The Swell Season in Dublin review: Not a dry eye on the balcony for Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová
The Swell Season – Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová
National Concert Hall, Dublin
★★★★☆
Many European tours by international bands conclude with at least one show in
Dublin
. When the gig is more a homecoming than a visit, there is always more reason to celebrate the end of living out of a suitcase.
Saturday's show was more than just another performance for Dubliner
Glen Hansard
and his one-time partner,
Markéta Irglová
. It was a means by which to remember old times and reclaim lost ground, a time to dedicate songs to friends (
Damien Dempsey
,
John Carney
), family (Hansard's young son, Christy), and other musicians (
Billie Eilish
,
Van Morrison
). It was also, perhaps, recognition of relationships started in flurries of optimism and finished in squalls of despair.
This is best exemplified by the delicate ballad People We Used to Be, one of several tracks from the Swell Season's forthcoming album, Forward, receiving its first live airing in Ireland. Irglová, who sits at her piano throughout, takes the lead vocal on a wise, semi-autobiographical song that outlines how, over time, the heart's heavy bruising can disappear. 'Things were easier once, when our hearts were light, we'd stay up talking late and put all the world to right,' she sings. 'How I miss the people we used to be and all those things that you brought out in me.' Was there a dry eye in the house? Not on the balcony, there wasn't.
It was surely written in the stars that the pair would reunite for another outing. Hansard is a relentless seeker of collaborations, always on the mooch for a session or a singsong with like-minded musicians, and always true to his humane intentions. Irglová (the youngest ever recipient of an
Academy Award
in a non-acting capacity for her co-written Best Original Song, Falling Slowly, from 2007's lo-fi indie movie, Once) is on a hiatus from her solo career. Of the two, Hansard is by far the most successful, but based on Saturday's show, we should never underestimate Irglová's abilities to occasionally put a halt to her friend's unbridled gallop.
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There are marked differences between the older and newer songs. Those from the Once years, notably When Your Mind's Made Up and the still untainted Falling Slowly, embody young love in all its naivety, insecurity, and commitment. The songs from Forward represent tension, doubt, and a world in disarray.
[
Glen Hansard on fatherhood at 52: 'I can't believe I didn't do it before now'
Opens in new window
]
Factory Street Bells talks of leaving loved ones behind, the Nick Cave/Bob Dylan hybrid A Great Weight Has Lifted obliquely references Gaza, while Irglová's sublime I Leave Everything To You could be a lost tune from the Wicked soundtrack. The pacing throughout the 140-minute set is deftly handled, from tender ballads to string-breaking guitar shredders, with covers (Van Morrison's Into the Mystic and Gloria, Fergus O'Farrell's Gold, a snippet of Leonard Cohen's Bird On a Wire) as well as spoken word (Stephen James Smith performing his potent new poem, Talk to Me). The show ends, unsurprisingly, with a bunch of flowers for Irglová and a collective thumbs-up for Hansard.
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