Live Review: Hans Zimmer @ 3Arena

The set-up at 3Arena looks like a typical rock gig just before showtime; bass and guitar amps, drum kit and keyboards, tech guys running back and forth eagerly line-checking instruments. But tonight, there’s something different in store...

The band walks on-stage to the rhythmic beats of drum sticks as a casual-looking frontman dressed in his evening best glides in from stage right. Hans Zimmer graciously acknowledges the Arena’s capacity audience and opens with an uplifting clarinet-driven piece from Driving Miss Daisy. As the band crescendos, the curtain rises revealing a full brass and string section, to the wild applause of the crowd.

Two years ago in London’s Hammersmith Apollo, Hans Zimmer road tested the idea of touring his film score music with full orchestra in tow. The concept was a hit and paved the way for tonight’s show where any creaks have been ironed out to glorious musical effect. In fact, little has changed since the London date, and it’s for the good.

The modern-day virtuoso takes us on a journey from his early scores right up to his work in more recent years on films like The Da Vinci Code and Pirates of The Caribbean. Despite his stately look, Hans Zimmer is a rocker at heart. When the music stops, the German-born composer looks awkward in relative terms – almost lost, in truth. Yet this just seems to draw the audience in to the man and his musical vision.

Such is his success, Zimmer is now mentioned in the same breath as composers such as John Williams and Thomas Newman, although his modest nature belies his vast and ever-expanding contribution to music. What Zimmer lacks in rock star chops, he makes up for in sheer enthusiasm. He has some moving words for the late Tony Scott as he introduces the theme for the director’s hit film Crimson Tide. The curtain rises again, this time to reveal the UCD Choral Scholars, who effortlessly take the music to near unearthliness.

Tonight, we’re 'at the movies', as Zimmer introduces music from Disney’s The Lion King to Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes – and the pictures aren’t missed for a moment. The music is always front and centre, as Zimmer pays homage to his musicians, most of whom have played on all his scores over the years: “Without the orchestra there is silence,” says the mild mannered maestro. This is a man and his passion. He tells the crowd that he works "9 to 5 – that’s 5 in the morning by the way, and it never feels like work!"

After the interval, it’s True Romance, with Zimmer himself playing timpani, just for the heck of it. This is a man in the moment. Yet another massive theme is introduced; the music from Terrence Mallick’s war epic The Thin Red Line. Now, for the first time, moving images fall in with the music to transport the audience somewhere dark, yet extraordinary. A dotted red line gradually becomes solid as the music builds and the tension rises. Suddenly the line fills the screen with red and appears to engulf the orchestra in blood, as the music hits emotional highs that perhaps only an orchestra can.

Zimmer leaves the music of visionary director Chris Nolan’s films – Batman, Inception and Interstellar – to last, as he introduces his long-time friend, collaborator and proper rocker Johnny Marr, who works up some frenzied magic with the orchestra.

Tonight is a game changer. 3Arena witnessed a musical event that perhaps wouldn’t have worked 10 or 15 years ago, but in today’s musical climate it simply took off – and it’s a treasure to behold.