I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: July 15, 2025] Hozier [moved from June 10, 2025]

Last year when this tour came to this very same location, I balked at the price of tickets.  And now I regret doing so because this time around, I was going to get tickets no matter what.  In the time since last year, my whole family has just gotten more into Hozier.  So I jumped on line and scored… four lawn tickets.  Meh.  The lawn at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion is massive.

Then, a few days before our show, he postponed it.  I gather he was feeling under the weather.  So his team rescheduled the show for almost exactly a month later.

And this turned out to be a blessing and a curse.  A curse because now my daughter couldn’t go (she was away).  But my wife was happy to come along, so that was cool.  But it was also a bummer because the rescheduled date was the same night that I had a ticket for Phish at the Mann.  And the exciting thing about that was that I had pit tickets for the first time.  So I was bummed not to go.  But as part of the deal with rescheduled shows, people were allowed to get rid of their tickets if they couldn’t make it.    I asked the kids if they wanted lawn or seats and they said they were fine with lawn.  So I grabbed two tickets for my wife and me in the middle of the lower tier.  And the view was awesome.

My son and I had seen him at World Cafe Live a couple of years ago–when he was prepping for this tour, I believe (but that can’t be right, surely).  When we saw him, he had the full band, but there was no stage show.

So I was blown away by the visual effects he employed. Whether it was close ups of the band or clips of videos to really impressive 3D videos that floated around the stage.  It was magnificent.  But the most magnificent thing was his voice.   If he wasn’t feeling well last month maybe he wouldn’t have sounded as amazing as he did tonight.  And wow did he sound great.

He opened with a quiet song with some cool lights shining just on him.  And then slowly the whole (ten-piece) band was revealed.

The show was a fascinating mix of songs from the new album (and its variants) and his 9/13th of his debut (which is celebrating its 10th anniversary!).  He also played a few songs from Wasteland (thankfully!).

I loved hearing Jackie and Wilson (which we’d heard at WCL) and Nobody’s Soldier (one of my favorites) which we hadn’t heard before.  And it proceeded with songs that I knew really well and songs that I didn’t know that well.  (I’m a fake fan as I don’t know any of the deep cuts).

Everyone around us was very excited that he played Abstract (the pit was even full of people waving Abstract fans)  He hadn’t played that in the States in a year.

As the set drew to a close he played a killer version of Too Sweet and the ended the set with four more killer songs in a row.  I was surprised that he ended the main set with Take Me to Church, but maybe it’s more fun to end with other songs.  However, I’m glad that he still seems to really enjoy singing it, because he was passionate as on any other song.

The band left and a few minutes later he ran up to the B stage (which was right behind us).  He sang two songs there but with is back to us the whole time.  The first song, Cherry Wine was acoustic (and lovely) and the second one included the whole band on stage, even though they were so far away from him.

Then he went back to the main stage and introduced Nina Cried Power with a powerful story about why he is so inspired by the Civil Rights movement in America.  He explained that it directly impacted the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland.  And he insisted that we not throw away our right to vote.  It’s such a killer song–and I was lucky enough to see him sing it with Mavis Staples at Newport Folk Festival.  This version was also fantastic, with Mavis’ part taken by the wonderful singer Amanda Brown.

And he closed with Gigi Perez coming onstage to sing Work Song with him.  He had already praised her voice (which was incredible) and it was cool to hear her sing this song alongside him.

The show was fantastic.  And the getting out of the venue was also pretty easy.  It was only when we got in the car and had to wait 45 minutes to get to the bridge a half a mile away that the curse of the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion finally caught up to us,

I usually prefer small club shows but sometimes you just need to be in a room with thousands of people singing along and an amazing light show.

This was a great night.

Here’s the band on this tour:  Bold members were on our in 2023, the rest are new:
Rory Doyle-drums
Kellen Wenrich-fiddle guitar
Ryan Connors-keys
Julia Adamy-bass
Grace Youn-violin, viola
Jess “Thandiii” Berry-keys
Kamilah Gibson-b voc
Cremaine Booker-cello
Paddy Linton-b voc
Amanda Brown-b voc

 

 

2025	2023 Pop Up	Newport 2019
De Selby (Part 1) Ψ	Like Real People Do Ø	Would That I ¡
De Selby (Part 2) Ψ	Eat Your Young ≅Ψ	Dinner & Diatribes ¡
Jackie and Wilson Ø	From Eden Ø	Nina Cried Power ¡ (with Mavis Staples)
Nobody’s Soldier ⊇⊄	Jackie and Wilson Ø	To Be Alone Ø
Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene Ø	Would That I ¡	[didn’t see the rest of the set]
Dinner & Diatribes ¡	To Be Alone Ø
Eat Your Young ≅Ψ	Dinner & Diatribes ¡
Would That I ¡	Someone New Ø
Like Real People Do Ø	Swan Upon Leda ⊇
From Eden Ø	Cherry Wine Ø
Abstract (Psychopomp) Ψ	All Things End ≅Ψ
Francesca Ψ	Nobody ¡
It Will Come Back Ø	Through Me (The Flood) ⊇≅Ψ
Too Sweet ⊇ω	Almost (Sweet Music) ¡
Someone New Ø	Movement ¡
Almost (Sweet Music) ¡	Take Me to Church Ø
Movement ¡	encore
Take Me to Church Ø	Unknown/Nth Ψ
B-stage	Work Song Ø
Cherry Wine Ø [acoustic]
Unknown/Nth Ψ
Main Stage
Nina Cried Power ¡ (with Amanda Brown)
Work Song Ø (with Gigi Perez)

⊇ Unreal Unearth Unending (2024)
⊄ Unaired EP (2024)
ω Unheard EP (2024)
Ψ Unreal Unearth (2023)
≅ Eat Your Young EP (2023)
¡ Wasteland, Baby! (2019)
Ø Hozier (2014)