Glen Hansard
It’s been a quiet month for me in terms of gig-going, but Glen Hansard at L’Alhambra last night was a great one for me to get the ball rolling again. First time seeing the fiery Dubliner live and it was a real treat. Sharing the stage with 12 musicians including a 3-piece string ensemble and 3-piece brass section, the genuine friendship, respect and chemistry between Hansard and his Frames cohorts is palpable from the first note, and was even extended to the Paris-based session musicians who joined them for the evening’s gig. A true storyteller, Hansard’s songs of loss and heartbreak are beautiful but far from quaint. Shit’s real and there’s some serious emotional pain there. When it’s just him and his guitar on songs like “Song of Good Hope”, which he explains was a song he wrote while a friend was on the brink of death from cancer, you simply shut up and listen (even the little voice inside my head that never ever wants to shut up did last night!).
Before things get too broody and introspective, he shares a silly anecdote or two from his early gig days in Paris when he visited Samuel Beckett‘s grave at the Cimetière du Montparnasse and left what he considered to be a “nice” pen on the writer’s tombstone, only for it to be blown away by the wind…or was it Beckett himself rejecting the offering?
Top off an already incredible evening with a very generous encore with friends rapper/beat boxer Napoleon Maddox and Lisa Hannigan, and you have one happy gig goer.
Setlist:
The Storm, It’s Coming
Talking with Wolves
Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting
Philander
When Your Mind’s Made Up
Low Rising
Bird of Sorrow
Leave
Come Away to the Water
Astral Weeks (Van Morrison cover)
High Hope
Moving On
This Gift
Fitzcarraldo
Star Star
Song of Good Hope
Encore:
Sign o’ the Times (Prince cover)
Baby Don’t You Do It (Marvin Gaye cover)
Blue Moon (duet with Lisa Hannigan)
Say It to Me Now
Falling Slowly
Sonic Pompadour 