The Frames with Swell Season
May 5, 2008
The Uptown Theater
by PENNY LaROCQUE
OK, I admit it: I cried at the end of Once. Glen Hansard’s portrayal of a broken-hearted Dublin busker wrenched my heart right out of my chest cavity. I wanted him to get the girl. To have the music engineer respect him, damn it! And Marketa Irglova’s piano-playing flower seller character … a resolute single mom trying to make her way in a new country! Sigh. What a cute couple – why wouldn’t she just give him a chance?
When I found out Hansard and Irglova (who hooked up during the filming, yay!) would be performing at the Uptown as The Swell Season alongside Hansard’s band the Frames, I wanted to be there, but I was nervous. It’s risky seeing a band that’s riding the coattails of an Oscar win. What if they suck? What if all they do is perform the soundtrack?
Turns out there was nothing to worry about. For one thing, the Frames have been around for almost 20 years and enjoy cult status in Ireland; they’ve got more than just a soundtrack to draw from. Beyond that, Glen Hansard is a Stage Presence. If he hadn’t sung a single note, the sold-out crowd would likely have been just as content to hear him talk. Hansard’s got a quirky story for every song. Seriously: who’d have thought “This Low” was inspired by an Irish ghost-busting couple who encountered a pair of angst-ridden teens who were burned at the stake and have been hanging out in limbo for the past 500 years?
While Hansard was passionate and engaging, Irglova was demure in a black shirt and red polka-dot skirt. She rarely spoke, and when she did, she said only what was absolutely necessary. But the crowd adored her. Watching them sing duets reminded me of Reese Witherspoon as June Carter and Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line – she the delicate doll, he the fiery showman.
Along with songs from the soundtrack, ("Falling Slowly", "Drown Out", "Once", "When Your Mind’s Made Up", "Leave", "Sleeping", "Lies") the band returned for an hour-long encore that featured an a capella solo by bassist Joseph Doyle and a piece called "The Blue Shoes" performed by violinist Colm MacConlomaire, who dedicated the song to “the people of the south wind.” The encore also included Hansard and Irglova performing the Pixies’ “Cactus” and a momentary digression into the Willie Wonka song “Pure Imagination.” The band closed with a religious tune, “Pulling on the Red Cord That Pulls You Back to Me Lord” and transitioned into Van Morrison’s “Here Comes the Night.” Everyone sang along.
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