By: David de Young
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| The Swell Season - Photo by David de Young |
This was a different concert for long time Frames fans than it was for people who have just come to know the Swell Season through their film-spawned success over the past 12 months.
Damien Dempsey and mandolin player John McLoughlin stepped onto the stage to open the Orpheum show Wednesday night. Dempsey joked that Hansard had found the two of them wandering the streets of Dublin in the middle of the night drunk, and when Hansard had first ask them to come along on tour he thought he meant as security detail to help protect Glen from the ladies. In truth, it’s because Dempsey is a fabulous Irish singer/songwriter in his own right with a powerful voice both in the physical and poetic sense. On the song “Choctaw Nation,” Dempsey sings about a group of Choctaw Native-Americans who offered up aid to the Irish during the famine of 1847, and Colm Mac Con lomaire of the Frames joined him on fiddle. Dempsey wasn’t shy about sharing his political views. “I wish, how I wish I could vote in your next election,” he said, going so far as to suggest that he and Senator Barack Obama (who has Irish blood) are homies from way back. Dempsey’s set felt short at 40 minutes and features such favorites as “Your Pretty Smile” and closed with a song called “Love Yourself Today.”
To open the Swell Season set, Glen Hansard emerged on stage alone to play “Say It To Me Now,” the song you are familiar with as the opening song in Once the movie, in which he belts out as a busker on O’Connell Street. At one of the previous gigs on the tour, Hansard had apparently descended into the audience to play it, but at this show he opted for playing it un-amplified from the edge of the stage. In a testament to his ability to both win a crowd over with charm and project, there was no problem hearing him throughout the entire theater.
Markéta joined him at the mic for a duet of “All The Way Down,” a beautiful song which you can watch in a different version at this link on YouTube.
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| Mar & Glen - Photo de Young |
Back to my point about this being a different show for Frames fans. I found some strange and sometimes awkward things yelled out during the spaces between. As a reference to the somewhat extemporaneously composed “Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy” from the movie soundtrack, someone inexplicably yelled out “Hoover!” after “This Low” – as if Hansard could ever be put into such a small compartment as that song - and just before Glen told one of the longest stories of the night by way of introducing the chilling “Drown Out.” The story, which I must say wasn’t as well paced as some of Glen’s best tales, was about ghosts, and I thought was perfectly serious despite the nervous laughter that kept originating from those around me who might have thought he was joking. “I suppose this is a song for all the people who are here that can’t be seen,” he said in closing. Later in the set during another quiet moment, someone also yelled out “I Love The Frames,” to which Hansard simply replied quietly. “Thanks.” But a request for “Freebird” around this time took the cake, prompting Hansard to reference Bill Hicks angry tirade about how “Freebird is the mantra of the moron.”
People screamed loudly as the Swell Season broke into “When Your Mind’s Made Up,” and this was the case for most of the songs from the Once soundtrack, despite the fact that both this song and the Grammy winning “Falling Slowly” both appeared in different versions previously on The Frames album The Cost and weren’t necessarily the best songs in the set.
There were brand new songs at tonight’s show, including “Forgive Me Lover,” a lovely song sung by Mar with Glen on the piano. It builds and drones a bit like a Frames song, and I imagined this is what the Frames might sound like with a female vocal. Another new song, apparently being played only for the second time, was “Go With Happiness,” which was a bit of a slow jazz number and one I hope they keep on playing and record someday.
Other memorable moments included a fun cover of Kraftwerk’s “The Model” that wasn’t as messy as Hansard claimed it would be. It featured Colm playing the famous, bouncy minor-key synth-line on the fiddle. And speaking of Colm, he had a few technical difficulties with his sampler while playing his solo instrumental “Blue Shoes,” but it was well worth the couple of restarts he had to go through to get the equipment to work properly. For the post “Star Star” close to the show, Hansard brought Damien Demspey back on stage and they played “The Old Triangle” by Brendan Behan as a duet.
All told, I would have liked to see Markéta more seamlessly integrated into the show, as at times it seemed a somewhat toned down Frames show with her added in. The Glen/ Markéta highlight on this particular night may have been their Michelle Shocked cover of “Fogtown” as a duet, though I did enjoy the numbers Mar took the lead on with guitar front and center whilst Glen sat hunched at the piano.
For those seeing and hearing Glen for the first time, I believe they got their money’s worth and more. Glen and Mar have a chemistry that goes beyond enviable. My hope is that The Swell Season as a group will endure and grow more into itself as a musical entity while helping to propel The Frames further into the hearts of Americans who don’t realize what they’ve been missing. Sure, that would be the best of both worlds, but is it too much to ask?
01. Say It To Me Now
02. All The Way Down
03. Lies
04. This Low
05. Drown Out
06. When Your Mind’s Made Up
07. New Song (“Loved You Wrong” - Thanks Andrea!)
08. Falling Slowly
09. Leave (Glen solo)
10. What Happens When The Heart Just Stops? (Glen solo)
11. Lay Me Down (Glen solo)
112. Go With Happiness (second time played)
13. Fogtown
14. The Model (Kraftwerk)
15. Once
16. If You Want Me (Mar guitar)
17. Blue Shoes (Colm solo, looping)
18. Fitzcarraldo
19. Star Star
20. The Old Triangle (by Brendan Behan sung by Damien Dempsey & Glen)
Location Info:
Orpheum Theatre
Artist Info: Damien Dempsey, The Swell Season
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