I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 7, 2024] Glen Hansard

My wife and I won a ticket lottery for these tow Pearl Jam shows and scored floor seats to the Wells Fargo Center!  We arrived early (but not crazy early) and were something like 100th online.  So when we got into the venue, we were about three people from the stage! It was amazing.

We were really early of course, but the floor seating included a concession area with couches and food and drinks and a bathroom all within easy access.  We quickly made friends with two really nice women from Minnesota (Hi Greta and Molly) and we saved each others spots when we used the facilities.

They had seen Glen Hansard before but we had only seen him with Marketa Irglova (which was fantastic).

Glen Hansard created the movie Once. He is an amazing performer, a passionate musician and a hugely charismatic and funny individual.

His musical tastes are quite versatile, playing acoustic ballads and some ripping rockers.   He is also a storyteller and he has a classic folk singer style of gritty vocals.  And he has a real knack for melody.  I didn’t know any of the songs that he played but by the end of each one, it felt familiar and like an old favorite.

He is also completely intense, whether it’s his straining vocals or his really hard guitar strumming (his acoustic guitar has a hole in it from how hard he strums).  You can tell also how hard he strums because you can hear the acoustic guitar over the full band.

He told stories about the songs and a track like The Feast of Saint John tells its own story.  It also features a refrain that everyone can mutter when they’re feeling out-upon: monsters begone!

The band was a six piece with bass and guitar as well as keys and drums and a lead violin player who was almost as intense to watch as Glen.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Glen’s songs is that they are quite long.  They’re not prog epics with different parts, they’re just long–usually because there’s a lot of lyrics, but, especially live, the songs have a ton of room for jamming and soloing.

He played two songs from his band The Frames.  These songs don’t sound that different from his solo songs since he wrote those as well.

And whenever he wasn’t singing, he would step closer to the edge of the stage either to play a ripping guitar solo or just to engage with people.
At the end of the set he played a quick snippet of Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy (which is short to begin with) and then he was gone.

I genuinely wasn’t prepared for how good his set was and I didn’t fully appreciate it.  Which is why I was so glad we’d get o see him play again in two days.

SOLO
⇔ All That Was East Is West of Me Now (2023)
‰ A Season on the Line EP (2016)