We have Johnny Marr and Pharrell Williams to thank. The two musical juggernauts convinced Hans Zimmer to hit the road, to leave the dark room, play live, and connect with audiences. For the last few years, composer Hans Zimmer has done just that, thanks to Marr and Pharrell’s advice. On stage, Zimmer and his 40+ band are a cinematic force of nuanced bombast.
Zimmer needs no introduction to film nerds or casual moviegoers, but why not recount a few of the man’s many, many classic scores? The Lion King, Thelma & Louise, True Romance, Inception, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, and, in recent years, the Dune films and The Dark Knight trilogy. We could go on and on, but let’s just conclude with the fun fact that he was in The Buggles and appeared in the first music video to play on MTV, “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
Zimmer’s career is vast, yet it only feels like it’s just getting started, especially as the composer tours and seems to be having the time of his life. Watching this man, eyes closed and smiling like a kid as he plays piano, is a sight to behold. When a bandmate plays a solo, what does Zimmer do? At one point in his two-night Los Angeles stint, he literally pulled up a chair to watch, listen, and appreciate his bandmate’s music.
Let it be known: few live performers appreciate their crew and band as vocally as Zimmer does. How many artists detail a crew’s arduous schedule? In packed stadiums, he lets people know that composing may be a sometimes lonely job, but he’s far from alone in making the magic happen.
The concert lasted over three hours. Toward the end, Zimmer was clearly given the “wrap it up” signal, as his mic cut for a beat, and he assured those keeping time, “Just one more song!” That last song was “Time” from Inception, and watching the lights dim as Hans hit the final notes on the piano was just beautiful.
It was a thrilling, melancholic finish to an otherwise joyous experience. Even when the band played a track from X-Men: Dark Phoenix, the crowd was more than into it. Yes, an odd song choice on paper, considering all of Zimmer’s classics, but he cited it as an example of a song where he gets to be a little more punk rock. A movie nobody saw, which Zimmer noted without mentioning the film’s title, but a surprising upside of failure? Nobody’s there to see it, he joked.
And joke he did!
Zimmer has three sides to him on stage: consummate composer and music man, a smiley leather-jacket-wearing rock star, and your genial uncle who somehow ended up on stage in front of 15,000 people and wants to crack a few jokes to break the ice. As a live performer, similar to his scores, he’s got different shades.
The setlist was often paced and presented with the bravura of a mega-blockbuster. When playing tracks from Dune, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and Pirates of the Caribbean, there was no time to be shy. The visuals were big but never overwhelming, perfectly matching the goosebump-inducing sound.
There was an ebb and flow to the night, like Zimmer was telling a story. Action and adventure, romance, tragedy—it was all there in the setlist. It was all there in the performances, too, which were often emotional, visceral, and physical. Look no further than cellist Tina Guo, whose thunderous playing could inspire an army to conquer the world. Everyone in the band didn’t just play the music, they embodied it.
Songs from The Lion King brought audience members right back to grade school, while The Last Samurai moved listeners to the bone. Like the best films Zimmer composes, the night was full of adventure, drama, and levity that sent folks out of the theater on the kind of high that lasts far beyond any runtime. On this tour, Zimmer and his band told an epic story of how to burn a roof down.
Here’s the setlist:
House Atreides (Intro)
Mombasa (Inception)
Wonder Woman Suite: Part 1
Wonder Woman Suite: Part 2
Wonder Woman Suite: Part 3
Man of Steel Suite: Part 1 “What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving The World?”
Man of Steel Suite: Part 2
Gladiator Suite: Part 1
Gladiator Suite: Part 2
Gladiator Suite: Part 3 (with Lisa Gerrard)
Gladiator Suite: Part 4 (with Lisa Gerrard)
Pirates of the Caribbean Suite: Part 1 “Jack Sparrow”
Pirates of the Caribbean Suite: Part 2 “Jack Sparrow
A Time of Quiet Between the Storms (Dune: Part Two)
The Dark Knight Suite: Part 1
The Dark Knight Suite: Part 2
The Last Samurai Suite: Part 1
The Last Samurai Suite: Part 2
The Last Samurai Suite: Part 3
Dark Phoenix / Dunkirk
Paul’s Dream
Interstellar Suite: Part 1
Interstellar Suite: Part 2
The Lion King Suite: Part 1 “He Lives in You” (with Lebo M)
The Lion King Suite: Part 2 (with Lebo M)
The Lion King Suite: Part 3 (with Lebo M)
P.S. If anyone should have a residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas, it’s Zimmer and his band.