gravity Stairs , their eighth studio album, will be available worldwide on May 31 via BMG.

Te Awamutu -born Finn said the new single was formerly called Life’s Imitation but had now curiously been renamed Teenage Summer.

“My grandson Manaia told me Teenage Summer was one of his favourite songs.

“He’d identified the peak moment in the song, and a light went on. It’s that simple: the children must be heard.”

Produced by the band with Steven Schram (Paul Kelly, San Cisco), Gravity Stairs shows Crowded House in its current incarnation – Finn, Nick Seymour, Mitchell Froom and Finn’s sons Elroy and Liam.

Finn said the album title was inspired by an unnaturally heavy stone staircase near where he holidays.

“The ‘gravity stairs’ are symbolic of the struggle to ascend, acknowledging the opposing forces of weight on the mechanics of living. It’s an act of will every day.”

Crowded House have sold over 15 million records worldwide, as well as having earned 13 Aria Awards, an MTV VMA and a Brit Award. The band have generated billions of streams, consistently sold out tours on multiple continents and have been captivating audiences for nearly four decades.

Founded by Finn, Seymour and the late Paul Hester, the group’s self-titled debut in 1986 went platinum, uplifted by iconic smash hits Something So Strong and Don’t Dream It’s Over , which have since been covered by Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande and U2, among others.

In 1996, the group delivered a legendary performance to an audience of over 150,000 on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, beginning a hiatus that finished after Hester’s passing in 2005.

This led to albums Time on Earth (2007) and Intriguer (2010), and a return to the Sydney Opera House for three unforgettable nights.

In 2018, Finn joined Fleetwood Mac as a full-time member, travelling the globe on a massive world tour.

Two years later he and Seymour led another era of Crowded House, forming the band’s current line-up.

They issued their first full-length offering in 11 years, the unanimously acclaimed Dreamers Are Waiting (2021), and the band leapt into a rapturous world tour in support.

From joining his brother Tim as part of “new wave” favourites Split Enz to leading Crowded House and his numerous solo efforts, Finn’s varied body of work is connected by his knack for penning meticulous, indelible melodies and impressionistic lyrics that demand multiple listens.

The record can be pre-saved and/or pre-ordered at crowdedhouse.lnk.to/GravityStairsPR .

Latest from Waikato News

Kiwi survives wild weather to nail first race of Taupō Super400

It's shaping up to be two days of contrasting weather for the first Taupō Supercars event.

Cambridge junior cyclists off to China for track world champs

Town pool built on a sacred burial site to be demolished

Man who torched John Key’s MP office admits $650k arson of railway building

Real NZ Mountains: The new ski season beckons

Teenage Summer

Gravity stairs - out 31 may 2024, teenage summer - out now, dreamers are waiting.

Crowded House

Oh Hi (official music video)

Oh hi (lyric video), playing with fire.

Stay Updated

Subscribe to crowded house email newsletters.

Developed by Volt Creative

Copyright © 2024. All Rights Reserved.