Live Review: Eddie Rayner's ENZO: The Songs Of Split Enz

As we perch outside Hamer Hall enjoying some fresh air before descending into the venue, Funky Bunny - the much-loved busker who featured on Australia's Got Talent and sports a bunny costume while playing bass - plays a stirring rendition of I Got You by Split Enz, expertly tapping into tonight's demographic before Arts Centre staff move him on.  

Inside Hamer Hall, Frenz Of The Enz gather in front of framed photos of Split Enz from their heyday sporting various wacky Noel Crombie-designed ensembles. This serves as a reminder that the world wasn't ready for this of way-ahead-of-their-time New Zealand band.   

Tonight's version of Eddie Rayner's ENZO: The Songs Of Split Enz comes to us more than 20 years since the Split Enz keyboardist first conceived, produced and arranged EnzSo, which married his former band's songs with NZ Symphony Orchestra. This time around, the Split Enz songs are presented by a scaled-down orchestra - 13 musicians rather than 130 - plus three vocalists: Rikki Morris, Phil Madsen and Rima Te Wiata (we'll never forget her luminous turn as Bella in Hunt For The Wilderpeople).

After the orchestra and bandleader Eddie Rayner takes the stage, we soak up instrumental opener, Albert Of India. It's delightfully exotic and we immediately admire Rayner's old-gold brocade suit, which he later reveals comes courtesy of House Of Crombie designs. Rayner 'conducts' from his piano stool with head nods and carefully directed eyebrow raises. The vocalists often express their delight with being gifted these extraordinary compositions to sing this evening and all three are clearly Split Enz fans.

Te Wiata takes the mic for The Devil You Know, which Rayner introduces as a Neil Finn song he believes to be one of the songwriter's most underrated. After the song, Rayner acknowledges Finn as a master of lyricism, melody writing and guitar playing. Before I See Red, Madsen is given an opportunity to show off his unique party trick: he takes a saxophone solo sans instrument and does so convincingly before almost choking then laughing. Madsen later explains he had plenty of time to hone this skill during milk runs, because the truck didn't have a horn and so he was called upon by his boss to announce their arrival. Various horn sound effects then developed into replicating this brass instrument since he was never fortunate enough to own a saxophone. I See Red is given a wonderfully discordant, dynamically schizophrenic arrangement although the orchestra seem out of whack at one point.

Rayner reminds us that Finn was only 17 years old when he joined Split Enz. He also explains that the last track before intermission was written together with the "genius" Phil Judd. This super-proggy song is delivered in a most theatrical fashion by Te Wiata, who expresses she's delighted to be given the opportunity to sing this one and uses her tangerine cloak to great effect.

When Rayner returns to the stage after intermission, he's modelling another exquisite suit and thanks Crombie for dressing him this evening, pointing out the Split Enz percussionist/costume designer is in attendance together with his wife Sally. Rayner says hearing Tim Finn sing 129 - or Matinee Idyll (129), depending when you discovered the tune - inspired him to join the band. Michael Barker is a standout on drums and comes out from behind his drum kit to play a killer spoon solo during Strait Old Line. As well as Barker, the musicians Rayner has assembled are extraordinary, especially Brett Adams on guitar.

Rayner tells us Stuff And Nonsense was composed in Richard Branson's studio then "buried" on an album because word on the street was that ballads didn't get played on the radio. We then learn that Edible Flowers was written during one of the last jam sessions by Split Enz where the directive was that nobody would bring in any song ideas. He then tells us the Finns "snaffled" this song, adding he also recorded a version.  

It's a highlight of the EnzSo release and Dirty Creature absolutely blows our faces off tonight. Te Wiata's delivery is terrifying and the orchestration shimmers, members of the string section smiling broadly as they produce their parts. Rayner introduces Message To My Girl as "the best song Neil ever wrote", before Morris goes one louder, declaring it one of the best songs ever written, right up there with The Beatles. Madsen dedicates I Hope I Never to his mum, touchingly sharing it was the last song he ever sang to her. Yep, we all get something in our eye and the song's chord progressions open the floodgates for real. Shark Attack in the hands of Te Wiata is suitably terrifying and she even goes so far as to finish the song with one hand on top of her head to recreate a shark fin. Introduced by Rayner as "the song that saved our asses back in the 1980s", I Got You is eerie, wonky and wonderful.

We score an encore and Six Months In A Leaky Boat is given "an edgy calypso feel" after that epic piano intro - this song really is like a complete musical condensed into a single song. The ensemble closes proceedings with My Mistake and it's a double thumbs-up from this audience that is mainly comprised of Frenz Of The Enz, whether or not they've kept their subscriptions up to date. A fitting celebration of a band we've hoped will re-form for a full tour since their stunning one-off reunion performance at Sound Relief back in 2009.