Everyone has a favourite Hans Zimmer tune, whether you realise it or not.
For decades, the legendary German film score composer and producer has pumped out music for cinema’s great films. From small, British independent flicks to blockbuster franchises, box-office dynamite.
Zimmer’s strike rate is frightening.
Chris Nolan’s brilliant “Dark Knight” trilogy would slip a notch without Zimmer’s burly, brassy notes. Russell Crowe won his first and only Oscar for his muscular performance as Maximus, a role that can’t be imagined without the haunting “Gladiator”soundtrack behind it. The “Dune” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, “The Last Samurai”, “The Lion King”, “Dunkirk“, Interstellar, all immeasurably improved by their respective scores.
On a wet Thursday night, Zimmer brought that cinematic music to life as his five-date east coast arena tour got underway at Brisbane Entertainment Centre.
Zimmer doesn’t do things in halves.
When the curtains raise on the opening number, “House Atreides,” from Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” epic, the packed house got an eyeful (and earful). A staged stacked with musicians. Zimmer heads into battle with two drummers, multiple percussionists and bass players, a strings quartet, a brass section. Bagpipes, even. A mix of traditional and modern instruments, with a few hybrids. And a monster modular computer at the back, a throwback to Zimmer’s early work with analogue synthesizers.
The conductor and boss, Zimmer opens at the front wielding a guitar, wearing a leather jacket. An unlikely rock star. The 67-year-old artist is constantly on the move, switching from upright keyboard to the electric keys, synths and guitars (electric and acoustic, six and four strings).
“It’s our first gig in forever”, Zimmer explains. Well, six years to be precise. He’s also “knackered,” no doubt jetlagged from a journey to the Sunshine State that included stops in Cape Town and Dubai.
The set, separated by a brief interval, covers many of the big numbers. From “Wonder Woman” to “Man of Steel”, “Pirates”, and of, course, “Interstellar”, “Inception” and “The Lion King”, with Lebo M on vocal duties.
One of the evening’s finest moments has an Australia touch, when Dead Can Dance co-founder Lisa Gerrard reunites with Zimmer for a spellbinding performance of “Now We Are Free”, from “Gladiator”. Twenty-five years ago, Zimmer invited Gerrard to Los Angeles to work on the project. A three-day project turned into three months, and a lifetime friendship.
Zimmer is the glue the holds the show together. From casting the spotlight to his bandmates and crew, storytelling and a few gags.
Pounding through a Batman classic featuring three bass guitars, Zimmer quips, “the German in me thinks you can never have enough bass.” With all that bottom-end, “we’re on the edge of minimalism”.
Zimmer has a confession to make. “I’ve done a lot of movies, a lot of not so good movies, and some of them are complete dogs”, he recounts. One of those mutts was “Dark Phoenix”. Excellent score, as he would prove. “I hope you never saw it.”
Later, he remarks, “When I said the other movie was a bit dodgy, this one isn’t”. And with that, he launches into a classic from “Interstellar”.
Nolan’s 2014 sci-fi favourite “Interstellar” is one of more than 500 projects that Zimmer has scored across all mediums, which have, combined, grossed more than $28 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. His work has been recognised with two Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, five Grammys, an American Music Award, and a Tony Award. There are no signs he’ll stop anytime soon.
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On Thursday night, Zimmer lands the biggest cheers, and laughs, of the three-hour show with his one and only political comment.
“I’m very proud that everybody on this stage comes from a nation that Donald Trump hates”, he remarks. With dozens of artists on hand to prove his point, he thrusts the mic into the face of a percussionist from Slovenia, the birthplace of the First Lady.
“Oh, fuck that’s right”, he admits. A rare error. “There’s something about beautiful people that are utterly despised by the Trump administration”.
At the 13,000-capacity BEC on Thursday night, there were no suckers or losers in the house. Just winners.
The “Hans Zimmer Live” tour moves on to Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on Saturday, April 26 and wraps-up Wednesday, April 30 at Rod Laver Arena.
Hans Zimmer Live
Thursday, 24th April
Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Saturday, 26th April
Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney
Sunday, 27th April
Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney
Tuesday, 29th April
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Wednesday, 30th April
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Produced by Frontier Touring, Semmel Concerts and RCI Global
Tickets at frontiertouring.com/hanszimmerlive and Ticketek.