I hadn't seen it in some time—especially not at a 21+ show—but there it was; as the venue doors opened, a gaggle of people (leaning towards the female persuasion) making like greyhounds for the prime, unclaimed real estate at the front of the stage. It was a symbolic stabbing of their flag in the place where they wanted be planted for the next few hours, and they were right to do so.
With a healthy-sized crowd in place that grew throughout the set, Californian Tim Easton took to the stage to open the show. A somewhat scraggly folker, Easton bore an intelligent, stripped-down vibe, meeting halfway between Frames tour-mates of the past, Josh Ritter and Mark Geary. Aside from his easygoing stage presence, Easton also had some of the most endearing merchandise I’ve ever seen—old pieces of cardboard, which he’s individually hand drawn on to produce the CD jackets for his album, Homemade.
Between acts, a concertgoer by the name of Courtney (who had been in attendance the previous night) informed me that in Seattle, the band had not only played quite a number of older songs from the back catalog, but they’d held the stage for two-and-a-half hours. Being The Frames' 20th anniversary tour and considering the plethora of albums, EPs, and singles they’ve released, I was both intrigued and excited.
The room went black and it immediately appeared that Courtney was on to something, as the band took up their instruments and came out of the corner swinging softly with “Giving Me Wings” from 2001’s For The Birds. At song's end, the band paused only long enough for leader Glen Hansard to proclaim, “This is a song about lighting your own house on fire,” and slipped directly into “Keepsake.” Dashed with the stringed elegance of Colm Mac Con Iomaire’s violin, it was a slow burner starting with a lone guitar and Hansard’s handsome falsetto, only to epically end after nearly eight minutes in a crescendoing wall of sound.
As the last notes from “Keepsake” faded, a voice from the right of the stage began barking a request for “Falling Slowly,” a song that originally appeared on the Frames' most recent album, 2006’s The Cost. It was then made famous by Hansard’s other musical endeavor, the Swell Season, when it won the 2008 Academy Award for “Best Original Song.” Indicating that he probably gets this a lot, Hansard easily and quickly replied that the band had a large bag of old songs that need to be played. They then proved it by blazing through three straight songs (“Seven Day Mile,” “God Bless Mom,” and “The Stars Are Underground”) from their 1999 record Dance The Devil….
A few songs later amidst “What Happens When The Heart Just Stops,” the band sprinkled in bits of Van Morrison’s “Caravan” and their very own “Bad Bone.” After seeing the band several times over the years, I’ve learned it is not uncommon for the band to infuse portions of other favorites into their own. This is a practice that has continued for years, and even on this night we’d not seen the last of it, as two more songs were given the small mash-up treatment: “Star Star” getting sown together with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory's “Pure Imagination,” and dEUS’s “Hotel Lounge (Be The Death Of Me),” while “Rent Day Blues” was dosed with scraps of Waylong Jennings' “Good-Hearted Woman.”
Throughout the evening. Hansard used the song breaks to engage with the audience, revealing stories or inspiration behind songs, or in some cases humorously giving advice—“If you ever got a song stuck in your head and you want to get it out, just listen to Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer” and the song will be gone. And because “Private Dancer” is a shitty song, you won’t remember it.”
With the number of songs performed well into the double digits, Hansard knelt and motioned at someone at the front of the audience, and to my (and everyone else in the venue's) surprise he pulled to the stage the very girl (Courtney) I’d spoken with earlier. After a few words between them as he handed her his guitar, Hansard turned to the microphone, and Courtney’s hands were off and strumming the opening chords to “Revelate,” with the rest of the band following. It was a great moment that was seemingly unrehearsed. This is the sort of thing the Frames really excel at live, squeezing every bit of emotion and performance out of a song. They’re a band clearly comfortable with, and who thoroughly enjoy, performing live, so much so that they even occasionally hand one of the reins over to a fan. As if to answer the crowd’s collective questionable expression as to whom the “girl” is, Hansard off handedly commented, “Call it a hunch, but I just had a feeling she’d know the song.”
It wasn’t until the closing of the set that the band played anything from their catalog that could remotely be considered current, ending the regular set with “People Get Ready” from The Cost. This didn’t seem to bother a soul in the place, as the audience, who were often employed to sing vocal parts, had no problem complying. With the encore, however, the treat of new material was a-plenty. Hansard stated, “We’re gonna play something new that Joe wrote,” as Joseph Doyle, the often neutral and somewhat unflinching bassist took center stage, trading in his bass for an acoustic guitar and lead vocal duty. Underpinned with a tender sadness, Joe’s fragile whisper breathed “You Can’t Hide Your Love,” the song's working title. The band wasn’t finished trying out new jams, as after “Hollocaine” they launched into yet another new song (working title; “Your Heart’s Not In It, Babe.” Unlike the previous new number, this song contained a funky, almost old-school throwback feel.
Commenting that it would be their last song, Hansard thanked the crowd with a genuinely earnest smile, and then revealed that the inspiration behind the song “Fizcarraldo” came from the 1982 Werner Herzog film of the same name, in which, as Hansard put it, “a gentleman, through a rare set of circumstances, pulls a ship over a mountain.” After the song, and a few more thanks to the audience, Hansard’s smile wouldn’t melt and he could be seen looking to Colm and mouthing, “Let’s do one more.” With that, the original two members of the band performed a well-known Irish song “Raglan Road,” taken from a 1946 Patrick Kavanagh poem. Colm’s violin bedding Hansard’s hushed ghostly voice captivated the audience to such silence you could hear the breath of the folks standing next to you. It was a magical moment, and I felt the same warmth that is often associated with the effects of eating certain types of chili peppers.
While chatting with Hansard after the show, I learned that halfway through the set he was stricken with a massive throbbing headache, something I never would have known given the level of his and the rest of the band's performance. Not to mention the intensity and length at which they played—when all was said and done, it was hard to ask for much more from the Frames: 21 songs, a little over two hours of live music, pouring themselves wholeheartedly into every song.
There’s no official word on when a new Frames record will surface. But that doesn’t seem to bother the hard-core fans, as they’re still experiencing passionate love affairs with the old ones.
Setlist:
Giving Me Wings
Keepsake
Seven Day Mile
God Bless Mom
The Stars Are Underground
Trying
What Happens When the Heart Just Stops (with teases of "Caravan" & "Bad Bone")
Finally
Happy
Lay Me Down (Glen played a "punk rock" version at the end)
Rent Day Blues (with tease of "Good Hearted Woman")
Pavement Tune
Star Star (with teases of "Pure Imagination" & "Hotel Lounge")
Revelate (a girl named Courtney got up from the audience and played Glen's guitar part)
Friends and Foe
People Get Ready
Encore:
You Can't Hide Your Love (working title; new song w/ Joe on vocals)
Hollocaine
Your Heart's Not In It Babe (working title; new song)
Fitzcarraldo
Raglan Road ((Irish song from a poem written by Patrick Kavanagh)
