So last night not much cooking was done. Instead, I did what I often do and take the advice of someone whose musical taste I trust, and went to a gig at St James Church, Piccadilly. I'd never heard of folk outfit The Swell Season before last night.
The potted history is that they've been playing since about 2005 when they recorded an album in Prague while working on the soundtrack to a film, Beauty in Trouble. That was the album 'The Swell Season', which in turn inspired an Irish Indie film 'Once' in which they starred and played. When I say 'they' by the way I mean singer and guitarist Glen Hansard and pianist, occasional guitarist and singer Marketa Irglova. They released a new album - Strict Joy - in October last year.
Anyway, last night was exquisite. Glen Hansard is one of those rare people who have instantly commanding stage presence - whenever he was on stage you were transfixed. Amazing voice and playing. At one point he came forward and did one song completely acoustically - takes guts to do that sort of thing. I don't know if Marketa Irglova is his muse or simply musical partner, but they complement each other amazingly well - subtle harmonies and tight performances. They achieved that sort of beatific state of having a really rich musical vocabulary with many heritages, but songs that were genuinely interesting, original and quietly intense. Kind of reminded me of Low (tho I've not seen them live), but obviously they belong to a long folk tradition.
Helps that Hansard has good banter too - I love a bit of between-song wit, storytelling and gentle humour. At one point he had a London crowd doing improvised whistling to a chorus. I don't think many people can do that...
Long set too which is rare these days (2 hours) and proper standing ovation at the end - it could have gone on much longer.. Nice set for them too - gorgeous church interior and quite clever lighting. Maybe a pint or two would have been nice (hard pews..) but then I'd have missed some of the subtleties probably...
Fantastic night.
First comment of the evening - there's a fantastic photostream by Conor Masterson of the evening here: http://www.conormasterson.com/photoblog/SwellLondon2010/. Really lovely shots that capture the atmosphere really well.
ReplyDeleteAnd second comment of the evening: since I posted this, practically everybody I know is really familiar with either The Frames, The Swell Season or the films. Amazing. And I feel even more stupid for not realising that Glen Hansard was Outspan in one of my all time favourite films of all time: The Committments! Argh!
ReplyDeletehahah. you've obviously got much more musically hip friends than me!
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