Review and Pictures: Glen Hansard at Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA–The Last Will Be First

Nov 11th, 2015 in Music

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Glen Hansard is one of our favorite artists and live performers who always projects bounteous humanity into his performances.  Monday night at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, Hansard again proved that point all night.  Hansard’s tours of the US are entirely too infrequent so we jumped at the opportunity to catch him for the first time since he ripped the sky open at the 2012 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. On Monday, the meshing of Hansard and the intimate, sweet-sounding Walt Disney Concert Hall resulted in one of the best concerts of the year.

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Talented Aoife O’Donovan opened with a sonorous 30-minute set that meshed perfectly with the pin-drop acoustic surroundings.  O’Donovan’s set was capped off by Sara Watkins (violin) and Thomas Bartlett (piano) joining her (see photo below) for a  tremulous take on the title-track off her impending new album [In The] Magic Hour.

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Hansard then took the stage with six other musicians and opened with Grace Beneath The Pines (see video below), eventually being joined by three horn players spotlighted up in the small balcony way above the rear of the stage.  As he would do on several occasions this night, Hansard sang sans microphone and filled the Disney with his warm, powerful vocals.  The staging and attention to detail made the band’s sounds especially enthralling and made the Disney feel just that more intimate.  There was everything from deft pizzicato violin plucking, egg shakers, heavenly harmonies, the aforementioned horns and, of course, Hansard’s powerful and evocative vocals and songs.  On Winning Streak his ten-piece band performed particularly well, but the highlight of the night was the ferocious performance of When Your Mind’s Made Up (from the film Once).  Dazzling drummer Earl Harvin throttled the song to incredible heights while Hansard sang his soul off, and capped the song off with a perfectly timed leap and landing as the band brought the raging song to a sudden stop.  ‘Twas magic, as they say.  They followed with a powerful reading of another trademark Hansard song, Birds of Sorrow.

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Hansard is the consummate musical host, and on several songs he turned to the audience behind the stage to sing (to their obvious joy).  At one point he asked for the lights to come up to show the beauty of the Disney Hall and spotted a woman in a “black dress in the last row that was just clapping.”  Hansard counted the empty seats in the pit (16) and asked the black-dress woman to bring sixteen of her back-row-friends down to fill the empty pit seats.  And so the last became first.  It was yet another example of Hansard’s winning graciousness.  He also consistently involved the audience, requesting they vocally augment the songs in various ways (Back Broke was greatly enhanced thereby) and telling affecting stories throughout (his father’s drunk friends were dubbed “drunkles,” and he told of a friend briefly ruining songwriting for him by telling him that “songs are proof that love doesn’t work”).  Other highlights included McCormick’s Wall (featuring a vivid fiddle solo) and the new banger, Lowly Deserter (which he performed on Colbert’s show last week) that got the crowd onto its feet.

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Hansard and Rob Bochnik (Frames) dramatically began the first encore spotlit on the same upper rear balcony where the horns began, sans mics or amplification, on the song Say It To Me Now.  Hansard later brought out Aoife O’Donovan to assist on his treacly Once ballad Falling Slowly, and then brought the entire band (with Aoife, who killed it) to the front in a line to render a rousing accapella version of the standard The Auld Triangle.  He closed the encore with a winsome version of Her Mercy.  The second encore featured Philander followed by an everyman’s take of Leonard Cohen’s Passing Through (watch video below).

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As we said, Hansard never fails to give each show his all, and it was definitely the case at Disney Hall on Monday night.  Don’t miss any opportunity to catch his life-affirming concerts (go HERE to see the list of dates).

Setlist:

Grace Beneath the Pines
Winning Streak
My Little Ruin
When Your Mind’s Made Up
Back Broke
Bird of Sorrow
McCormack’s Wall
Lowly Deserter
Talking With the Wolves
High Hope
This Gift

First Encore:

Say It to Me Now
Gold
Falling Slowly
The Auld Triangle
Her Mercy

Second Encore:

Philander
Passing Through

2 Comments

  • Thanks Shannon. Fixed! Earl Harvin was mesmerizing throughout, but his playing on “When Your Mind’s Made Up” had the energy and chops of the greatest. Superb!

  • drummer – earl harvin
    guitarist – rob bochnik (he was in the frames with glen)

 

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