If you went into Glen Hansard’s show at The Civic on Tuesday night expecting a sprint of his, you would have been sorely wrong as it turned out being a marathon. It’s not often a band can wear out an audience, but Glen may have just done that. I don’t know where he finds the energy.
The Irish duo, The Lost Brothers (Mark McCausland and Oisin Leech) had the daunting task of opening up for Glen. The duos acoustic folk was the perfect fit for the evening and served as a great appetizer. As the nature of being an opener, the set was short, but served its purpose rightfully.
The last time Glen was in town was to play Jazz Fest in 2012. His nine song set would almost equal out to the encores he ended up playing at the Civic. Before the Jazz Fest set Glen made his way to New Orleans to play the House of Blues with the Swell Season back in 2009. His set list for the night was composed of material from that band as well as his other band, The Frames, and his sols stuff as well as a variety of hand crafted covers. The beauty of the evening, other than the sheer size of the set was Glen himself. He is a master storyteller and on several occasions introduced songs with some amazing insights. He also came beyond close to breaking the forth wall but manages to keep his heels on the stage. At the end of the night, he somehow managed to drag to whole audience into a pub. The sing along aspect of the evening only made it even more magical.
You can see a gallery of pictures here: http://jalbum.net/a/1593197
