Frames on song for Live at Marquee gig

IF a property’s appeal is ‘location, location, location’, then a band’s is ‘the songs, the songs, the songs’, and The Frames’s storming Live At The Marquee concert on Friday proved the point.

Glen Hansard and the band played a set largely drawn from the first half of their career, with classics such as ‘Rent Day Blues’ (which he dedicated to Eoin Ó Broin TD, who was hospitalised this week); and ‘Angel At My Table’, in which the band had twin electric guitar intros, bass and drum sound to match any rock band you’ll ever hear.

It is good to see Glen and the only other original member of The Frames (the original lineup played together at their last visit to The Marquee and were lovingly referred to as ‘The Zimmer-Frames), violinist Colm Mac Ionamire still pushing the limits of songs such as ‘The Stars are Underground’ and ‘Santa Maria’, with equal mix of distortion and dynamics.

While he spoke a lot less than he has in his his smaller shows, where his ‘Glen-O-Logues’ were sometimes longer than a song, Glen still used many of the skills he picked up busking to work a crowd of thousands of people to create more intimacy.

Sharing his stage with others is a long-standing tradition for Glen, and for ‘Star Star**’ he brought on a Ukrainian woman, Anna Kardakova, who lives near him and his family, to sing her national anthem. Having done a warm-up show in Levi’s in Ballydehob during the week, the band returned to Cork City with two members of Interference in tow, who came on for a great version of ‘Looking For Someone’.

Perhaps the biggest reaction from the crowd was when James O’Leary took his guitar solo.

The finale of the concert involved two classic songs synonymous with any gig by Glen Hansard or The Frames, ‘Fitzcaraldo’ and Mic Christopher’s ‘Hey Day’.

However, this concert had a twist, with Glen introducing a young singer and musician, Andrew Fletcher, from Midleton, who took the lead vocals for both.

The Frame’s first three albums, Another Love Song, Fitzcaraldo, and Dance The Devil are all being released on vinyl this week via 

www.claddaghrecords.com.