To really appreciate the music of The Swell Season, you need to have seen the 2007 Irish independent film, Once. The film tells a story of a struggling musician (Glen Hansard) who develops a friendship with a young woman (Markéta Irglová, both pictured right). They begin creating music together and ultimately fall in love, though the film ends with the two not actually ending up together. In real life, the musicians had unmistakable chemistry and became a couple by the end of the promotional tour following the film's release. The music of The Swell Season chronicles Hansard and Irglová's real-life love and the subsequent end of their relationship. Because of this, it is the kind of music that elicits an emotional reaction from fans who feel a personal connection to the artists.
Unfortunately, I hadn't seen the film, and went to their live show in Orlando a few weeks back on May 25 without ever having heard anything besides "Falling Slowly," a song from Once that won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song. Had I come into the evening with more awareness of the duo's backstory, my overall reaction to the show would most definitely have been different.
One of the unfortunate realities about having to drive to Orlando for shows is that I inevitably hit traffic, and it's nearly impossible to catch an opening act unless I leave work early. Normally, this is just mildly annoying, but at Hard Rock Live, it has become a serious issue. If the show is seated, once the house lights have been turned down, there is absolutely no way to see where your seat is. The few poorly-trained ushers are of little assistance, and disturbing everyone already seated is a given. At the Air concert several months ago, the ushers actually made four rows of people near the front of the stage stand up and check their tickets to fix the mess. This evening, even after we settled into what we hoped were our seats, just as Hansard transitioned from "Low Rising" into Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing," we saw several other people having the same problem. Hard Rock Live really needs to work on this issue, especially considering the high price of tickets to pretty much any show at the venue.
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2010.