‘Too Sweet’ singer Hozier delivers powerful show at Dos Equis Pavilion in Dallas
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It felt appropriate that Hozier’s concert in Dallas on Sunday night was at an outdoor venue. It doesn’t feel right to sing along with the “Take Me to Church” singer in an arena or a bar; you need the open air to welcome the chants and anthemic choruses of the audience.
When Hozier sings, it feels like his songs are tactile, carbon-based things that sprung fully formed out of the earth beneath your feet.
The Dos Equis Pavilion amphitheater was packed, from the back lawn to the front seats, with fans (many looking dressed for the Scarborough Renaissance Faire instead of Fair Park) singing along to his every word and enjoying the humid night air.
“It’s a bit warm tonight, isn’t it? Warm in Texas, huh,” the Irishman joked after performing “It Will Come Back.” But as the sun set and the fog rolled in, the night got cooler, setting the mood for Andrew Hozier-Byrne’s brand of socially conscious, moody blues and folk rock.
Hozier’s songs always feel synonymous with liminal seasons, when flowers are either in bloom or dying, when there’s peace with something coming to an end or when there’s hope for renewal. Much of his songs are about the creatures that inhabit the earth; his latest album is called “Unreal Unearth,” with album art showing his entire face buried in dirt, except for his mouth, biting a flower in his teeth.
Many of the songs from the set list Sunday focused on that earthy quality, especially as it pertains to love. “When my time comes around/Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth/No grave can hold my body down/I’ll crawl home to her,” he sings in “Work Song,” a cut from his debut self-titled album.
The characters in his songs burn, they pine, they perish — not just for the love of another person, but for the love of the earth they inhabit. It’s all related. For Hozier, love isn’t just an emotion to be felt, but an action to be performed that requires all of your senses. And, especially in the protest songs from his 2019 album “Wasteland, Baby!”, there is no greater love than a belief in people’s potential to make a better world to live in.
‘Too Sweet’
Hozier kicked off the night with the first two tracks from “Unreal Unearth,” partially sung in Irish Gaelic. After a brief throwback to his debut album with “Jackie and Wilson,” he wasted no time moving to his first No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100: “Too Sweet.”
He didn’t even have to sing the chorus, because the audience did it for him. A snippet from the song has gone viral as the sound for a TikTok trend where users post photos of themselves before and after their glow-ups. Some of the videos are thirst traps, but most are showcases for how much people have changed for the better over the years. Again, there’s that theme of potential for growth.
Despite some technical issues with instrument feedback and the microphone levels on the first few songs, the rest of the nearly two-hour show went smoothly. A full band including multiple background vocalists, a pianist, cellist and a violinist filled the stage to aid Hozier in leading a concert that was as much call-and-response as it was a performance.
“I give that five ‘yeehaws’ out of five,” he said after the audience sang along to an acoustic version of “From Eden” in its entirety. And when the audience took over the “Whoa-ooh, whoa-ooh” duties for the chorus of “Would That I,” he joked again: “You guys had your yeehaw juice today.”
There wasn’t a song the audience didn’t know, it seemed. Once his 2013 hit “Take Me To Church” came around to close out the regular set, it felt like everyone singing along was only warming up for this moment. As the song’s music video played in the background, showing the violent persecution of two gay men, a pride flag unfurled from the microphone stand. The cheers, shouts and singalongs could probably be heard for miles.
That song, both a protest of the Catholic Church’s stance on gay marriage and a celebration of devotion via religious language, became an LGBTQ rights anthem almost immediately after it was released. That song fit the theme for the night, as Grammy-nominated folk artist opener Allison Russell spoke from the stage about voting rights, womens’ rights and the Israeli-Palestinian war.
Before Hozier played “Nina Cried Power,” a protest anthem and the penultimate song of the night, he called for a ceasefire in Gaza and spoke at length about the power of protest (specifically on college campuses) and the things we have now that we owe to protests: his own native country’s independence from British occupation; the concept of a weekend; a woman’s right to open a bank account.
But talk of current events didn’t dampen the mood. Hozier led the audience in not one, but two, “Happy Birthday” singalongs for members of his crew, whom he thanked profusely, along with his band. He ended the night thanking the audience for being here, and even though every artist does that, I got the sense that he genuinely meant it.
For Hozier, there’s always work to do on this earth, but it’s also important to enjoy it while we’re here.
HOZIER SET LIST, DOS EQUIS PAVILION, DALLAS TEXAS (APRIL 28, 2024)
De Selby (Part 1)
De Selby (Part 2)
Jackie and Wilson
Too Sweet
To Be Alone
Dinner & Diatribes
Francesca
It Will Come Back
Unknown/Nth
From Eden (Acoustic)
Wildflower and Barley (with Allison Russell)
Like Real People Do
Abstract (Psychopomp)
Would That I
Almost (Sweet Music)
Eat Your Young
Movement
Take Me to Church
Encore
Cherry Wine (Acoustic; from the crowd)
Nina Cried Power
Work Song (with Allison Russell)
