So recently Hozier came to Columbus, and I was lucky enough to have a seat at stage center and only three rows from the front. Needless to say, it was fantastic, and I wasn’t the only one to think so. An older woman across the aisle from me spent the entire time kneeling on the ground with her hands raised above her head in what seemed to be religious ecstasy. She had to be escorted back to her seat twice.
But before I talk about Irish Jesus himself, I would like to focus on another person involved who made the performance as great as it was. His opener, Angie McMahon. A singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Australia, her first album, Salt, debuted just a few months ago. She sang five songs in total at the concert, four of which were from Salt and all of which were amazingly composed and performed. She played her guitar and sang with a gruff beauty characteristic of indie rock, and I can’t imagine the amount of courage that it took for her to travel halfway around the world to perform her work. Also, she’s really funny. One of her songs, called Pasta, was inspired by the time that she ate an entire lasagna.
After McMahon had finished with her set, Hozier didn’t come out for another twenty minutes. He later informed the audience that their bassist (whom I tragically forget the name of and can’t find online) was incapacitated with a high fever, but assured us that he wasn’t in any danger and would recover. It ended up taking three of the other backup performers to cover the part of the missing bassist, which they did with such skill that it appeared effortless. At the end of the concert, Hozier had the whole audience wish the bassist “get well soon.”
Hozier performed many songs from his newest album, “Wasteland, Baby,” as well as some of his most popular, older songs, of course including “Take Me to Church.” All in all, his portion of the performance lasted two hours, and most of the audience was on its feet the entire time. And true to form, audience members passed up pride flags during the encore, and Hozier had three different flags on his microphone by the end.
So, yes, the concert went pretty much as expected.