“Good to see you and hear you, Bristow!”
That’s how Hozier opened his concert in Virginia last week. The Jiffy Lube Live Stadium was filled with thousands of fans, who braved rain and mud to watch the sets on September 16th and 17th, 2025. Hozier played songs from his latest album as well as previous hits from the past decade.
“I had the time of my life,” said CHS junior Jane Friesen, who attended night one. “Hozier was really good live and he talked to the audience a lot.”
Unreal Unearth, Hozier’s third studio album, is the focus of his current tour. It’s also loosely based on Dante’s Inferno. Several songs on the album reference Dante’s ideas of different circles of hell, including the single ‘Francesca’. It’s gotten mostly positive reviews from critics. The album also topped the Rock and Alternative charts for a full year after its release, inspiring the yearlong Unreal Unearth 2025 tour.
On Hozier’s second night in Virginia, the atmosphere was excited. Gigi Perez opened the concert with her hit Sailor Song, showing off her strong live vocal range. Once Hozier came on stage, the crowd got even louder, clapping and singing along to his opening number, ‘De Selby (Part 1)’.
The next song ‘Eat Your Young’, an antiwar single from Unreal Unearth, stood out for its impressive lighting and projections. During the song, Hozier’s team used the concert lights to project the rising stock price of Lockheed Martin over the last fifteen years, as well as the number of children worldwide who have been displaced by conflict. I really liked this choice. It was gutsy, and it represented the song’s idea that ‘if there’s money to be made… it’s quicker and easier to eat your young’.
A lot of artists will use clips from their music videos or basic lights for their performances on tour, but making them an interesting part of the performance is much more impressive. “It was my favorite performance of the concert,” said Jane Friesen.
I really enjoyed Hozier’s performance of his idealist love song ‘Jackie and Wilson’ as well. Drummer Amanda Brown was great, but the music wasn’t even the most important event of the song. Halfway through, a cheer went up near the stage, and the crowd realized two concertgoers had just gotten engaged. The pit cleared a space for them to wave at Hozier, showing off a new ring. Hozier wished the two of them well and said he would do his best to attend their wedding.
Over the rest of the concert, a few performances stood out to me as the best. ‘Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene’ was really impressive. The song is from Hozier’s first album, and a minute-long electric guitar solo at the concert elevated the already catchy song to a great performance. Hozier’s backup singers led the crowd in a clap pattern and the audience danced along to it.
‘Swan Upon Leda’ was also excellent. The single was a standout from Unreal Unearth’s expanded edition, and it was one of the best performances at the concert. The song compares women’s struggles with oppression in ancient mythology with modern abortion restrictions in the United States and Hozier’s home country of Ireland. He addresses reproductive rights by comparing women in America to Leda, a character from Greek mythology, who is forced to bear a child. Singing along seemed cathartic for many concertgoers. The string section of Hozier’s band, which featured a cello and violin, got a chance to star in ‘Swan Upon Leda’ with an emotional solo.
An older Hozier song, ‘Cherry Wine’, was very memorable at the concert as well. The quiet performance created a hush and set the mood of the song before any of the lyrics. I thought this was fitting for a thoughtful and tragic song about a woman’s experience with domestic violence.
Hozier’s willingness to tackle difficult subjects like women’s oppression and abuse is a big part of why he’s popular, and I appreciated that he included those songs in the concert. You don’t see Ed Sheeran singing about that on tour.
The show ended with “Take Me to Church”, an early single that shot Hozier to fame. Everyone in the band took a well-deserved bow during a standing ovation from the audience. To even more applause, Hozier brought out two pride flags to drape over his mic stand, and thanked the crowd for being there despite the rain. “I really liked when he brought out the pride flags,” Jane Friesen said. “It was so fire.”
Clearly, dealing with rain, mud and Ticketmaster was a small price to pay for the concert. Hozier was very good live, especially with some of his biggest hits from the new album. His tour will continue on the West Coast. Maybe it will even include the two concertgoers’ wedding in Bristow, Virginia.
