Andrew Hozier Byrne, known by his stage name, Hozier, made famous for his single “Take me to Church” showed last Wednesday night that he is more than just a one hit wonder, with a performance at the Riv that will be one hard to forget.

The folksy blues singer has seen amazing success in the last couple months, he has played his famous hit at the Victoria Secret Show and the Grammys.

At the concert on Wednesday he did not come out to his crowd pleasing hit, instead he came out playing his haunting song, “Angel of Small Death & The Codeine Scene.”  His voice projected with such power through the venue making every word he sang resonate with the crowd.

He spoke a lot during the performance, proclaiming his love of Chicago, citing Chicago blues as the reason he started to play music. With this proclamation in tribute to Chicago blues he covered Skip James’s song, “Illinois Blues”.

To close his main set he finally played his crowd pleasing “Take Me to Church,” and everyone in the venue was singing “Amen!”  For his encore, he and his band had some fun playing “Problems” by Ariana Grande.  He closed with the quiet and endearing song “Cherry Wine”.
Overall Hozier’s performance was even more than expected; he talked to the crowd throughout the show, making it a very intimate performance, and his voice sounded even better than it does on the radio.

Hozier loves Chicago and the city clearly loves him back.  He is coming back to play a sold-out show at Pritzker Pavilion on June 10.