26 November 2013 // Dublin, IE // Vicar Street

Support: Bronagh Gallagher

Main Set: Fitzcarraldo, Low Rising, Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting – Respect (Aretha Franklin), When Your Mind’s Made Up, High Hope, Seven Day Mile, Bird of Sorrow, Into The Mystic* (Van Morrison) (For Simon), McCormack’s Wall/Black River, Traditional (Colm), Falling Slowly, Talking with the Wolves**, Moving On***, Revelate, The Stars are Underground, Star Star – Hotellounge (dEUS), This Gift****

First Encore: Song of Good Hope, Gold (Interference), Lowly Deserter

Second Encore: Christmas Biscuits***** (Mark Geary), Rise (Paddy Casey)******, And the Healing Has Begun******* (Van Morrison), Mustang Sally******* (Wilson Pickett), Don’t Do It (Marvin Gaye/The Band)

Third Encore: Her Mercy*******, Heyday******* (Mic Christopher)

*Glen solo
**Leon on shaker
***Curtis on vocals, Ronan trumpet solo
****with Grainne Hunt
*****with Mark and Grainne
******Paddy Casey and the band
*******with Bronagh

[Thanks to Avril for the setlist & Fleur for the 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: Una, Paula and Katie

Notes via Fleur Neale:
And so we return once more to Vicar Street for the final show of this year’s tour. I always wonder how Glen and the lads consistently produce amazing back to back shows – I’ve seen them do it a number of times and can only assume it is the strength and power of the music and the energy from the crowd that is holding them up!

There are again a raft of different guests tonight, and it’s another three plus hour show in cosy confines – there’s a few surprises and at least one old school throwback which most people (including those on stage) were not expecting.

Here’s a low down on some of the night’s best moments:

* We are treated to a great version of Van’s ‘Into the Mystic’ which is dedicated by Glen to “a man he met on the beach”. The soaring chorus of “I want to rock your gypsy soul, just like way back in the days of old” seems almost written for Glen’s vocal style – Irish music hero sings Irish music legend – yep it’s never going to be bad is it?

* ‘Talking with the Wolves’ gets a somewhat interesting introduction tonight. In summary, Glen says it’s about animal instinct and how effectively when an animal sees something it asks itself – can I eat it?- and if it can’t eat it, then it asks – can I fuck it? Glen then asks the crowd to “consider your neighbour” in that context. I look towards my gig buddy for tonight with an expression of “did he actually just say that?” but she is far too busy roaring with laughter as are the majority of the crowd. Anyway…..back to the song…..what I really love about this tune live is that it showcases everyone on the stage at the same time – there’s a fantastic extended string introduction led by Colm, Graham and Joe are holding down the underlying rhythm and pulse, Rob has a killer solo, the horns add gorgeous flourishes, Justin is providing a fantastic accompanying part to the chorus and Glen is dishing it out on vocals AND it all sounds great! This remains one of my favourite toe-tapping live tracks from the album.

* Before ‘Song of Good Hope’ Glen tells us a story of a letter he received which was actually meant to be given to him at Bruce’s Kilkenny Weekender but had only just now made it him (some months later). A woman from France apparently handed someone a letter to give to Glen in Kilkenny but for whatever reason it ended up in a rubbish bin un-opened. A security guard at the show apparently noticed it in the bin, saw that it was un-opened and addressed to Glen and took it out and arranged to have it passed on and it finally made it to Glen the night before this show. Glen said he was incredibly moved at the contents of the letter and he dedicated SOGH to its writer and to his good friend Ezra. Just goes to show that good actions can follow good intentions wherever they happen to occur – kudos Mr Security Guard – there must be some good karma coming your way!

* Some way into the encore area of the night, Glen invites fellow Dublin Troubadour Mark Geary onstage for a rendition of Mark’s tune ‘Christmas Biscuits’. Mark and Glen have in fact recently re-recorded this song as a duet for a charity single benefiting the Society of St Vincent De Paul – it’s another win/win scenario for those looking to be charitable this Christmas – the punter gets a great tune from two of Dublin’s finest and a very worthy charity gets a boost when it is most needed..Mark introduces the song tonight by recalling a poignant conversation he had with his Ma the night before – she asked whether she’d met Glen and when being told yes by Mark she then asked if she’d met Shakespeare – to which Mark also replied yes. In my view that exchange perfectly reflects the compassionate mood of the tune.

* The next guest onstage is Paddy Casey who duets with Glen on his own song ‘Rise’. Paddy is closely followed by tonight’s opener – Ireland’s own soul diva – Bronagh Gallagher. Bronagh tells us that she had been quickly studying up the words for a tune to play with Glen and the lads and had chosen Van’s ‘And the Healing Has Begun’. She’s not sure she’s had enough study time and has printed out the words and brought them with her but she is raring to go! This version has Bronagh and Glen trading verses and is more good, clean fun. When it’s over Bronagh makes moves to leave the stage but Glen calls her back and launches into what appears to be a completely impromptu version of ‘Mustang Sally’ – how’s about an excellent old school Commitments throw back? Yep we are lapping that up!!

The night fittingly ends with Mic Christopher’s ‘Hey Day’ – “we come to be kind, to be warm here and after” – the band and audience are spent and Vicar Street has delivered unto us another fantastic performance by Glen and the lads.

PS – For those looking for a win – the song can be downloaded via iTunes or Google Play.

Reviews: GoldenPlec, Hot Press

Photos:
we’ve got a few below from a great set at GoldenPlec.com by Sean Smyth (click thru for more)
a bunch here from Fleur Neale too