The Frames... lads having fun, Live at Shepherds Bush Empire, 8 Dec 2010

After raving incessantly to all my friends about the brilliance of the Swell Season, I was curious to see Glen Hansard in a slightly different context - back with his original band the Frames on their 20th anniversary tour. The result was more than positive. On the one hand, I can see why the Swell Season is so necessary to him at this moment in his artistic life; as suspected - the instinctive musical intelligence and mutual intuition involved in his partnership with Irglova allows him to explore his ideas with greater freedom. Specifically; her clever vocal harmony and piano and somehow her general female-ness complements his melody, his guitar, and his general male-ness. So the Swell Season's work has more grace, it's a little slower, a little more cultured, and there's a clear, strong, woman's viewpoint in there.

The Frames, by contrast, are a Irish rock band, a band of musical brothers - bonded by shared experience, by manhood, by nationality and hard won understanding. They're much more fun because they're less controlled, they're a lot more spontaneous. Whilst Glen is quite definitely still the leader - the rest of band contribute their own ideas confidently and are openly supported in doing so, so the sound has different voices. A trademark of Glen and the Frames' is the gleefully peverse way they like to break into other songs from within the midst of one of their own. So last night they suddenly break into a Clash-esque punk rendition of their usually gentle, wistful ballad "Lay Me Down", or at the end of the first set bassist Joe Doyle takes them out with a sweet version of "The Most Beautiful Widow" by Sparklehorse. The effect is to constantly surprise and delight the audience, never more so than when some peverse spirit seizes Glen and he breaks into a faithful cover of "Like a Rhinestone Cowboy" - hilariously incongruous in this context.

Personal highlight was an intense, gigantic, emotionally overwhelming "Finally", it's like a Bach overture with it's fantastic momentum, building with all the force of a runaway train. The passion with which Glen throws his entire body and soul into a song is unforgettable.

If you've not seen them before - check out this legendary end of tour show from 2007 recorded by NPR. Download it if you can and save it for when you've got a couple of hours trapped in a car or somewhere and you can listen to it end to end.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9796328
Set list: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-frames/2010/shepherds-bush-empire-london-england-7bd29a60.html