Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Music / Film Falling slowly for The Swell Season
Posted by David Lee Simmons on Tue, May 13, 2008 at 9:11 PM
Tonight marks the appearance of The Swell Season at the Cobb, and I am still kicking myself for not going (and it hasn't even happened yet). But priorities are priorities. Please, please, please tell me how the show went; I'm dying to find out how the stars of the fantastic 2007 movie Once (all but my favorite movie of the year) fare in concert.
For a refresher, here's my DVD review of the movie. It's a keeper (the movie, that is, not so much the review). It reminds me once again how 2007 was a great year for rock ’n' roll in movies, whether it was feature films like Once or documentaries. Since that article, of course, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won the Oscar for Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly." (And deservedly so.)
To whoever's going tonight: Flick a lighter for me.
Comments (6)
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I see a lot of shows, but it'll be hard to top that one. And my introduction to the venue was a good one -- in the future, anything that would benefit from, you know, pristine acoustics, should be booked there. Glen Hansard took advantage of the room to open the show without amplification, stepping in front of the mic to sing in his busker's best. He's a world-champion talker, too. Some of the song preludes were as entertaining as the songs themselves, and the crowd was really into it (though maybe a bit too much -- the woman behind me yelling in Czech got really old.)
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How do you scream "Freebird!!!" in Czech? Still kicking myself, but glad to see you enjoyed the show.
My wife and I drove up from Tampa for the show. Absolutely brilliant. The new songs were amazing and sat perfectly within the set of "Once', Swell Season and Frames songs. I would've driven twice as long for that show.
... I do need to make one weird comment about the show. there was no mention of an opener on the bill. the state was clearly set for Swell Season. promptly at 8:00 the lights went down, a woman walked out and sat down behind the piano. she never said her name, who she was, why she was there. she simply said something along the lines of "i'm so honored Swell Season asked me to play tonight. i'm going to perform some pieces on the piano, etc.etc.etc". she played for about 30 minutes, barely saying anything except thanks, then walked off stage! totally the weirdest thing i've ever experienced at a show. before and after the show i heard people commenting about how strange it was the this person would appear, play and leave with no explanation. i don't think she was local, because she made a comment about playing in "this beautiul new building" and having a friend at the show that came to see her. someone local would have more than one friend, i think. just before Swell Season went on, she came out on the floor and sat a couple rows behind us. no one said anything to her and it was all over. bizarre....
We have posted video and pictures for those of you that missed it! View pictures at www.AtlantaMusicBlog.com View video at www.youtube.com/AtlantaMusicGuide AMAZING SHOW!
I didn't see the Cobb show but I did see Swell Season in Portland earlier in the tour. The were awesome. I posted a review at my blog at http://isorski.blogspot.com/2008/04/concert-review-swell-season.html. Also, NPR interviewed Glen and Marketa recently and you can hear it at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90093038&sc=emaf.
