So the thing I love about the concerts of Irish bands is the stories and the talking in amazing accents. Not to mention the amazingness of the music, of which there was plenty, but Glen Hansard pretty much rocked my socks the other night with his crazy-long but always interesting stories and tangents. I wish I remembered more of them, but since I was weddinging all weekend, you'll have to make due with just a bit.I swear that every song had a story, or at least an explanation of the metaphor behind the story. I think my favorite moment was when Glen said they went to see the big hoo-ha down the street (Temple Square) and when they asked if they could go in they were told to go to the visitor's center where they could see pictures of the inside. "But the door is open!" And then a sister missionary latched onto them and started telling them the whole history, and Marketa finally asked her if she could please stop talking. Ah, the joy. We are funny people.
I also loved when Glen said they got off the plane and ended up in some sort of mall for about a mile. "We've been here before and we were going, this isn't it, it's cool! But you can't really get food in a mall and we were hungry. Someone told us we could go to the food court and we said, 'Airport food from every country? No tanks." (I love that they say tanks instead of thanks. Love. It.) Then he said, "You realize that malls are ruining your country, right? You need to resist." (I'm editing a little there - this is an American blog, so certain words, which Glen explained are not meant to be offensive, but are merely a result of centuries of the English trying to pound their language out of them and them feeling it's their job to pervert the English language.)
And just by the way, Glen started the concert with "Say It To Me Now," which just absolutely blows me away whenever I hear it. He played many of the really fabulous songs from Once, and lots of other songs that were pretty amazing. Marketa was quiet, but she was beautiful and played and sang beautifully.
In other news, the opening guy was crazy. He started out his set with some weird chant-like things that I assume were in Gaelic or something, and then he play some normal sounding stuff and ended up with penny whistles. We figured out toward the end of the show that it was the lead singer for the Hothouse Flowers! He was a super star in Ireland and with at least Treb and Ty, but no one had any idea who he was here. Out of control. I'm not exactly sure why he thought chants and penny whistles would be a good idea, but it was pretty cool - even if the audience didn't know how to respond to him.
The encore went on for about an hour I think, and it ended with the entire band hopping on one foot through "Fitzcarraldo." It was a very serious song and it was so weird to have them teetering through the end, but the song was still so amazing that it didn't detract. I must say, The Frames band members were uber talented, especially the violinist. Holy cow.
I'm pretty sure there was more amazing wisdom, like the story about how ACDC fans only want to date other ACDC fans just like Jews want to marry Jews, so it's true love when one falls for a fan of David Bowie and the Cure, but I can't remember it all, so we'll stop there with the fact that I love them more than ever. Hurray for crazy Irish guys and their passion and humor. The Swell Season = amazing times 10.
