Glen Hansard
Vicar Street, ">Dublin, 23 June 2004
Someone asked me recently "Don't you ever get tired of The Frames?" and it's
true I haven't been playing their albums with the same regularity of late and
their recent gig in Limerick was somewhat dampened by the inclement weather.
That being said Glen Hansard's solo gigs are always a unique experience, all the
well known Frames songs but pared down, one man and his guitar giving them a
distinct treatment. He has to rely on his charm and storytelling to fill the
gaps left by the other members of the band.
Much
has been made of this storytelling between songs and it continues to divide fans
as comments on the band's website illustrate. It was remarks there concerning
Glen's apparent tiredness, following his return from recording in France, which
made me a little nervous in advance of this performance. I feared this was going
to be the gig that would finally convince me to hang up my Frames fanaticism and
give them a break. Thankfully any fears I had were misplaced and not showing any
signs of tiredness Glen gave a superlative performance. Switching comfortably
between his electric and acoustic guitars, joking and telling tales, getting a
pint from a pretty blonde he played for over 2 hours and looked completely at
home.
Glen started the set with two new songs played to a rapt audience. He fumbled a
few of the words but this only endeared him more to the crowd. There was
intermittent heckling and he even mentioned how difficult he finds playing to a
home audience but loves it all the same. In his introduction to 'Lay me down' he
said he wanted to clear up the misinterpretation of the line, "lay me down in
the hallowed ground where my father waits" explaining that people keep saying to
his father that they thought he was dead, which he isn't, he's a taxi driver.
'Headlong' was introduced with a Caroline Corr story related to a certain
Hotpress Award 2 or 3 years ago, when they were both nominated in the same
category. He also added a whole new chorus to the beautiful, bittersweet new
song 'Finally'.
It was a sign of how relaxed he was that when a shout of "Outspan" (the name of
the character he played in Alan Parker's 1991 film 'The Commitments') came from
the balcony he retorted with a rocking version of 'Mustang Sally' reviling the
audience for singing the chorus "Ride around Sally" in a Dublin accent. It's an
aspect of his past that he has continually tried to put behind him but it seems
to haunt him still, even his Mother, who was in the audience, encouraged him to
do the sequel, she thought it would be the making of him.
His set also included 'Where is my mind' by The Pixies, he described how
impressed he was after listening to them on his cassette player on the rooftop
of the Stephens Green centre, many years ago.
He included all the favourites 'God Bless Mom' (which he dedicated to his
Mother), 'Hollocaine', 'Rent Day Blues', 'Star, Star', 'Fake', 'Revelate', 'What
happens when the heart just stops', 'Seven day mile' a rocked out 'Monument' as
well as 'Raglan road' and Mic Christopher's 'Heyday' which had the entire place
singing the chorus. His voice lit up the room and everyone seemed completely
enthralled by the end of the set. He left the room on their feet and I think it
was one of his finest performances to date (but then maybe I'm biased!)
Roll on Marlay Park in August.
