Last night Glen Hansard and Liam O Maonlai played a special intimate gig to an adoring crowd in Whelans who were by all rights, blown away by it. Mostly interestingly of all and perhaps now is becoming a little obvious that if Glen plays a gig expect something unique, the crowd were joined by the stars of The Commitments for a bit of a show piece.
Not content with having two fantastic performers of himself and Liam wooing the crowd, Glen went all out and had some soul backing on the night. We didn’t have a reviewer at the show but we caught up with one of the people in attendance to see what he thought.
Christof Dugarry said
Glen Hansard was the first on stage and he performed “Hairshirt” by REM after which he consulted a bit of scrap paper which appeared to be his set list then decided against it and asked the crowd for requests. Then his soul support came on and they played songs which they never “played together before” prompted only by a what key they should be in. They played with fantastic fluency and with the improvisation of a band which is far more polished than a group of lads who had just played songs together for the first time. Then Glen introduced one by one his support cast from the Commitments and despite the obvious loss of hair or gain in weight the energy the guys played with was as new now as it was in the film
You could tell how much it meant to all of them individually, Bronagh Gallagher & Angeline Ball held hands as the band played a few songs including an individual performance from each of the ladies. Obviously the likes of Mustang Sally got the whole place hopping but all the songs played were fantastic.
And what about Liam?
The range of instruments and the variety of songs from an ancient Irish Curse to Bob Dylan’s Forever Young sent the entire crowd into a complete hypnotic state and then all built up for the ultimate soulful climax with Glen and the rest of the band. If anyone has a chance to go tonight beg borrow or steal. A really special musical state
Photos by Kieran Frost
