Support Acts: Lisa O’Neill and Sam Amidon
Poster by Ruth Evans
Main Set: Maybe Not Tonight, Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting – Respect (Aretha Franklin) – Mustang Sally (Wilson Pickett), Low Rising, When Your Mind’s Made Up, Bird of Sorrow, Leave* – Love Reign o’er Me* (The Who), Astral Weeks* (Van Morrison), Seven Day Mile, God Bless Mom, Fake – No Woman No Cry (Bob Marley), High Hope**, Fitzcarraldo
Encore: Falling Slowly***, Gold**** (Interference), Heyday*** (Mic Christopher), Come, Sit, Sing***** (Lisa O’Neill), This Gift******, Her Mercy, Heyday******* (Mic Christopher), Corrina, Corrina******** (Bob Dylan), Don’t Do It******* (Marvin Gaye/The Band), Forever Young********* (Bob Dylan), The Auld Triangle********** (Traditional)
*Glen solo
**with Moji Abiola
***with Lisa Hannigan
****Glen, Colm, Lisa, Graham, Joe and Rob on vocals at edge of stage
*****with Lisa O’Neill
******with Charlotte Blokhuis
*******Simon on guitar
********with The Lost Brothers
*********with Liam O’Moanlai on vocals
**********with Damien Dempsey and all other guests on vocals
[Thanks to Fleur for the setlist, notes and photos.]
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: Local Musicians
Notes: Ahhh there’s always good craic to be had at a Dublin gig and Sunday night at Iveagh Gardens was no different.
Those present were treated to a gorgeous summer night (yes – in Dublin!) and a plethora of musical goodness from lots of talented people from both the local area and afar. Here’s a few notes on the set:
* ‘Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting’ has now certainly won the mantle of the “one that gets the crowd going” so it’s nice to see it so early on in the set. We get a great brass-led ‘Respect’ tag and a cheeky snippet of ‘Mustang Sally’ – ahhh there’s the home town love!
* ‘Low Rising’ is dedicated to audience member Carole. The bluesy Rob Bochink and Master trombonist Curtis Fowlkes both provide outstanding solos which are met with raucous applause. Glen tells the crowd afterwards that Rob is apparently in the wrong band as Rob has a fantasy that after a smouldering solo someone in the crowd will flash him – Glen of course cannot help but act out what that would look like to hoots from the crowd. I am confident that Rob will be able to live out his fantasy one day although for the moment he’ll just have to live with Glen’s faux flash!
* Before ‘Bird of Sorrow’ Glen comments that he almost forgot for a second that he was home – he jokingly suggests his forgetfulness may be the result of the “serious drinking problem” which the Irish Independent seems to think he has! Justin Carroll is then introduced to the crowd as someone that the members of The Frames had seen play cool jazz around Dublin for many years, and Glen makes a point of saying how lucky they are to have him playing with them now – awwh thumbs up for some big Justin love!
* ‘Astral Weeks’ is introduced as a song Glen used to play often on Grafton Street (which is just down the road). At the end of of the tune the feedback is buzzing and the crowd are roaring and Glen believes it appropriate to flash himself – nice one!
* After a couple of Glen solo tunes, the band comes back on and dishes out a trio of old Frames classics – ‘Seven Day Mile’, ‘God Bless Mom’ and ‘Fake’ (yes – really!). After the first chorus of ‘Fake’ – Glen critiques the performance so far by saying “let’s never play that chorus again”. The end of ‘Fake’ morphs into an excellent audience singalong to ‘No Woman, No Cry’.
* ‘High Hope’ is dedicated to audience member Jamie who was in the film clip for this particular tune. Glen also invites up Moji Abiola who joined Glen on this song previously in Texas. Moji’s soulful southern voice completely lights up the song and the crowd are well impressed by the performance.
* The encore is an all-in guest extravaganza including the vocal stylings of Lisa Hannigan, Lisa O’Neill, Charlotte Blokhuis and The Lost Brothers. The absolute ease with which Glen and the lads share the stage with other artists really is something – this all-inclusive attitude permeates the crowd and makes you feel like you’re at a lock-in at your favourite pub – ahh the Dublin love!
* Then just as you think it may be winding down we are treated to some more special guests – both of the local kind. Liam O’Maonlai takes the lead vocals on a poignant ‘Forever Young’ which is dedicated to his father, and then the great Damo Dempsey joins the band for the night’s closer ‘The Auld Triangle’. Unsurprisingly this is THE best version of this song I’ve seen the band perform and I suspect it is greatly to do with the fervour for the song onstage and the very, very vocal Dublin crowd singing along to every word!
Grá mór to Glen, the lads and all the fabulous guests and especially to Dublin who produced a fabulous summer night and some of the best musicians you’ll ever see!
Reviews:
The Journalist
Festival and Gig Guide blog
Photos:
Poster above by Ruth Evans
– a set by Shaun Neary at DublinConcerts.ie
– more at Contactmusic.com
– some below from a set by Fleur Neale at Flickr
– some below by Alessio Michelini with more at Flickr
– some below by Carol Corcoran
Video:
Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting (by Ruycomy)
Respect – Mustang Sally (by BrydanSmithMusic)
When Your Mind’s Made Up (by Ruycomy)
Leave – Love Reign o’er Me (by Peter Boylan)
Seven Day Mile (by Peter Boylan)
God Bless Mom (by Peter Boylan)
Fitzcarraldo (by Peter Boylan)
Falling Slowly (by Ruycomy)
Gold (by foohpooh)
Don’t Do It (by Avril Vickery)