The Swell Season - Columbus, 9-22

Fans who came to see Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (aka the Swell Season) at the Palace Theatre because of their love of the movie Once were immediately satisfied Monday night.

In the film, there’s a scene in which Hansard busks on a dark street, singing and shouting “Say It to Me Now” as his voice and guitar bounces off the dumpsters, buildings and bricks around him. On this night, Hansard came out unplugged, stood at the edge of the stage and sang the same song, letting the natural acoustics of the theater do the work. He even played the same now-iconic, beat-up guitar with a giant hole in it. It was a stirring performance, and the first of many times Hansard let loose his throaty roar while beating his abused guitar into submission.

From there, Irglova came out to accompany him on “Falling Slowly,” the best-known song from Once. It was a pretty duet, and you could tell the crowd just loved seeing these two together as a real-life couple, especially after the fictional characters they played went their separate ways in the movie. The couple’s celebrity status was undeniable.

It’s a risky move to open the show with such anticipated songs, but the concert seemed to only get better. Hansard showed himself to be charismatic, humble, theatrical and affable. He gave entertaining prologues to just about every tune and wasn’t afraid to wax philosophical, but did so with a smirky sense of humor that never made any of the rants feel ponderous. The guy’s really likable. Irglova was predictably his understated, talented foil, and Hansard’s other band, the Frames, served as the more-than-capable backing band throughout the night.

Other than the drums often being too low in the mix, it was great to hear the songs with such clear sound and in such a visually stunning room. Though some Swell Season tunes stay consistently quiet, Hansard usually builds them to a loud climax that makes it impossible to write him off as a sensitive folk rocker. The technique worked well, especially on songs like “When Your Mind’s Made Up” and “Leave.”

The most frenetic song of the night was a cover of Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks,” which Hansard played solo, speed-strumming his guitar so fast and hard that it turned into a rhythmic wall of machine-gun noise. (It was also one of many times throughout the night an elderly couple in front of me plugged their ears.) Strings broke, sweat dripped. “That was very cathartic,” Hansard said afterwards. No kidding.

Of the new songs, I was less impressed with “Backbroke,” but “I’ve Loved You Wrong,” featuring Irglova on lead vocals and guitar, was beautiful. The band repeated the song’s refrain--“You’ve been, every now and then, on my mind”--as the tune came to a close, with more and more instruments dropping out until it ended a cappella with all six voices on stage contributing.

The most unexpected moment of the night came during the encore, as Hansard explained that his drummer needed some metal in his system after a night of folk rock. So the guitar tech came out and led the band through a hilarious and surprisingly awesome rendition of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”

The band threw in a few Frames tunes, as well, including “Red Chord,” a great full-band song that reminded me of early Counting Crows, and “Fitzcarraldo,” a second-encore song that was the most epic of the night. It’ll have plenty of folks, myself included, exploring more of the Frames’ back catalog.

This same night, Irish band Bell X1 was playing a show at the Basement. (They were previously scheduled as the openers for the canceled Stars show at Milo.) Apparently the Frames and Bell X1 are friends, so Hansard invited two of the guys to play a couple songs as a last-minute opener following Bill Callahan of Smog. On record Bell X1 reminds me a bit too much of the Fray or a neutered Frightened Rabbit, but in this setting--a stripped-down, impromptu, thrown-together performance with wonderful sound--it was nice. Expect to hear “Eve, the Apple of My Eye” on multiple TV dramas this fall.

Callahan was the definition of laid-back, but got peppier as the longish set went on. The crooner showcased his crystalline guitar playing and big baritone on “Sycamore,” then his noisier side on “Cold Blooded Old Times” and “Blood Flow.” Callahan’s robotic stage mannerisms gave the set an overall lack of intensity, especially compared with Hansard, but he was an enjoyable opener nonetheless.