[ATTENDED: March 14, 2022] Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
Back in November, I was surprised and delighted to see that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova had announced a small tour (like six shows) celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of Once.
S. and I loved the movie and the music and she insisted we get tickets. So I grabbed them in a pre sale. Not as close as we would have liked, but not bad at all (there’s really no bad seats in the Merriam).
In the meantime, shows were cancelled and rescheduled, but this show fell in the safe zone and didn’t get moved at all.
We arrived just barely on time–I always forget what a pain it is to get to the Kimmel Center. But then it took a while for the show to start. Start time was 7, but they didn’t get on stage until 7:30 (he told us why later).
It was wonderful.
They started with “If You Want Me.” Marketa was up front, Glen was on the piano and they were joined by a bass player, a violinist and a cellist. Instantly I was enraptured by their voices, which sounded exactly the same and even better in a live setting.
Then Glen switched to his beat up acoustic guitar
They played through seven more songs from The Swell Season (from their debut album, from their second album, Strict Joy and from Once.
Then they played a few songs from their individual catalog, like Marketa’s “My Roots Go Deep” (her voice is so lovely) and Glen’s “Return.”
On a couple songs he asked us to sing along–mostly backing oohs and ahhs. I was blown away at how good the audience sounded–almost heavenly. I didn’t know if it was the room or the quality of singers who liked The Swell Season, but I couldn’t believe how amazing the room sounded. After the show S. told me that the woman next to her had a gorgeous voice and was singing very loudly. So maybe I only heard her voice soaring above everyone else’s. But whatever the case, it sounded fantastic.
They played a wonderful cover of Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” which Glen doing the “horns” and I felt that it sounded better than the original.
Glen left the stage and Marketa called her sister up to the stage (she was selling merch) to sing with her. She talked about them seeing Hamilton in Pittsburgh the other night and was so blown away that it inspired her to want her live performance be as exhilarating. Then she and her sister sang her song Quintessence which segued into two cuts from Hamilton! She had arranged them for piano and they sounded amazing!
After a few more songs, everyone else left the stage and Glen stood at the front of the stage to sing the brief but powerful “Say It to Me Now.” Then he went back to the mic and did a roof-shaking version of “Leave.” His voice is just astonishing.
Then he told us the story of why they were delayed. He said that he woke up this morning and had no voice. At all. He couldn’t sing and was afraid they’d have to cancel the show. He didn’t want to but saw no other way out of it. Then like an hour before the show started, a doctor gave him something. He didn’t know what it was, but he felt great!
But he did ask us to help on the high notes for “Falling Slowly.” Once again, we sounded amazing (that woman again, no doubt) and I couldn’t get over how gorgeous this song (which I had actually forgotten about) sounded with everyone singing along.
They ended the set with the lovely “Gold” which is on the soundtrack and which I never realized was by a different band). Their version sounded great–and the strings were perfect for it.
After a quick encore break, Marketa came out an sang a gorgeous song solo. Again, her voice is so lovely. Then the rest of the band came out and sang a spirited version of Her Mercy. Glen told us that he was inspired to write the song while reading Leonard Cohen’s biography. He couldn’t write a song about Cohen, but he could write one about the word that appeared so much in the book.
This segued into a cover of “Bird on the Wire.” Then the five of them came to the front of the stage. I thought he said the next sing was a Leonard Cohen song, but it sounded nothing like a Cohen song. Indeed, S. said it sounded like a Pete Seeger song. And indeed it was. It was a fun sing along that we all enjoyed participating in.
And it was all over pretty early as well. We were home before midnight–bonus!
Some friends of mine have seen Glen many times and raved about his live show and they were right. If that’s how he sounds when he has no voice, I can’t imagine the energy he must have.
We’re so lucky that they decided to play Philly for this mini tour.
- If You Want Me
- This Low
- When Your Mind’s Made Up
- The Moon
- In These Arms
- Low Rising
- Sleeping
- My Roots Go Deep (Marketa song)
- Return (Glen song)
- Feeling the Pull
- What Are We Gonna Do (Glen song)
- All the Way Down
- Into the Mystic (Van Morrison cover)
- Quintessence / Guns and Ships / History Has Its Eyes on You (with Zuzana Irglová, Marketa’s sister)
- I Have Loved You Wrong
- Fool’s Game (Glen song)
- Say It to Me Now (The Frames song–Glen acoustic at front of stage)
- Leave (Glen acoustic)
- Falling Slowly
- Gold (Interference cover)
encore - The Hill (Markéta Irglová song) (Marketa solo)
- Her Mercy (Glen Hansard song) (with Bird On a Wire (Cohen) snippet)
- Passing Through (Pete Seeger cover) (Acoustic at front of stage)
Leave a Reply