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Archive for the ‘Glen Hansard’ Category

The Swell Season (Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova) (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, July 29, 2025)

Posted in Glen Hansard, lnterference, Marketa Irglova, Once, Philadelphia, PA, Snacktime, The Frames, The Swell Season, Van Morrison on July 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 29, 2025] The Swell Season (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)

Three years ago my wife and I saw Glen and Marketa (interestingly announced as Glen and Marketa of The Swell Season) and the show was wonderful.  So when they came back around (this time announced as The Swell Season) I grabbed tickets right away.  (Incidentally, The Swell Season is the formal name of this duo–Glen has several other bands as well.

We were delighted to be reasonably close and right in the middle.

And there were to be lots of surprises tonight.  Glen and Marketa were joined by a bass player and drummer (whose names I don’t recall).  But before the first song started, they had a big surprise–four member of Snacktime came out to play horns on several of the tracks.  Glen explained that he had met Snacktime at the Newport Folk Festival and since they were going to be in Philly at the same time, he asked them to join him on a few songs.  I’m not typically a fan of horns, but their horns added so much depth to these songs, it was terrific.

And what was so much fun was that Glen instructed them how to play some of the songs while on stage–almost like an improved jam session.  The opened with Low Rising and Glen asked them to stick around for any songs that seemed good to have horns on.

The Swell Season just released a new record and they played all of the songs from it (except A Little Sugar).  But as I told my wife, I don’t really listen to The Swell Season all that much, but everything I hear from Glen (especially live) I enjoy immensely.

After a couple of new songs they played When Your Mind’s Made Up and the crowd was rapt as their gorgeous voices (and that piano) melded beautifully.

They played a few songs that they’d played last time, and that’s great because those are obviously the catchiest ones.  They played a few of Glen’s solo songs (three in total) but none of Marketa’s solo songs–although she did get some gorgeous solo moments where it was just her and her piano and her voice is still gorgeous.  This was especially evident on I Leave Everything to You, which Glen said was so beautiful as soon as he heard it he knew it would be the centerpiece of the album and the tour. (more…)

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Pearl Jam (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, September 9, 2024)

Posted in Glen Hansard, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Philadelphia, PA, Victoria Williams, Wells Fargo Center on September 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 9, 2024] Pearl Jam

After Saturday’s show we were pretty psyched to do it all again on Monday.  We wound leaving almost an hour later than Saturday night, because we saw how small the GA section was.  And even if we were in the back of it we’d still be damn close.  BUt heck, I guess everyone else had the same thought on a Monday night because we arrived and not only scored the same spot, but I was able to grab this cool poster.

And our new friends Greta and Molly were there again.  So we hung out with them and enjoyed Glen Hansard and were super psyched when the lights went down for Pearl Jam.

For this show I wanted to be a little closer to Mike and I think it was a bad choice.  The group around us was really loud and really pushy.  So the crowd was less enjoyable but the band was on fire.

We have seen Pearl Jam open with a banger, but mostly they tend to open with a slow building song like tonight’s Of the Girl (which I can’t believe we hadn’t heard live before).

We were delighted to get Elderly Woman in which everyone gets to scream Hello!   And speaking of screaming, a whole room of people singing the opening of Corduroy is pretty intense.  (more…)

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Glen Hansard (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, September 9, 2024) [PEARL JAM]

Posted in Glen Hansard, Pearl Jam, Philadelphia, PA, The Frames, Wells Fargo Center on September 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 7, 2024] Glen Hansard

I knew that I was going to enjoy Glen’s show the first night but I didn’t think I’d enjoy it as much as I did.  So I was fully prepared for Glen to blow me away this second night.

And he did.

He seemed even more energized and intense than night 1.

He sang from his knees, he got near the edge of the stage, he danced with the rest of his band.  At one point he sat on a monitor and basically just fell off backwards.

I was a little surprised that he played basically the same set both nights (since Pearl Jam is pretty well known for mixing up their setlists.  At the end of this 45 minute set he played an acoustic version of hie beautiful song This Gift.

It was also keyboardist Mia’s last night on the tour and we all wished her a fond farewell.

My friend Jonathan told me that he’s seen Glen several times and his shows are always amazing.  I agree with him 100%.  I am certain he came away from tis tour with hundreds of new fans.  Everyone around me was blown away by him.  And when he came out later to sing a song with Eddie, he was welcomed to rapturous applause.

I’d really like to see him with a full band again.

 

9/9/2024 (Wells Fargo Center Philly) 9/7/2024 (Wells Fargo Center Philly)
Didn’t He Ramble ‰ Didn’t He Ramble ‰
Bearing Witness ⇔ Bearing Witness ⇔
Dead Reckoning [new] Dead Reckoning [new]
The Feast of St. John ⇔ The Feast of St. John ⇔
Down On Our Knees ⇔ Down On Our Knees ⇔
Fitzcarraldo (The Frames song) £ Fitzcarraldo (The Frames song) £
Revelate (The Frames song) £ Revelate (The Frames song) £
This Gift ® Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy (The Swell Season song) (snippet)
THE FRAMES
£ Fitzcarraldo (1995)

SOLO
⇔ All That Was East Is West of Me Now (2023)
‰ A Season on the Line EP (2016)
® Rhythm and Repose (2012)

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Pearl Jam (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, September 7, 2024)

Posted in Glen Hansard, Pearl Jam, Philadelphia, PA, Tom Petty, Wells Fargo Center on September 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 17, 2024] Pearl Jam

After Glen left the stage, we didn’t dare move as the pit was now pretty crowded–although to be honest the back of the pit still had a lot of room.  People were pressed up close but there was breathing room.

So we waited a while, chatted more with Greta and Molly and soon enough the lights went down.  The band came out and it stayed mostly dark while they played Long Road.

And it was amazing.  We’ve seen Pearl Jam five times before this and each time was either from a far away spot (or behind the stage).  And this time, we were as close to the band as if they were playing Union Transfer and I got there in plenty of time to be close.

And we were right in front of Eddie.  I assumed that that would be a prime spot, but I think a lot of people preferred to be in front of Mike McCready–he has a lot of contact with the people around him.

It was a little frustrating that they were all silhouetted by light behind them, but it looked really cool.

I didn’t want to take a ton of pictures and videos but of course I did!  And the sound was SO GOOD.  I expected the arena to sound crappy, but we were right in front and we weren’t too close, it was like he was right in front of us singing.  And we could follow every motion Eddie made while singing Low Light. (more…)

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Glen Hansard (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, September 7, 2024) [PEARL JAM]

Posted in Glen Hansard, Pearl Jam, Philadelphia, PA, The Frames, Wells Fargo Center on September 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[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. (more…)

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Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova of The Swell Season (Merriam Theater, Philadelphia, PA, March 14, 2022)

Posted in Glen Hansard, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Leonard Cohen, lnterference, Marketa Irglova, Merriam Theatre, Once, Pete Seeger, Philadelphia, PA, The Frames, The Swell Season, Van Morrison on March 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[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. (more…)

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Tom Gilligan–Irish Drummers Volume 1: Interviews with 32 Irish Drummers (2019)

Posted in 1990, An Emotional Fish, Bad Brains, Bitch Falcon, Blades Club, Cactus World News, Cro-Mags, Cypress, Dave Grohl, Deep Purple, Dream Theater, Fangclub, Fontaines D.C., Frank Zappa, Gemma Hayes, Glen Hansard, Glenn Kotche, Green Day, Guns n' Roses, Hothouse Flowers, Marianne Faithfull, Metronomy, Midnight Oil, Montauk Hotel, My Little Funhouse, Neil Peart, Overhead The Albatross, Picturehouse, Pillow Queens, Pugwash, Queens of the Stone Age, Sepultura, Sinéad O'Connor, Snarky Puppy, Snow Patrol, Soccer Mommy, Stella Mozgawa, Sultans of Ping, The Commitments, The Coronas, The Frames, The Redneck Manifesto, The Who, Therapy?, Thin Lizzy, THUMPER, Tim Finn, Touts, Unsane, Vulpynes, Walking on Cars, Warpaint, Wilco on February 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MY LITTLE FUNHOUSE-Standunder (1991).

Drummer has a funny story about joining My Little Funhouse.  It’s especially funny given how young he was and how raunchy the band seems.

This album feels like a hair metal band whose second guitarist had just heard of grunge.  Lead singer Alan Lawlor sounds bratty and sleazy like an L.A. hair metal stud.

There’s some ripping guitar solos (“Destiny”) and big soaring ballads (“Wishing Well”) and there’s a dumb straight up rocker (“L.S.D.”).  There’s even the quiet intro (lighters up in the air) “sensitive” song (“breaks my heart/tears me apart”), “Anonymous.”

The one musical surprise is the summer guitar intro of “Been too Long” which sounds like it belongs to another song all together.  Although the bass/drum clap along is pretty apt.  “raintown” is another song that is a little unusual here–it feels like a B-side.  Lawlor’s vocals are toned way down and the production is much softer.

Perhaps the one thing that sets them apart from the West Coast metal is the song “Catholic Boy.”  Yup, it’s just as sexual/ist as a typical metal band, but the specificity of being Catholic seems very Irish to me.

My Little Funhouse opened for Guns N’ Roses when they toured Ireland.  And that makes perfect sense.  This album is completely of its time (or maybe a year too late).  With the right exposure, they would have been huge.  But this is the only thing they released before they broke up.

[READ: December 30, 2020] Irish Drummers Volume 1

I received this book at work and thought it would be interesting to look though.  I flipped through the names in the contents and was pretty sure I hadn’t heard of any of these drummers.  But it turns out I knew a lot of the bands they played in, just not their names.

Gilligan says that he created the website Irish Drummers several years ago.  It was an opportunity for him to interview Irish drummers and celebrate them.  Gilligan himself is a drummer but never really played with any bands.  Probably the most famous Irish drummer, U2’s Larry Mullen, Jr is not in this book, but he is on the website.

Gilligan thought it would be very cool to publish a book and here it is. The interviews are truncated for the book, you’ll get a lot more online.

Each interview has a picture (or two) and three to seven questions.

I have made some notes of interest from the drummers who had something unique to say. (more…)

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Curtis Sittenfeld–“Gender Studies” (New Yorker, August 29, 2016)

Posted in #ITMFA, #RESIST, Curtis Sittenfeld, Dermot Kennedy, donald tRUMP, Gender, Glen Hansard, Hillary Clinton, Hozier, Politicians, Sex, Sexism, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on August 29, 2018| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DERMOT KENNEDY-Tiny Desk Concert #779 (August 24, 2018).

NPR likes Dermot Kennedy (they made him one of their Slingshot artists for 2018).  The thing that they seem to like about him is what I didn’t.

He has a powerful raspy voice–he could sing for miles.  A voice that works wonderfully with a style of music (folk or rock, primarily).  But the songs I’d heard from him were tinged with hip-hop.  And, frankly, it’s hard to work a powerful singing voice and hip-hop into the same verse.  So to me, it didn’t work, it was like the worst of both worlds.

But at the Tiny Desk, he removes all of that with a live band and, as the blurb says, a gospel choir.

Kennedy took this assignment seriously. The Dublin singer-songwriter wasn’t content with merely re-creating his songs as they sound in the studio, or stripping lavish productions down to simple acoustic arrangements. So he got himself a gospel choir.

More specifically, Kennedy and his band flew in from Ireland a day ahead of time to meet and rehearse with members of Washington, D.C.’s Howard Gospel Choir (Keila Mumphord, Taylor Nevels, Chamille Boyd, Jazmine Thomas). Every arrangement was painstakingly plotted ahead of time, so that every note would be perfect.

Two of the songs Kennedy performs here (“Moments Passed” and “An Evening I Will Not Forget”) pop up on an EP he released this year with hip-hop producer Mike Dean, and both sound radically different in this performance. They’re still forceful — and still centered on the singer’s elastic, bombastic voice — but also looser, warmer, more open.

And I suspect that’s why I like them much more.   Without all of that trapping, he sounds, yes, like Hozier or Glen Hansard.  And of course he was a busker.

They open with “Moments Passed.”  It was weird that the song and concert opens the way it does with the choir and Kennedy singing at the same time.  His voice is the centerpiece of the music and it was obscured not only by four other voices but also but a disconcerting echo effect (from Kieran Jones on keys).  But as soon as that ends, his voice works very well with the piano (Jonny Coote) and drums (Micheál Quinn).

And so when the chorus comes in and he songs his only lines while the choir sings, it works very well.  You can also hear his accent a lot more than other Irish singers, it seems.

“An Evening I Will Not Forget” has more of a hip hop delivery style, at least the way he sings, but he doesn’t try to cram it all in, he lets his voice and melody flow over the dense lyrics.  The song is one of regret and it works perfectly as just piano and his powerful voice.

After the song he jokingly asks for a towel and he laughs when he gets one (and gives it to Jones, “you;re a sweaty guy”).

For the final song, “Glory” he plays guitar on this it’s a pretty melody.  The drums are weirdly electronic and big and I like the big boom but not the ticky ticky electronics.  However, the high female voice in the chorus more than makes up for it.  The way all of the music swells together on this track is really terrific.

Sometimes you need to hear a musician live to really appreciate him.

[READ: January 3, 2017] “Gender Studies”

Sarah loves Curtis Sittenfeld, although I had never read her work before this.

I really enjoyed this short story both for its story and for its politics.

The plot is quite simple.  Nell is an almost divorced woman (she was with Henry for years with the intention of getting married, then he up and left her for a younger woman).  I really enjoyed this self-description of her and Henry “because of the kind of people they were (insufferable people, Nell thinks now).”  She is a professor of gender studies and is going to a convention in Kansas City.  Though she lives in Wisconsin, she has never been to Kansas City or even to Missouri.

The shuttle driver starts talking to her about donald trump.  He says “He’s not afraid to speak his mind, huh?”  And I love this description of her reply:

Nell makes a nonverbal sound to acknowledge that, in the most literal sense, she heard the comment.

Despite her obvious discomfort talking to him (when he calls Hillary “Shrillary” you know she is fuming), she can’t be bothered to say anything more than “There’s no way that donald trump will be the Republican nominee for President” (this was written after he was, of course). (more…)

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Tessa Hadley–“At Home in the Past” (New Yorker, June 6 & 13, 2016)

Posted in Books about writers, Cat Stevens, Child Development, Essays, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Glen Hansard, Gordon Lightfoot, Language, Nostalgia, Parenting, Tessa Hadley, The Swell Season, Tiny Desk Concert, Van Morrison on January 20, 2017| Leave a Comment »

6616 SOUNDTRACK: GLEN HANSARD-Tiny Desk Concert #225  (June 17, 2012).

glenWhat can I say about Glen Hansard that I haven’t said already—he’s a powerful singer and a great storyteller.  This is his second appearance on Tiny Desk (although his first solo) and his fourth or fifth concert on NPR.

With The Swell Season, they played for 34 minutes (a Tiny Desk Record).  And this Concert is no shortie either at nearly 22 minutes.

He’s playing songs from his solo album (on that same beat up guitar).   Although he is distinctly himself, without the band(s), he sounds a bit like Cat Stevens and sometimes like Van Morrison (and he looks like Gordon Lightfoot).

He sings rather quietly and then impressively loudly–powerful and passionate.  He is clearly into what he does.

“Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting” is rocking folk song (he throws a coda of RESPECT at the end) in which he really belts out a few parts.  He’s got a delightful “La la la” middle section, and the overall melody is great.

“Bird of Sorrow” is  much more mellow song.  It builds through some verses and allows him to belt out a few lines near the end.

“Come Way to the Water” has him on a 4 string tenor guitar.  Although it is quite clearly a Glen Hansard song, the guitar is much more timid sounding compared to his voice.  And it really does give the song a very different (darker) feeling.  In fact when it’s over, he says, “that was kind of depressing wasn’t it?”

“Lucia” is a “song he hasn’t finished yet” but he’s going to play it because “it’s a little bit happier.”  Although the lyrics are “Lucia, you’re letting me down again / Lucia, your heart’s not in it babe…. And if your heart’s not in it, then your heart’s not in it, babe.”  Not exactly a happy song.  But very pretty.

“The Song of Good Hope” is slower with no big powerful singing, but it’s really heartfelt and intense.

And as always, he is unfailingly polite and thanks everyone for listening.

My friend Jonathan says that he will always try to see Hansard live, and it seems like I should be doing the same next time he comes around.

[READ: January 12, 2017] “At Home in the Past”

The June 6 & 13, 2016 issue of the New Yorker was the Fiction Issue.  It also contained five one page reflections about “Childhood Reading.” 

As soon as I started reading this, I knew that Sarah would want to read it as well.  For although I have not, Sarah has read The Secret Garden, which is what Tessa Hadley is writing about here.

Tessa says that she didn’t own many books as a child–mostly she borrowed from the library.  But the ones she did own she read over and over and “some of them soaked in deep under my skin, composing my private mythology and shaping my mind.”

She says she had a Puffin paperback of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden.  The cover picture of a dark-haired girl in a white coat standing among thorny bare rose bushes looks just like Mary Lennox is described in the book.

Although it was published in 1911, she felt no separation from the Edwardians.  She felt at home in the past and often preferred it to modernity, which seemed somehow inferior. (more…)

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Gene Luen Yang–Level Up (2011)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Culture Shock, First Second :01, Gene Luen Yang, Glen Hansard, Graphic Novel, Marketa Irglova, Set at School, Short Books, The Swell Season, Thien Pham, Tim Buckley, Van Morrison, Video Games on August 25, 2011| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE SWELL SEASON-Live at the Newport Folk Festival, August 1, 2010 (2010).

This is the second show by the Swell Season that I downloaded from NPR (even though it is not chronologically second).  The Newport Folk Festival proves to be an excellent venue for Glen Hansard and The Frames.  For yes, in this show, The Frames play with them.  A (very brief) history: Glen Hansard was the red-haired dude from The Commitments (yes, seriously).  After that movie, he started The Frames and they were HUGE (in Ireland and Czechoslovakia).  They even released a record with a few songs that appear in the film Once.  Then Glen met Marketa and formed The Swell Season, which was really just the two of them.  And they recorded a couple of those Frames songs for their debut album.  And then they made Once, and they rerecorded some of those songs for the Soundtrack.  So you can get quite a few versions of a couple of these songs.  The Swell Season was originally just the two of them.  But as of late they’ve been playing with the Frames as well.  So it’s like a full circle, sort of.

The big opens space of Newport, combined with a rowdy but appreciative crowd prove a perfect venue for them.  Glen is in wonderful storytelling mode, regaling the crowd with funny introductions to songs (that was Elijah!) and dealing with an overzealous fan (who I believe calls Glen a red-headed bastard–out of love: Hansard replies “I liked you for about two comments…I’ve been wanting to play here forever, you’re kind of wrecking my day….  I’m kidding”).

But it’s the music that is so good.  I’ve thought that he sounds not unlike Van Morrison, and this version of “Low Rising” that opens the set brings out the Van.  Its’ really outstanding.  The really makes some of the songs rock out, too, like when he burst into a chorus of “Love Reign O’er Me” during the otherwise mellow “Back Broke.”  Also, the full band version of “When Your Mind’s Made Up” is tremendous–when the band is rocking out and then stops on a dime for that final “So” I am blown away every time.  And yet, despite the presence of the band, some of their solo songs are the most striking.  Marketa’s, “If You Want Me” holds the crowd rapt.  And Glen’s emotionally gut wrenching “Leave” is stunning–and a little hair-raising.

Interestingly, when you download the show (by subscribing to NPR podcasts), you only get 43 minutes, rather than the entire 62 minutes of the show.  I assume they didn’t have the rights to give us the covers that the band played.  They open the set with Tim Buckley’s “Buzzin’ Fly,” and he plays Willie Nelson’s “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” while they tune some strings and they rock out Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks” (this furthers my assertion that there’s a Van Morrison connection here, although I didn’t know this was played live until I streamed the concert.

The Swell Season seems like an awesome band to see live.

[READ: August 21, 2011] Level Up.

Gene Luen Yang is also a wonderful storyteller.  His book American Born Chinese is fantastic.  This is another slice of life story, although I suspect it can’t be true about himself (well, I mean there are angels that do his laundry so obviously it isn’t true).  But I don’t know a thing about him personally so maybe he is a video game champion and a gastroenterologist as well as a novel writer.

Anyhow, the story is a fairly simple one: When Dennis is six years old, he sees a Pac Man video game console and he is instantly hooked.  The problem is that his parents want him to be a successful student–specifically, they want him to become a doctor–so there’s no fooling around with video games.  He gets good grades in school.  But when his father dies, he finally feels free to get a video game console and he finds himself playing more video games than studying.  And by the time he gets to university he actually flunks out.

His mother doesn’t learn about this disgrace because before he can do anything more drastic, the aforementioned angels threaten the dean of admissions until she lets him back into school.  They angels (who came to life from a card his father had given him) then monitor him carefully, doing all of his chores for him while ensuring that he studies his brains out.  Which he does.

And he gets into med school! (more…)

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