On Sunday, March 10th, 2019, Andrew Hozier-Byrne (better known as Hozier) played his first show on his “Wasteland, Baby!” tour in Buffalo, New York at Shea’s Buffalo Theatre. I was there. It was magical. (I may be a little biased because I’ve been waiting for him to be in my area for about 5 years now but we’re just going to ignore that fact). I went to the concert with a close friend of mine that wasn’t extremely familiar with his music and she had just as good of a time as I did.
Two weeks prior, Hozier released his sophomore album “Wasteland, Baby!” and the day of the Buffalo show the album beat Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next” and the “A Star is Born” soundtrack album for the top ranking on the Billboard 200. When he mentioned this during the show the crowd went NUTS. Speaking of the crowd, I was a little surprised by the wide range of ages at the concert. While there were a lot of people in their early 20’s, much of the crowd was made up of people looking to be in their 40’s or even older. I was sort of expecting there to be a lot more young girls in the crowd considering his live concert recordings are filled with girlish shrieks.
An artist by the name of Jade Bird opened for Hozier with just her voice and a guitar and she did not disappoint. For such a small person, she has a huge voice. She filled that entire theatre with her voice all by herself. I’m listening to her music as I’m writing this and I have to say the recordings are pretty good but she is SO much better live.
Hozier’s performance was, of course, fantastic. The 6’5” hunk with long, flowing locks played tracks from the new album and some old favourites such as “Take Me To Church”, the song that put him on the map. He was accompanied by backup singers, drums, organ, synthesizer, bass, piano, violin, and a plethora of stunning light effects.
Hozier sounds exactly like his recordings except for the fact that he is a skilled vocalist and often switches up the melody. He is a great guitar player but when he doesn’t have a guitar, it seems like he doesn’t know what to do with his hands sometimes. Although, he covers this up with his stage presence very well. The arrangements for some of the songs were a bit different from the originals. The rendition of one of my favourite songs, “Someone New”, reminded me a little of the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” and that era of music which made me love the song even more.
This was hands down the best concert I’ve ever been to. I mean, nothing wild really happened at the concert like someone throwing their bra up to the stage, it was just a really good concert. I would absolutely recommend seeing him when he comes to your part of the country. The “Wasteland, Baby!” tour will be going on through November and he’s hitting pretty much every corner of the United States so be sure to get a ticket. The ticket was a bit pricey but it was worth every penny. He’s coming to Pittsburgh this summer and I’m really, really considering forking over the money to see him again.