Review of The Swell Season at The brown 5/29

THE SWELL SEASON & JOE MANNING 5/29 - REVIEWED BY MARY KING (JOHN'S MOM)
First, John missed an incredible show. he was supposed to go, but is also working on some work for an art show in a few weeks, and ran out of money, so i let him use the ticket money on supplies. but he still missed a good show; Joe played well, Normal Joe sound. he is a nice guy, a friend of my Son's. i first heard his music when he did "i know you rider" for louisville is For lovers 5. i loved that song.
Glen Hansard was like a jack rabbit hopping around all over the stage! It was like he had music going on in his head all the time.
He is a real proud pleaser, and has a following from about 20 year old-to my age (which i won't say exactly). the ladies love him, but there was equal parts men and women in the audience. but, it also doesn't hurt that he is super cute.
He is a real pro, he even extended the concert by 45 minutes during the encore. you could tell he really enjoys coming to louisville. he talked about how the first time he was here he past the Brown Theater and thought "one day... and now this is the second time we've played here."
he talked all about coming to louisville for the first time and meeting lots of interesting people, and 'crazy musicians' which i'm sure one of those is my son. John told me about meeting him and hanging out with him years ago when The frames played at headliners. his friend Rachel Grimes introduced them. The Fiddle player even said hello to her on stage, and she hollered back! so, John, i wasn't the loudest person there. ha.
the fiddle player, i think his name is Collin, did a solo on a 300 year old folk song, and got a standing ovation, it was awesome. you could tell all of the musicians love what they do.
Glen played all of the songs of his i love, and even covered my favorite Willie nelson song, Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain, from "Red Headed Stranger" he really won me over with that. and he did it perfectly, he didn't change a thing. i love that song.
he even improvised a song at the end, and the band did a fabulous job keeping up with him. at first they looked at him, like "what is this? but then they jumped in and Marketa joined in on the Piano, and it came together nicely. it seemed he was having so much fun, and didn't want the night to end.
his asking the audience to join in on songs, and teaching them songs, it was so much fun.
they ended with an old irish song about a man at the end of his life, just wanting his friends to share and drink and not be sad about him dying, it was very touching.
-and now i have something to say about Marketa Irglova: she never interacted with the band, she stood very still, unlike Glen, but her beautiful voice is full of pain, and maybe that's why she wasn't overly energetic.
She has a lovely voice, but she is very timid, and appears very shy on stage. their recent break-up shows. she sings with pain in her Heart. she must still love him. everyone i overheard in the lobby said the same thing. if she put out an album of torch songs it would be great. the songs she sang that she wrote were sad and beautiful. Glen helped her with "The Crossroads". they were all good songs, but that one is really a beautiful song.
one of my friends that was there, said it hasn't been that long since they were last together. i think He Broke up with her. Marketa said on stage, that it was sad that the tour was ending, it's obvious that she is still in love with him, and stays on tour just to be near him.
John says she's too young for him, but she doesn't look like she's too young. i hope that they don't break up the music group because of their personal history, because the group as it is, is perfect. as far as their own story, i don't know. what i saw on screen was the perfect love story, but so was 'sleepless in Seattle', but Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan only had two scenes together in that movie! and in 'officer and and a gentlemen', Richard Grear and Debra Winger hated each other off screen, but were great Lovers in the movie, so you never can tell what is or could be.

WEEKEND EVENTS CALENDAR

Weekend roundup for 5/28-30:

May 28th :
Ear x-tacy instore: J. GLENN (former drummer for My Morning Jacket) 7pm FREE

Holy Muckle at Monkey Wrench 9 pm FREE (advertised as special guest surprises)

May 29th :
Ear x-tacy instore: CABIN (CD release show) 2 pm FREE

The Swell Season and Joe Manning @ Brown Theater 7pm $35

G Love and Special Sauce @ Headliners w/The Jamie McLean Band 7 pm $20


get out there and go nuts.

The Swell Season & Mr. Joe Manning 5/29

My Mother Loved "Once". She frequently recites the whole romance between the two main actors Glen Hansard (from the Irish band, The Frames) and Marketa Irglova (classically trained Czech pianist and vocalist) and how it mirrored the movie storyline except that in reality they broke up. and she doesn't even think it's gross that he is sooo much older than her (that's an 18 year difference folks, no joke). Mom reminds me that their first album (self titled) are of love songs written by each other, about each other while they were in LOVE, and that's how the best love songs are written.
i have never seen the movie, or heard anything They have done, but i have met Glen a long time ago, and he was very cordial. and i once had a crush on an Irish girl who loved The Frames. but that's about it. but i'll be there on Saturday at the Brown Theater with my mom, and she'll be the loudest member in the Audience.

Joe manning will be opening. you know him, you love him. imagine that luscious voice in that velvety room....

Photos and Review: The Swell Season

Monday May 12th @ The Brown Theatre

Getting to the Brown was a little bit of a struggle as a Barack Obama rally was being held around the corner at the Convention Center. It was a really strange sight to see the the masses of people waiting in line for the rally. It makes me feel good to see so many people excited about who the next president may be. Sen. Obama's caravan of black SUVs was parked out in front of the Brown Hotel and secret services agents complete with earpieces were standing guard.

After The Swell Season (joined by members of The Frames) took stage, the Obama references continued. It turns out that while out looking for tea earlier in the day they had stumbled upon the rally. Glen Hansard seemed very inspired by what he had seen and joked about not being bale to vote since he is from Ireland.

The show itself was very good and the sound was amazing. I could see set lists posted in front of the artists but it sure didn't seem like they were following any script. The songs were broken up by some of the longest between song banter and stories I have ever heard. Thats not to say I was annoyed at all, most of the stores were very interesting. They also seemed to improvise a lot near the end of the set chatting with each other off mic about what to do next and even playing a few new songs.

My favorite moment of the night was just before Falling slowly when Glen used an analogy to describe how he feels about what the song has done to his life. I will try and paraphrase: "It's like when you have this goal to kick your ball to the end of your garden where you brother is trying to catch it or kick it back. But, when you kick your ball it goes over the goal post, over the back wall, over the river, into the next town and into a place where you never imagined it would be. 4/5ths of you is going "Omigod I cant believe how far my ball went!" those 4/5th completely outweigh the 1/5th of you thats going "I want my fucking ball back".

I just learned that a soundboard recording of this show can be downloaded from a company called Played Last Night . The show costs 9.95 unless you have a special code that was passed out at the show that gets you 4 dollars off. Here is what they have to say about it:

"There is something special about this show, we just can't put our finger on it. The band has a very controlled and calm performance. The crowd is great, but then you hardly expect anything less from Louisville. Recording is excellent, its just a good good show. Some real nice covers as well."