Hozier Honors Irish Heritage With Stunning Van Morrison Cover At Fenway Park

Hozier pulled into Boston’s Fenway Park on Monday for his first of two shows at the historic ballpark. The Irish singer-songwriter nodded to the city’s strong and enduring connection to his home country by premiering a full-band arrangement of Van Morrison's “Sweet Thing” amid his main set.

Backed by a 10-piece band, Hozier drew nearly equally from each of his three studio albums to form the setlist for his Fenway debut. Seven songs off his latest album, 2023’s Unreal Unearth, made the stage in Boston along with eight cuts from his self-titled 2014 debut record and five that appeared on Wasteland, Baby! in 2019.

After the seventh song of the evening, Hozier stepped to the mic and spoke to the crowd:

“This is a song that’s very close to my heart, I don’t know if there’s any Van Morrison fans in the house? This is actually one that we’ve never played, I’ve never played it in front of an audience. Never played live. But we thought we’d bring a bit more of home to this stage, to Fenway. This is a song called ‘Sweet Thing.'”

While Hozier had never performed the classic song from Van Morrison’s 1968 album Astral Weeks with a full band, he did cover “Sweet Thing” solo acoustic at the 2017 Rockin’ The Roses Spring Benefit Concert in San Francisco, three years after playing the tune by his lonesome for a Naked Noise session.

The Grammy-winning musician had acoustic guitar in hand as he fronted his ensemble on “Sweet Thing” at Fenway. Hozier powerfully channeled Morrison vocally and took a flute solo towards the end of the cover.

Watch Hozier performing Van Morrison’s “Sweet Thing” at Fenway via audience-captured video below:

Later, Hozier wrapped his main set with his breakthrough debut single “Take Me To Church.” He then began the encore on the B Stage for takes on “Cherry Wine” and “Unknown/Nth” before returning to the main stage to perform “Nina Cried Power.” Hozier brought out opener Gigi Perez to assist on his “Work Song” finale.