Wednesday Night Recap (Pt.1): Tim Finn on Hornblower Harbor Cruise

On Tuesday, I thought it was Wednesday.
On Wednesday, I thought it was Thursday at one point, and Tuesday at another.
Clearly, I am all out of whack, but it's finally Thursday which is as good as the weekend, no?

Last night I had plans to go to a KPRI private listener show on the Hornblower Cruises with a performance by Tim Finn of Split Enz, Crowded House, and, of course, The Finn Brothers. I had pretty much talked myself out of it because I just thought I needed some time to chill at home, but then I got a text from my friend, the ever rumor starting Daye, telling me that he heard that Neil Finn and Eddie Vedder might be joining Tim. How could I skip that, even if there was less than 1% chance that it was true?

There were a ton of people waiting in line which scared me a bit, but I had no problem getting on the boat, going through the back stairs, and positioning myself right up front. Chris from Republic of Letters was there with gf Stephanie, so they joined me up front. Tim Finn's new solo album, Imaginary Kingdom, isn't gonna blow your mind in a way that some new progressive artsy indie album might, but for the late Gen-Xers and pre-boomers on board who have been diehard fans for over 20 years, this is a classic and beautiful set of satisfying songs that are easy to digest and with themes of growing, aging, accomplishment, and family, this album should have a least a few hot singles on radios with a AAA format, like KPRi. For me, there's just always been something about the voices of the Finn Brothers that isn't easily replicated. Add that to a nice 2 hour cruise in the harbor of San Diego, and even without Eddie and Neil, the show was beyond worthwhile.






Bret Adams accompanied Tim on this particular night.






As Tim went into a final song, the tour manager came and knelt next to me and I asked if I could have a setlist at the end of the show. When it did end, two über fans jumped into the area that he played and, I'm not kidding, were trying to wrestle the set list out of the tour manager's hands. He explained that the band keeps one list and told them he'd already promised one for me, but it was almost frightening seeing two middle aged men going apeshit. It didn't help later when the autograph line kept moving locations, and the same two started in the front of the line and ended up in the end.

That setlist is not completely accurate because Tim threw in a couple requests, including "Six months in a leaky boat" to stay with a nautical theme. To wind down the night, as the boat pulled in to dock, we got a fireworks show from Petco Park that were illuminating the night sky and drew attention to the evening's full moon that finally broke out of the clouds. And with that, I was off the boat and off to the Casbah.