Liam Finn
So it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. I wish i could say I had been busy, but that’s not the case. Lazy? Maybe so. But one of the reasons was because I was out at the Hawaii Theater seeing Eddie Vedder play 2 solo shows. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect seeing Ed Ved by himself. Of course I expected great things, and great things are what we got. More than great really. Couldn’t have asked for more.
One of the great revelations was seeing the opening act for both nights. A guy called Liam Finn.
Who is Liam Finn? I knew he was the son of one of the guys in Crowded House, and that he and Ed Ved were friends. What I didn’t know was that Liam Finn is a completely amazing musician, and basically a 1 man band. He does get help from a friend named Eliza Jane, but he’s pretty much in charge when it comes to the instruments.
He came on to a stage that had a guitar flanked by a bunch of pedals, and a full drum set. I wasn’t expecting a band, so the drum set had me confused. After 4 minutes it all made sense. Liam simply plays everything. Liam simply loops everything. In the program he is called a Loopman, and that is perfectly accurate. Loopman might be hard to describe in type, but I’ll give it a go.
Liam normally starts a song by singing and playing guitar. Using one of his many guitar pedals, he will record what he is playing on guitar, and then loop it so we can hear what he recorded. While the recording is being looped he will play another guitar part on top of that. Since that isn’t enough, he’ll record the second guitar part. Soon he’ll add a third guitar part, and of course record it and play it back. Once he’s got all the sounds he wants from his guitar, he puts it down and moves on. So as the audience hears the sounds of 3 (or more) guitars, Liam has moved on to the drums. He’ll drum on top of his guitar part. Drum really well. It shouldn’t come as a shock that he records the drumming as well. That way he can stand back up, and move back over to the guitar, but we still get to hear a drum track. Incredibly confusing to read, but incredibly amazing to watch.
It was so fun to watch. The songs were great, and it was exciting the whole time. One of the reasons Ed Ved was so good was because he had to make sure he was better than Liam Finn. Instead of just filling time, the opening band had raised the stakes.
I figured I’d check things out the first night, and then on the second night I’d stay home and stroll down to the show just to see Eddie. After the first Liam Finn song on the first night, I knew I’d be back down early to have the privilege to see Liam Finn again.
http://www.myspace.com/theliamfinn — Go there and look down the left side for more videos.
