Glastonbury 2022: Crowded House offer up Australian rock magic on Pyramid Stage

The Pyramid Stage has felt like a comfortable spot at this year’s Glastonbury for legendary performers, like Crowded House, to demonstrate their rich catalogue of tracks.

Neil Finn and company are always going to be tied to their excellent hit, Don’t Dream It’s Over, but their Pyramid Stage performance does well to explore their other songs.

With just 40 minutes to make the most of, Crowded House lay down some of their best tracks and experience a few moments that they’ll no doubt treasure forever.

From Finn’s grandson being serenaded by the thousands in the crowd singing Weather With You to how delightful a leading man Finn is, it’s a setlist and performance that marks a sleeper hit of the festival.

A voice that remains unchanged, Finn sounds as strong and impressive as he does on his earliest recordings, but, naturally, the highlight is Don’t Dream It’s Over.

What a wonderful track - and a suitable one for the Glastonbury weekend aboard the main stage.

The great Paul McCartney, who headlined the Pyramid Stage a day after Crowded House’s set, once said: “I wish I could write music like Neil Finn,” and to do so would be to replicate a comfortable style of excellent Australian rock that takes to the Pyramid Stage with a striking, natural bit of confidence from the pop-rock band.

Crowded House is an interesting choice for the main stage, preceding Wolf Alice and following on from Rufus Wainwright, because they can be brushed into the one-hit-wonder category by those that don’t know much about them.

They’re like Men at Work in that regard, but Finn and company at least have more than one hit between them.

Thankfully they are much more than one-hit wonders, and Crowded House proves that with an exceptional performance that marks them as one of the many legendary groups on display at this year’s festival.

Finn has been at the heart of numerous iterations of Crowded House, but what they get so right with this Glastonbury display is a consistency of musicianship that others can only dream of.

A delightful, underpraised set that will hopefully open others up to the talents Finn possesses, documented best by their 1993 LP, Together Alone.