Neil Finn – 7 Worlds Collide

My wife and I turned up at Largo last night expecting to see Neil Finn doing his usual solo (or semi-solo) act, but wow, what a surprise. Largo has a habit of keeping quiet about the line-up of their “special guests” so even finding out that Neil was on the roster was a stroke of luck. What we didn’t expect was six members of the 7 Worlds Collide project appearing on stage – i.e. Neil Finn, KT Tunstall, Jon Bryon, Elroy Finn, Lisa Germano and Bic Runga, who were in LA to meet with record execs and promote the second 7 Worlds album (that will be coming out later this year).

All of these guys are incredibly talented musicians, jumping round the stage, rotating from instrument to instrument. Taking turns on guitar, bass, piano and xylophone. It was one of the most chaotic, unorganized gigs I’ve ever seen, but was also one of the most fun. They performed a number of tracks (publicly) for the first time ever, including KT Tunstall’s new up-coming single which was both comical and astounding, changing from an acoustic to rock sound driven by necessity. Her (acoustic) guitar failed about thirty seconds in, so she started adlibbing about the guitar while she tried another, which also failed. Bic darted across the stage and handed KT her (Bic’s) electric, which KT grabbed and started shredding, giving the track a whole new feel – actually think I prefer it that way.

But for me, the show stealer had to be Jon Broyn. The man is a genius; I’ve never seen anyone get the kind of sounds out of a guitar that he does. Seriously, imagine Ray Charles playing keyboards, but coming from a guitar - simply amazing. Look out for the new album later this year.

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Yannick Lord is a Los Angeles based Fashion, Glamour, Commercial and Lifestyle photographer with a passion for music, art, design, entertainment and technology. please feel free to explore these pages for more news, reviews and of course, my photography.