Evaluation: Hozier takes Seattle to church in T-Cellular Park debut
The overcast Seattle skies remind Hozier of Eire, his house nation, the place it rains as much as 250 days annually. Coincidentally, uncommon August showers got here throughout the County Wicklow-born artist’s T-Cellular Park debut Thursday.
“It’s at all times in moist, chilly climates the place folks have a cool, dry humorousness,” the Irish songwriter relayed to the packed crowd.
Hozier — identified offstage as Andrew Hozier-Byrne — began the preliminary leg of his “Unreal Unearth Tour” in 2023, final performing in Seattle that October at WAMU Theater throughout the road. Now in entrance of an viewers about 4 instances as large, the singer-guitarist of people, blues and soul delivered a dynamic 128-minute set supported by a 10-member band. This third leg of the tour follows the discharge of the deluxe model of “Unreal Unearth: Endless” in December.
Below faint blue beams of sunshine, Hozier, sporting a dandy-striped vest and trousers with a costume shirt, soothed the stadium into tranquility with “De Selby (Half 1),” his 2023 “Unreal Unearth” album opener. “Eventually,” he sang in a wispy falsetto, “when the entire world is asleep, you are taking within the blackness of air, the likes of a darkness so deep.” Transitioning into the grittier “De Selby (Half 2),” Hozier bellowed a longing declaration to grow to be one with a lover. From the primary two songs alone, even a brand new listener may reap the fruits of his resonant voice and poetry.
Hozier’s set evoked the sights and sounds of nature, from “Like Actual Individuals Do,” which elicited the group to shine a sea of telephone lights, to the swinging, hurricanelike fretwork in “Francesca.” The literary savant’s 22 songs dropped at thoughts mercurial seasons and terrains, with its mixture of dramatic and mellow music — one thing his mountainous vocals weathered with ease.
A standout, “To Somebody From a Heat Local weather (Uiscefhuarithe),” melded tender classic keys and rippling strings, embraced by Hozier’s soulful belts via a cavernous reverb. “Uiscefhuarithe,” an Irish phrase, means “one thing that has been made cool by water,” defined Hozier, who needed to relay the consolation of sleeping in a heat mattress to somebody who had by no means skilled it.
Hozier managed to seamlessly match his outdated and new hits into the set checklist, with 9 of the songs from his debut album “Hozier.” “We want your assistance on this one, Seattle,” the Irish artist mentioned earlier than enjoying his 2024 chart-topping observe “Too Candy,” a gradual, seductive commentary on overindulgence, which induced an entranced viewers to serenade him again. Within the brighter, extra carefree “Somebody New,” these within the pit raised their arms and swayed alongside as they sang, “Love with each stranger, the stranger, the higher.”
Hozier persistently speaks out on human rights and social and political points throughout his reveals. At T-Cellular, on the finish of his 2014 breakout music “Take Me to Church,” Hozier took one intersectional LGBTQ+ delight flag and a transgender flag from the pit to hold on his mic stand. He pounded his chest as he roared, “I’ll let you know my sins, and you may sharpen your knife.” Over 40,000 folks joined layers of thick harmonies and yelled a spherical of reverberating “Amens.”
After the lights went out, the entrance part of the ground flocked to a different faint blue beam that shone on the decrease proper aspect of the stadium, the place Hozier performed a fast encore set on a riser together with his acoustic guitar. Strolling again to the primary stage for “Nina Cried Energy,” an anthemic observe he recorded with civil rights activist and gospel singer Mavis Staples, Hozier pointed to intersections between struggles within the U.S. and Northern Eire, which used the American Civil Rights Motion as a mannequin for its personal resistance, and honored different musicians — Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Bruce Springsteen and extra — who’ve made music for social change. Hozier additionally referred to as consideration to reproductive, labor, trans and homosexual rights; denounced antisemitism and Islamophobia; and supported the security and self-determination of Palestinian folks, which acquired cheers from the stadium.
“It’s really easy to neglect that these are issues that needed to be labored for, that needed to be pushed for and to be fought for,” he mentioned.
The stadium mellowed as soon as extra with the stunning devotions of “Work Music,” the closing music, with a projected background of pink and purple clouds that led to an almost two-minute standing ovation. It was well-deserved reward for a singer who absolutely took Seattle to church.