Review: Hozier serenades sold-out Salt Lake crowd
Andrew Hozier-Byrne is modern musical bard — an Irish poet gypsy, if you will (and if you won’t, you should).
Hozier serenaded a sold-out crowd at The Depot in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. Despite his recent rise to international fame, he was charmingly humble and — like many artists before him — seemed genuinely surprised at the enthusiasm of his sizable audience.
The haunting synth melodies of Iceland´s Ásgeir formed a perfect opening act for Hozier. The unique group — a sort of mash up between Bon Iver and techno — didn’t tour outside of Iceland until 2012. A blend of English and Icelandic lyrics with gorgeous harmonies subdued the growing crowd, readying a mellow vibe for the sheer awesomeness of Hozier’s performance.
Ásgeir’s performance was succinct. They didn’t interact with the crowd much, and there was very little time between songs, if any. They just kept their head down and played their music.
In a word, Hozier was passionate. In many more words, he sang with raw emotion, like it was the first and last time he’d ever sing. It was hard to stay grounded, easier to get carried away in imagining whatever he was feeling when he wrote each poetic song.
The set opened with “Angel of Small Death” and ended with “Take Me to Church,” followed by an encore and finale of “Work Song.” Hozier performed every track from his 2014 self-titled album, rendering each of them inferior to his live presence. In between, he mixed it up with a cover of a blues song variation and a remix of “1 Thing” by Amerie.
One especially poignant moment was when he played “In a Week” with fellow Irish singer-songwriter Alana Henderson. The duet of their voices was like a sad, sweet dream from which you never want to wake up. Henderson killed it on the cello all night. Hozier introduced each member of the brilliant band during the encore, linking arms in a row to bow after the final song.
Ideally, the fans would’ve danced (or swayed, nodded, anything) more. Some people allowed the songs to literally and figuratively move them. Many others were too hipster to reveal any semblance of human emotion and chose instead to stare at the stage (or, worse, at other concert-goers) with listless disdain. Or maybe Hozier’s deep, sexy voice lulled them into comas of wonderment. Either way, their hipster comas were broken with deafening applause after each song.
In response, Hozier was all thumbs-up, sheepish grins and gratitude — constantly thanking the audience, his band and Ásgeir for contributing to an “awesome” experience. His admirers couldn’t get enough. So, he sipped the hot tea in his microphone-stand cup holder, let loose his glorious man ponytail and gave them what they wanted: a heartfelt, better-than-life show.
—Noelle Johansen is a senior in journalism and Spanish. She’s loud and loves to interpretive dance, even if it means everyone hates her at the Hozier concert. Send a hey-o to noellejohansen@gmail.com or on Twitter @broelle.