Finn

"This isn't sibling rivalry," said Tim Finn near the end of two hours of wonderful music from the Finn, "this is sibling revelry."

And indeed it was. Mixed amid the gorgeous harmonies, lovely melodies and superb musicianship was a generous portion of loopy humor from Neil and Tim, the New Zealand brothers who have each carved out separate careers in the equally loopy music business. Tim first made his mark with Split Enz, the first New Zealand band to make an imprint outside of the South Pacific island while Neil was the main man in the dear departed Crowded House.

The two have joined forces before: Neil with Split Enz just before that band broke up and Tim with Crowded House just as that band was disintegrating. Now they're together, and it seems like they always should have been.

But the sibling stuff had to be a problem. Neil is much the younger, and was clearly the hanger-on with Split Enz, but then Tim went into eclipse as Crowded House became bigger than Split Enz ever was. Now, however, they meet on relatively equal terms, and the wait has been worth it.

The show at the Fillmore before a sold-out house revealed Neil's purer voice, stronger instrumental skills and better feel for melody as a songwriter. Tim, though, brings Bohemian charm, grittier vocals and an expressive charisma that is the perfect complement to his younger brother.

Add their evocative harmonizing (there's something about siblings that just can't be beat) and off-the-wall humor and you have a show that's bound to succeed. The sold-out house definitely agreed, and "adoring" was too mild a word for the devotion they showered on the brothers Finn. The 22 songs (two encores) and two hours on stage went by without a dry spell as the pair, with no backing band, covered tunes from Split Enz to the latest album.

In fact, perhaps too much of the show came from the Finn release, as there were few familiar tunes to be heard. Still, songs like Tim's "In Love With It All" and new ones like "Niwhai" were highlights, though the more well-known "Chocolate Cake" and "Four Seasons in One Day" received a slightly bigger response.

All the songs, though, sounded better live than they did on record, which was always a strength with Crowded House as well. Shorn of the backing band and extraneous sounds, the harmonies glowed and the melodies shone -- and the Finn brothers have plenty of both to go around.

They also produced plenty of sound, with Neil handling most of the guitar and piano work while Tim alternated between percussion and acoustic guitar. (Tim did get a few songs in on piano, including one in which he backed Neil's attempt at a serious ballad with a series of arpeggios straight out of the Liberace songbook.)

Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a long collaboration between the two siblings -- who should set aside whatever rivalry there might have been and focus on the revelry that they deliver so effortlessly when they're together.

Ron Sexsmith opened the show with the same haircut as Neil Finn but not nearly the vocal control. His nine-song set was pleasant, except for occasionally nasal, off-pitch excursions in his upper register.

His songs were uniformly slow and mournful, and one person at our table took the opportunity to take a brief nap during his 35 minutes on stage -- and didn't miss much.