Support: Rebecca Collins
Main Set: The Storm, It’s Coming, Lowly Deserter, Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting – Respect (Aretha Franklin), Talking with the Wolves*, Lucky Man, When Your Mind’s Made Up, Low Rising, Leave**, The Beast**, Astral Weeks** (Van Morrison), High Hope, Heart’s Not In It, Moving On, Revelate, Star, Star – Hotellounge (dEUS), Fitzcarraldo, This Gift
Encore: Song of Good Hope, Falling Slowly, Dark*** (Peter Katz), Her Mercy, Emer’s Dream (Colm), Passing Through**** (Leonard Cohen), The Auld Triangle*****(Traditional)
*Leon on shaker
**Glen solo
***Peter Katz with Glen and band backing him
****verses by Glen, Rebecca, Rob, Joe and solos by Ronan, Curtis and Michael
*****verses by Glen, Rob, Mark, Colm, Leon, Gerry and Joe
[Thanks to Fleur for the setlist and notes.]
Band: Glen Hansard, Colm Mac Con Iomaire (violin), Joe Doyle (bass), Rob Bochnik (guitar), Graham Hopkins (drums), Justin Carroll (keys)
Brass: Curtis Fowlkes, Michael Buckley, Ronan Dooney
Strings: Ben Cashell, Ruth Gibson, Tholly Mason
Review: rockfreaks.net (with photos), nclkafilms blog
Notes: The venue for tonight is a studio within Copenhagen’s concert hall (DR Koncerthuset) which I’m told is the home of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. It’s incredibly modern and somewhat of a design feat I understand (and apparently the most expensive concert hall ever built!!).
The Orchestra are playing tonight in the main concert hall area so there are plenty of people around. The Studio for tonight’s performance is down underneath the main concert hall and is a very intimate standing venue. Whilst lining up, those who have arrived early are treated to a view from a window above the Studio of Glen and the lads soundchecking. You can’t hear anything but the focus on the faces of those present seems to indicate that they are giving a few different things a go.
The opener for tonight is Rebecca Collins who is an Irish singer-songwriter who currently calls Copenhagen home. The crowd responds positively to Rebecca’s tunes and are happy to sing along when invited on her cover of ‘My Favourite Things’. My view is that if the opener can get the crowd singing then it’s likely to be a good night!
Glen and lads take to the stage around 9.00pm for what ends up being just over a two and half hour show. Here are a few highlights:
* I am loving new tune ‘Lowly Deserter’ (or ‘Deserter Song’ depending on who you ask!!). I am yet to see an instance where Glen having a mandolin in his hand does not result in a fabulous tune (the best example IMO being Glen’s cover of REM’s ‘Hairshirt’). From my understanding of Glen’s description about this song, it’s a diatribe directed at a person who pikes out when the going gets tough. There’s some foot stamping and a great audience participation part – yes please I’ll be having some more of this!!
* I know I keep harping on about the brass on ‘Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting’ but it just sounds so goddamn good!! The tremendous brass section comprising Curtis, Michael and Ronan really own this song and I am yet to see an occasion where it has not lit up a crowd as a result. Normally there isn’t much room on stage for a personality other than that of the artist who has his name on the ticket – that is certainly not the case in this band and the way in which the stage is shared really does impact on an audience.
* The Danes are well up for some singing tonight. Their willingness and skill is evident when Glen asks them to join in on the “There, there, there” part for ‘High Hope’. There’s one run through before the song starts and the sound of the audience voices reverberating throughout the Studio is amazing and Glen determines that they don’t need any further tutelage. The acoustics in this cosy room are great and that added to audience voices makes for a great version of this tune.
* FRAMES TRILOGY – REVELATE – STAR,STAR/HOTEL LOUNGE – FITZCARRALDO – WOO HOO – ‘nough said!!
* After ‘Falling Slowly’, Glen notes that a friend of the theirs is in the audience and he happens to be a great singer-songwriter from Canada. Peter Katz is then invited up to play a tune of his own. Glen initially hands over a guitar, but instead Peter asks if he can sit down at the keys which are instantly made available to him by Justin Carroll. Peter proceeds to give us a lovely new song called ‘Dark’. He tells the band it’s in D and they all join in to fill out the sonic landscape of the song – including a nice violin solo by Colm. Just another example of everyone being happy to share the stage and the audience benefiting as a result.
* The great ‘Passing Through’ by Leonard Cohen is now often played at Glen’s shows. Again, it’s a very inclusive number and not only do all the band members (and other musical guests) contribute but we also now have some members of the touring crew stepping up to give us a chorus (or two). It’s a lot of fun to watch but apparently Leon needs to keep in mind that he can’t go stealing Gerry’s verse!! 😉
Photos:
Thanks to Fleur for the photos as well, you can see the rest at her Flickr page. The last one from Ronnie.
Video:
The Beast (by Sabrine Keow)
Lowly Deserter (by Sabrine Keow)
Talking With the Wolves (by Sabrine Keow)
Low Rising (by tije84)
Astral Weeks (by Sabrine Keow)
High Hope (by Sabrine Keow)
Leave (by Anders D. Bertelsen)
Revelate (by tije84)
Fitzcarraldo (by tije84)
Song of Good Hope (by FigureInDots)
Falling Slowly (by FigureInDots)
Dark (by peterkatzmusic)
Emer’s Dream (by FigureInDots)
Passing Through (by FigureInDots)
Passing Through – Auld Triangle (by rene341975)
Passing Through – The Auld Triangle (by Soren Buhl)
The Auld Triangle (by Daniel Johansson)
The Auld Triangle (by Anders D. Bertelsen)
The Auld Triangle (by Edvin Bach-Gansmo)