. The singles \u201cEat Your Young\u201d and \u201cToo Sweet\u201d have seen the most commercial success, with \u201cToo Sweet\u201d being his second addition to the aforementioned billions club.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe show opened with a set from Irish folk band Amble. I was unfamiliar with their music going in, but their overall chill energy and poetic lyricism made me a fast fan. During their set, the frontman Robbie Cunningham revealed that a year ago, he was an elementary school teacher in Dublin. Then, he spotted one of his former students, who flew all the way to Boston from Dublin, in the crowd. This made for easily the sweetest moment of the entire night, and brought happy tears to my eyes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAfter Amble concluded their set, Gigi Perez took the stage as the second supporting act of the night. After the overnight viral success of her two singles \u201cSailor Song\u201d and \u201cFable,\u201d I was so excited to see what else she had to offer\u2013 and she did not disappoint. My favorite part of her set was her performance of \u201cSugar Water,\u201d wherein she brought her younger sister Bella out on stage to sing harmonies with her. The song evoked a sense of homesickness for my home and younger sister in me that made me cry for the second time that night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThen, as the scorching sun began its descent, Hozier took to the stage. The set opened with \u201cNobody\u2019s Soldier\u201d from Disc 1 of \u201cUnending.\u201d His stunning vocal performance of the song was accompanied by one of the most comprehensive stage setups I have ever seen: a large array of various instrumentalists, three backup vocalists, and an insane amount of detailed visuals. During this song, a bunch of retro TV screens flashing different news clips dropped from above, and a screen behind him flashed various statistics outlining the casualties of war, military spending, homelessness numbers, and more. It certainly set the tone that Hozier would not be toning down on his activism for his show, a move I highly respect especially given the current global political climate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe set then moved into some songs from his previous albums, \u201cJackie and Wilson,\u201d \u201cAngel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene,\u201d and \u201cLike Real People Do\u201d\u00a0 then, \u201cDinner & Diatribes\u201d and \u201cWould That I.\u201d\u00a0 During \u201cWould That I,\u201d I was so happy I got to experience the call-and-response format of the chorus live, joining in on the \u201coh\u2019s.\u201d It was so surreal hearing one of my favorites from that album in a venue as iconic as Fenway Park.<\/span><\/p>\nNext, Hozier did something unexpected: he announced he was going to play a cover that he had never played in front of an audience before. He gave a quick introduction about how this song would foster a sense of home for this American audience, then got into performing \u201cSweet Thing\u201d by Van Morrison. I grew up listening to Van Morrison, so this was incredibly nostalgic.<\/span><\/p>\nThe set then moved back to songs from \u201cUnreal, Unearth\u201d \u2013 \u201cDe Selby (Part 1),\u201d \u201cDe Selby (Part 2),\u201d and \u201cFrancesca,\u201d which happen to be three of my favorites from the album. A large portion of \u201cDe Selby (Part 1) is sung in Irish, and the display carried an English translation of the lyrics. He then played \u201cIt Will Come Back\u201d from \u201cHozier,\u201d which is one of his most underrated songs. He followed it up with \u201cToo Sweet\u201d which is easily his most overrated song\u2013 it may be his most palatable and popular, but popular isn\u2019t always best.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHowever, the set immediately picked the pace back up with three consecutive bangers: \u201cSomeone New,\u201d \u201cAlmost (Sweet Music),\u201d and \u201cMovement.\u201d This run was incredible, but \u201cMovement\u201d stood out the most to me, as the vocals in the bridge and final chorus had me quite literally ascending to heaven. Special shoutouts to his three main backup vocalists here, as they brought an angelic vibe to the song that was so awe-inspiring to hear live.<\/span><\/p>\nThe main set then closed out with \u201cTake Me to Church,\u201d an example of a not overrated smash hit! I will never get sick of hearing Hozier sing this song, nor the messaging behind it that empowers the queer community. At the finale of the song, he brought out a rainbow flag with the message \u201cBe The Hope\u201d written on it, a call to action for his fans to love, support, and rally for the queer community, whether as members or as allies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI don\u2019t normally like encores, but I will make a singular exception for Hozier\u2019s encore at this show. He first moved to a B-Stage (which happened to be right behind me) and performed two acoustic versions of his songs that I really love: \u201cCherry Wine\u201d and \u201cUnknown\/ Nth.\u201d It was surreal being so close to the legend himself. I thought my turf seats were good during the main set, but this part blew my mind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAfter this came, without a doubt, the most powerful performance of the night. Hozier made his way back to the main stage and gave a powerful speech on the process of recording his legendary song \u201cNina Cried Power\u201d with Mavis Staples, and the importance of using voices of compassion and activism in songwriting; from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, to the Irish Civil Rights movement,\u00a0 to the current protests against global war and the American political establishment. He then performed the song, with his vocalist Amanda Brown singing Mavis\u2019 part. During the performance, the screens lit up with artists who have used their voices to serve and uplift marginalized communities in their songs\u2013 from Marvin Gaye, to Bob Dylan, to Bruce Springsteen, to Rage Against the Machine, to Kendrick Lamar, to Nehmasis\u2013 artists across genres and generations were represented in his shoutout. It was also during this song that I cried for the third time that night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe encore then concluded with \u201cWork Song,\u201d another favorite of mine. It has become a kind of tradition for artists to join Hozier in performing this song, and that night, it was Gigi Perez who took the stage along with him. If Gigi didn\u2019t wow me before (which she did), she definitely wowed me here. Their voices blended together beautifully, and the air quite literally left my lungs when they joined together in harmony on the chorus, with Hozier taking the high harmony and Gigi taking the melody.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAfter they gave their final bows and left the stage, I was emotionally wrecked in the best way. I left Fenway Park, surrounded by fans, as \u201cSweet Caroline\u201d blared through the speakers\u2013 per Boston tradition. This concert was a bucket-list experience for me, and I would recommend that anyone see Hozier at least once in their lifetime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Photo Credit: Danielle Krantz Review by Kendal Evans I saw god at Fenway Park. And no, it wasn\u2019t the Green Monstah. Instead, it was THE premier Irish artist to play there, Hozier. The night of Monday June 23rd, Hozier brought the afterlife (likely Hell, due to the blistering heat) to Boston as part of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22960,"featured_media":48989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[33,327,2012,2460,522,2461,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22960"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48988"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48992,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48988\/revisions\/48992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}