Main Set: The Storm, It’s Coming, , Talking with the Wolves, Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting – Respect (Aretha Franklin), Low Rising, When Your Mind’s Made Up, Bird of Sorrow, Leave* – Love Reign o’er Me* (The Who), High Hope, Moving On, Fitzcarraldo
Encore: This Gift, Don’t Do It (Marvin Gaye/The Band), Her Mercy
*Glen solo
[Thanks to Cherie and Fleur for the setlist, and to Fleur for the notes & 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: David Schneebeli, Ronny Spiegel, Andrea Sutter
Notes: Switzerland really is one of the most physically beautiful countries in Europe AND they make killer chocolate – you can’t really ask for more than that but tonight Glen & the lads do and they are rewarded with some real Swiss ‘energie’.
Winterthur rests just outside of the Swiss capital of Zurich. It is a separate town in itself, but the long ranging hands of urban sprawl have made it more like a suburb of Zurich. The music festival being held here (Winterthur Musikfestwochen) takes place within the city centre so there is a decent size area right in the middle of town where a stage has been set up i nbetween rows of quaint Swiss buildings and shops. It’s very European and fully outdoors so all we need is for the weather to participate and we’ll be sorted.
I must admit that I did have some significant concerns about the weather as earlier in the day it had bucketed down (and I mean rained so hard you can’t see out the windscreen of your car!), but upon arrival in Winterthur the sky completely cleared up and there was not a drop of rain about – I took it as a reward for some unflappable optimism that I had shown earlier in the day (a gigette’s will so to speak).
Glen and the lads are not the only band on tonight (they play before Travis) and the start time is noted as 8.15pm so I anticipate that we are going to get maybe an hour and fifteen minutes before the stage has to be cleared and swapped over for Travis’ set (which starts at 10.15pm). The opening band (Germany’s Sea & Air) finish on time and there is some extremely swift work undertaken by Simon Good (and some other crew members) which means that effectively the stage is all set up and ready to go just prior to 8pm. As a result Glen and the lads come on early which means we are going to get an extra 2-3 songs – Simon, Mike and anyone else I am missing – you are a champions, love your work!!
Here are a few tidbits from the set:
* Just as ‘LDLMW’ starts, Glen notices a blonde-haired woman who leans out of the window (about two floors up) in the building to the right to get a better look and Glen declares that it is the first time any blonde woman has ever done that to look at him. The mood is high and the love-in on stage continues when Rob steps over to share the mic with Glen for the chorus and ends up being the recipient of a big kiss (on the cheek people!) and some bedroom eyes from Glen. Funny thing is – the sentiment appears to be reciprocated by Rob who returns the kiss a short time later. I know it’s the last night of this summer tour but it hasn’t been that long has it fellas? 😉
* Glen takes the crowd through their back up vocals for the chorus of ‘High Hope’ (also known as the “there, there, theres”). The first round is decent, but by the time we get to the third round it’s a full on choir. Glen is delighted and it makes for a fantastic version of this song.
* There is a great response from the crowd to the brass section, and each member gets an opportunity to showcase their talents at different stages of the night. Michael shines in ‘LDLMW’, Curtis carves it up in ‘Low Rising’ and Ronan is smokin on the trumpet in ‘Moving On’. The cohesion between everyone on stage in very evident and the resulting performances are of an incredibly high standard and the appreciation coming from the crowd only fuels the band further – we have here a true ‘energie’ (this Swiss-German word for energy!) exchange. It doesn’t happen every night but when it does it is great to be a participant.
* ‘Moving On’ has Curtis coming out for some vocal stylings – he of course adds soul with ease and then Glen joins him for some Motown-esque moves with the mic stand. Get on up!!!
* The crowd gets the Colm effect at the end of ‘Fitzcarraldo’. I’m a huge fan of the undulating Colm solo in this song and he delivers (as he always does!) again tonight the it revs the crowd up even further.
* It seems that ‘This Gift’ is pretty much a competition between Glen and Graham to see who can “get right out of their head” the most! Towards the end Glen downs his guitar and the Irish madman dancing commences and ends with him throwing off his plaid shirt. Hilariously the shirt ends up over Graham’s head and we then watch Graham drumming blindly whilst trying to maintain his amazing drum solo – impressively he completely pulls it off, shakes off the shirt and winds it up and lets it go. As a post script Glen again attempts to re-dress Graham after the song with his beanie – kisses, hugs, clothes swapping – ok this is getting a little weird 😉
* The set ends with an extended jam version of ‘Her Mercy’. The energy level has peaked at the right moment and the crowd are still singing the doo wop parts long after the band has left the stage. It’s pretty indicative of the response for the crowd throughout the gig.
It was short for a Glen gig, but it was fantastisch!!!
Danke Winterthur
Photos:
From Fleur at Flickr
Video:
The Storm, It’s Coming (by ooooSYLVIAoooo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqURWr9u_k8
Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting (by ooooSYLVIA0000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rahHTY5HSSY
Respect (by ooooSYLVIAoooo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziVrsTdMr1M