Sandalford Winery, Saturday December 6th, 2025 –
Presented as the Red Hot Summer Tour, Crowded House blessed the winery setting with great songs and enthusiasm for a show to remember.
Arriving as The Waifs played, their sound suiting the winery setting perfectly, and songs like Lighthouse and Bridal Train will remain classics.
Settled in and ready for Mark Seymour, it was great to see Vika and Linda still going strong and their harmonies and stage present are still as strong as ever. Seymour played the classics with a few from V & L really helping to drive the set along. The ladies were a joy to watch and had some fun stage banter to go with the perfect harmonies; ever so cool even when the band started a song in the wrong key, recovering nicely and letting the band know about it.
The Church are an interesting one; this reviewer not being overly familiar with their catalog, apart from Under the Milky Way which must be up there with greatest Aussie-written songs ever. Full of jokes between songs (not my thing, unless done well, which is rare), they displayed a nice range of eighties new wave/post rock tunes. A band whose albums I’d like to go back through and have a deeper listen.
Angus & Julia Stone. Admittedly they were the main draw for getting tickets to this one. Having never seen them live (Angus was here with Dope Lemon earlier in the year and great), it was about time, and they are a force. Playing an interesting mix starting with a cover of The Go Betweens Streets of Your Town, and including a well timed airplane flying over during Big Jet Plane (magic 😊), the band have matured nicely and have developed a real swagger. If anyone suits the winery/festival setting it is them (Chateau anyone). I’d really love to see them doing a longer set so hoping they are back with their own headline tour soon, not just for me but plenty of others in the crowd. They could have played for twice as long and still satisfied.
Julia rocking the guitar, trumpet and leopard skin mini skirt
And with that, Crowded House, who must be up there with having the best song back catalog of any band in the world, took the stage clearly in the mood for a good time. Neil Finn is a ball of energy, like a toddler in a playroom. At one point having issues with his guitar – he just said all good I’ll do it on the electric piano. They mixed it up, playing the classics (Distant Sun, Fall at Your Feet, Weather With You, Four Seasons in One Day) alongside songs from their new album (Teenage Summer, The Howl) and even some Split Enz songs (Message to My Girl, I Got You). Overall it was a great atmosphere, with plenty of singalong moments for the crowd, while also keeping it fun and energetic. For the finale Liam Finn was challenged to crowd surf to the front of house control position and back again, and succeeded, then they topped it off with fireworks. A magic summer night.
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