A packed Hersheypark Stadium welcomed blues and folk singer Hozier for his Unreal Unearth Unending concert on Sept. 19.
And though Hozier has traveled far from his home in Ireland throughout his career, there was much of the familiar at his central Pennsylvania show.
Opening the show was the band Amble, who like Hozier, also hail from Ireland.
Unlike Hozier, the group is new to the music business, having only formed in 2022. The band’s members only just quit their day jobs last year, and as they’re opening for Hozier, it seems to have worked out well for them.
“Hello Hershey, how ya gettin’ on?” asked the singer at the top of their set. “This is just amazing, thank you so much.”
The group put on a fine show of folk tunes such as “Lonely Island” and “Tonnta,” with fine vocals accompanied well by banjo and mandolin.
“I wanna thank the lads for making it over and joining us on a lot of these shows,” Hozier said about the band. “It’s been an absolute joy to have them.”
If you’re looking for an addition to a stomp-and-holler playlist, you should absolutely check Amble out.
Next was Gigi Perez, an indie pop rocker who recently went viral on TikTok with her hit “Sailor Song.”
Perez and her band rock harder live than you might think from her recorded music. Songs like “Please Be Rude,” “Twister” and “Chemistry” go surprisingly hard in person.
And Perez is a singer with a deceptively wide range and power, while also capturing a sensitive and vulnerable sound. It’s something she has in common with Hozier, and fans of her work should absolutely find a chance to catch her life and really appreciate her precise and beautiful voice.
Perez also abruptly stopped a song just as it was starting, because she noticed someone in the crowd was unwell and asked security to assist.
“Make sure to move your knees [while standing for a long time],” Perez suggested to the audience. “I learned that in choir in high school.”
Hozier thanked Perez for lending “her stunning music, her courageous art, her beautiful soul and incredible voice to this tour.”
“It’s such an honor to be here tonight. Thanks so much to Hozier,” Perez said. “The show you’re about to watch tonight with Hozier is about to change your life. It’s changed my life every single time I’ve seen it.”
Unlike many artists playing stadium concerts, when Hozier hit the stage, he began on a surprisingly mellow note.
The singer is beloved for his sensitive and expressive voice and poetic lyrics, which were immediately on display with the somber “De Selby Part 1.”
The song contains several lyrics in Irish, presented with both Irish and English subtitles. (The Irish language, also called Irish Gaelic, has been historically supresssed and is inherently tied to Irish national identity.)
“Ach tagais ‘nós na hoíche / Trína chéile; Le chéile, claochlaithe”
“But you arrive like nightfall / Mixed up you and I, shape-shifted.”
“De Selby Part 2″ immediately turns into a much more funky, soulful song, and served as a perfect opening for the evening to follow.
“You all feeling good?” Hozier said. “It it so very good to see you here. Thank you so, so much for having us.”
Hozier and Amble also weren’t the only Irish people in attendance.
A few members of the crowd also hailed from the Emerald Isle, including some lovely folks sitting next to me. They’d missed seeing Hozier in Ireland this tour, so came to visit a friend in Annville and took the opportunity to see their fellow County Wicklow native.
Another County Wicklow resident was apparently up front, and held a sign aloft for Hozier to see.
“I’m from Wicklow in Ireland,” Hozier said. “It’s called the Garden County. The garden of Ireland. These signs are amazing.”
He then jokes that “I do find them incredibly distracting though. It’s like playing the gig on hard mode, you know?”
One of my new friends noted that she’d seen Hozier in the early days of his career, in a small venue in Ireland.
And Hozier’s singing in the bluesy “Angel of Small Death,” supported by his excellent backup singers, is probably as close as one can get to that intimate, small-venue experience in a stadium tour.
With his deft vocal control rich, colorful voice, Hozier’s music transitions seamlessly between the folksy “Would That I,” the harder rocking “Too Sweet” and the R&B-infused “Movement.”
He could also land a sustained high note during “Dinner & Diatribes” as easy as you please, to the crowd’s delight.
After a chant from the audience, Hozier called an audible and performed “First Time” by request, noting that “it’s been a minute” since they’d performed it live.
The crowd screamed for hits like “Someone New,” “Too Sweet” and “Take Me To Church” just as much as deeper cuts like “Cherry Wine” (which he performed from the B-stage) and “Oh No.”
And they were as similarly behind his silly asides about chocolate as they were for his statements in support of gay and trans rights, Palestinian statehood and the right of all people to safety and security.
I’m not the first to compare Hozier to a modern-day bard, but his live show certainly combines lyrical poetry, emotional storytelling, homages to a deep musical legacy, and first-rate musicianship.
The show closed with the gospel-infused “Work Song,” as well as another set of impassioned thank-you’s to the crowd and a promise to “see you next time.”