Performing against a blue starry night backdrop, Irish sensation Hozier, joined by opener Amble, electrified Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
The evening commenced with a performance from Robbie Cunningham, Oisín McCaffrey and Ross McNerney from the folk group Amble. The group was joined by backup instrumentalists who performed with various unconventional instruments including a banjo and a harmonium. The significant part of this group is that all of the members had quit their jobs to go on tour with Hozier, a commitment that did not go unnoticed.
The band formed in 2022 and signed with Warner Records in 2024. Just a year later, Amble joined Hozier on his Unreal Unearth tour.
At one point, Cunningham dubbed Hozier fans “the best fans in the world,” a statement the audience cheered loudly for. Their final song, “Tonnta,” blanketed the room in warm harmonies that set the tone for the night ahead.
Andrew Hozier-Byrne, known professionally as Hozier, took the stage under beams of blue light, his silhouette complementing his melodic vocals. Playing the guitar, Hozier started his set with his song “De Selby (Part 1)” from his latest album “Unreal Unearth.” Though a slower song, the crowd erupted at the first chords Hozier played on his guitar, his loose fitting clothes flowing under the wind of the venue’s ceiling fans.
Part of “De Selby (Part 1)” is sung in Irish Gaelic, with its translation projected on the big screen along with visuals of half-moon tambourines, album imagery and translucent soldier figurines.
Hozier also took a moment to educate his fans on his experiences learning Irish Gaelic. He shared that in Ireland, he studied the Irish language throughout school, but it wasn’t until he was older that he began taking the language seriously. He even shared his fascination with the way the Irish language has many different ways to say the same words.
“There’s a book called ‘Thirty-Two Words for Field’ — there are 32 words for different kinds of fields! And ‘ladybird’ translates to ‘God’s tiny cow,’” he said. While he performed in 80 degree weather, Hozier cracked a joke about the unbearable heat in Phoenix, “There’s three chilis in the weather (app) tonight,” he said. Despite having to bear the heat, he seemed fascinated by the city’s crowd and name, “You sound amazing Phoenix. Cool name, Phoenix, kinda cool to be named after a mythical bird that can’t die.”
(Photo by Vanessa Cantu)
Besides delivering beautiful performances, Hozier used his time on stage to use his music for activism. During his performance of “Eat Your Young,” Hozier utilized visuals of the statistics of children being displaced due to conflict and violence, death due to armed conflicts, global military spending, the Lockheed Martin share price and more.
Hozier is long known for using his music to speak out about issues that matter to him. All the way back to his first album in 2014, Hozier released his debut single “Take Me to Church,” which spoke out about homosexuality in the institution of the Roman Catholic church. In his performance of the song, Hozier played clips of his music video displaying the romance between two men and their struggle to combat homophobia.
(Photo courtesy of Tainá Queiroz Fonseca)
After his performance of “Take Me to Church,” Hozier and his instrumentalists left the stage, leaving the crowd wondering if the show was over. However, a few moments later Hozier appeared amongst the crowd with a guitar in hand, and performed “Cherry Wine.”
(Photo courtesy of Tainá Queiroz Fonseca)
Near the end of the concert, with background music setting the tone for his speech, Hozier shared his message with the crowd to never take their rights for granted.
“This is something that I’d like you to internalize and be very proud of,” Hozier said. “That the civil rights movement that took place here in the 1960s directly inspired a civil rights movement that happened shortly afterwards in the north of Ireland.”
Hozier encouraged his fans to never take any rights for granted, including union rights, women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights and free speech.
“It’s so important to remember how much had to be worked for for us to enjoy those every single day and not take those for granted,” Hozier said.
Toward the end of the night, Hozier performed one of his biggest hits and emotionally deep songs, the “Work Song,” closing the night with a heartfelt tune and covering the crowd with a wave of nostalgia we didn’t even know was there.