The Swell Season - 11/10 The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA
I closed my eyes for a second during 'Falling Slowly' and I swore I was in a music shop somewhere in Dublin watching Glen and Markéta sing. Then the full band(the bassist and violin player from The Frames, as well as a Cello player) kicked in and as Glen stopped singing and 2500 people picked up the chorus, I got chills...and chills were a recurring theme all night.
I have to give major KUDOS to the crowd at the Wiltern. I have never heard a crowd that big be so quiet and so respectful at the appropriate times, but spark to life when prompted by the band. And there is no underestimating how well that movie has done...when I saw the Frames two months ago at the Fonda, there were maybe 500 people there...maybe. The Wiltern was sold out tonight and has been for weeks. Oh, and apparently 'Once' comes out on DVD Dec 19...someone yelled the question to Glen, who (awesomely in my opinion) had no idea when it came out...but several people in the audience did and happily yelled back.
The set list was as you'd expect, leaning heavily on the songs from the 'Once' soundtrack. The show started with a solo glen ripping through a passionate performance of 'Say It To Me Now'...incredible...then Markéta joined him for a beautiful duet on 'Drown Out'...then the rest of the band came out, and the show was ON.
After about an hour an fifteen minutes...the really amazing moments started with the first encore. First off was Glen and Markéta rocking out to a GREAT Michelle Shocked song, 'Fogtown'. Then joined again by the band, 'Star Star', 'I Want My Life To Make More Sense', an incredible Irish song that I need to find called 'Ragged Road(i believe that was the title)...then they took one last break, came back and played the title track from 'Once' then finished off the night with an insane version of Dylan's 'You Ain't Going Nowhere'...with the whole crowd once again singing along!!
One of the best nights of live music I have ever seen. I didn't even get into Glen's charming pre-song rambling introductions or Marketa's adorable shyness...or the way they looked at each other as they played. The sweetest moment of the night came right at the very end, when during the Dylan tune he slipped her a little peck on the lips, right in mid song...crazy kids in love!
Labels:
Glen Hansard,
Once,
The Swell Season
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It was the best show I've seen in a while, glad others enjoyed it to!
Quite a special evening. Any way you could tell me what song Joe Doyle (bass player) was singing admist the end of Star Star? I remember he mentioned Christmas at the end? It was a perfect.
The show was awesome. I found out about it the night before and feverishly searched for tickets until I was fortunate enough to find some on ebay. The song during the encore is title Raglan Road.
'Raglan Road'...thanks a million!