SO LAST NIGHT, amidst the pressures and the disappointments of life and the pettiness and negativity I'm trying to escape, there was music.
The Swell Season is the delightful accidental band to emerge from the movie ONCE, where Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova played a charming pair making music, as they fitfully negotiated what else it all might mean. A simply beautiful film that led to the fairtyale Oscar win for Best Song ("Falling Slowly.")
Hansard was suitably reverent to be playing in Massey Hall again-- "a big thing for a European," Neil Young was namechecked many times during the night.
The set was perfectly paced, with numbers by the duo handed off to a full set with the band, then to Hansard solo numbers and even a showcase for solo violin. The encore started with Irglova alone, busiting out a beautiful rendition of a Nico song. Then the full band returned and made the night a transcendant and heartfelt experience.
But behind it all, a couple important lessons for anybody doing something creative.
Glen Hansard has been writing and performing with his band for over 20 years. The Frames aren't a big deal in North America, maybe, but they're pretty big in Europe. But the unlikely and outsized success of Once has made this "side" project -- The Swell Season -- big -- far bigger than the band that's been Hansard's bread and butter for two decades.
What do you do? Bands have fractured and split over less. Well, it's wonderful to be able to say that in Hansard's case, you bring them along. And they back you, and the night becomes something of a wonderful meld of the best backing band ever, and maybe a peekaboo of the Frames here and there.
The lessons I took away? First, there's no way around, and no comparison, when it comes to craft: Experience matters. Hansard and his band perform like people who've been doing this a very long time. It's nice to venerate somebody who can barely play their instrument every now and again, but then you see someone who knows what they're doing -- who really can nail it, and that's when your breath catches.
The second lesson is the need for ongoing humility. You just never know. You can take the backing band slot and shrug and enjoy the ride, and the music making, and not worry about who's on top or if they deserve it.
And I think that, in the end, is the only true route to having a couple thousand (or million) people out there in the dark, holding their breath so as not to break the spell...
...waiting to see what happens next.
No comments:
Post a Comment