16 May 2026 – Brisbane Entertainment Centre – words and pictures by Bec Harbour
One of the acts I was most excited to see at Bluesfest was Split Enz – so when Blues went belly up and no Brisbane side-shows scheduled I wrote it off as a band I would never get to see.
But out of the ashes of Blues, Brisbane got a side-show – hurrah!
Brisbane Entertainment Centre had a generous line-up outside when I arrived with people heading immediately to merch to grab t-shirts and tote bags with neon green logos for the band. People immediately headed for their seats to be ready for the support – Vika and Linda who have been around a long time and are part of the fabric of Australian music.
Dressed in bright white suits, Vika and Linda’s voices carried to the vast arena’s corners opening with a Paul Kelly cover ‘Be Careful What You Pray For’. They ran us through a best of career highlights and the crowd loved it. They talked about listening to Split Enz with their parents in the car on road trips and how childhood dreams do come true about touring with your heroes. ‘Pigface and Calendula’, a Black Sorrows cover ‘Never Let You Go’ and a song inspired by their love of ABBA ‘Bliss’ all made it into the set.
Vika & Linda – BEC – photos by Bec Harbour
A quick change over while punters stood up and stretched and grabbed drinks and food. I was thinking about the set, what would they play? There are so many Split Enz songs that I knew that were released as singles, never mind the deep cuts.
Finally, the lights dimmed and an odd satin covered figure appeared on stage right – it bobbed about and then disappeared. Then a larger satin covered thing appeared and shuffled closer to the front of the stage – the crowd were mystified! Then the satin was pulled off and the band appeared from underneath all looking like they were having the best joke. They all took their places on stage and clicked into the first song ‘Shark Attack’ then Tim Finn addressed the Brisbane crowd, telling them it had been 19 years since they’d played here, there were probably some children here that had been conceived since then. They also talked about how Brisbane embraced them first and gave them their first top 10.
Split Enz – BEC – photos by Bec Harbour
They then struck the opening notes of ‘History Never Repeats’ and the crowd went off, singing along and dancing in their chairs. The first of a few songs from the album True Colours, ‘Poor Boy’ was played then on into ‘Nobody Takes Me Seriously Anyway’, ‘Give It a Whirl’ and ‘Dirty Creature’.
The band was introduced by Tim; Noel Crombie (percussion), Eddie Raynor (keys), Neil Finn (guitar) and touring members James Milne (with his pointy bass) and drummer Matt Eccles. And the hits kept coming, ‘Time For a Change’, ‘One Step Ahead’ and ‘Missing Person’.
Split Enz – BEC – photos by Bec Harbour
There was some discourse from Neil regarding a walk around the Brisbane River and encountering Felons Brewing and the number of eateries playing doof – Tim chimed in and added an anecdote about one of Split Enz first gigs, that they were asked not to come back as they were disrupting peoples digestion at the restaurant they were playing at – somewhere in there, the Finn brothers worked out what they wanted to say and it was something about music and digestion. Neil then kicked off my favourite Split Enz song, ‘Message To My Girl’. We had a quick succession of songs ‘Double Happy’, ‘Stuff and Nonsense’ and ‘Matinee Idyll’ (I think – I am yet to not recognise a song tonight).
The oompah of ‘My Mistake’ had the crowd almost on its feet and the crowd were singing along almost drowning out the band. A couple more songs, ‘Pioneer’ and ‘Hard Act to Follow’ then we were onto the final three, three of their biggest mind you – ‘Six Months In A Leaky Boat’, ‘I Got You’ and ‘I See Red’. And with that Split Enz left the stage.
Split Enz – BEC – photos by Bec Harbour
Not for long (you can always tell when they are coming back as the house lights don’t go on) and they all bounced back on stage and we got three more. These were ‘Spellbound’, the beautiful haunting ‘I Hope I Never’ and closing out on ‘Strait Old Line’.
I don’t think a single person walked out of Brisbane Entertainment Centre disappointed by tonight, they got a hit song, jam packed set, a few deeper cuts and some solid entertainment from a band, whose sound is evergreen and looked to be having the best time tonight. For a kid who was raised on Countdown – I also had the best time seeing a band who I was introduced to there!
Split Enz – BEC – photos by Bec Harbour
