I saw Swell Season at the Regency Grand Ballroom on Friday, November 9th, 2007.   Swell Season is made of up Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard (lead singer from The Frames); their songs together eventually became the feature-length movie-musical Once.  I saw Glen Hansard with The Frames at the Somerville Theatre in Fall 2005 (opening for Josh Ritter) and even saw Swell Season in Fall 2006 in a short set opening for Damien Rice.  I enjoyed the previous shows … but not nearly as much as this most recent show.  Glen is even more powerful with just his voice and an acoustic guitar while Marketa is a reticent force. ‘Heartfelt’ is the best word I can use to describe both their songs and their performance.

A couple thoughts about the show:

1. Glen played the same beat-up guitar he played in the movie Once.  Great touch.
2. Marketa didn’t play The Hill, one of the best songs of the movie. 
3. Marketa didn’t say almost anything during the show.  Would’ve liked to hear her a little.
4. WOW I LOVE YOUTUBE: Glen did an amazing rendition of Van Morrison’s Into The Mystic. They also did a really fun version of a Bob Dylan’s You Ain’t Goin Nowhere.  Ohhh-eeee….Ride me high, tomorrow’s the day my bride’s gonna come … (update: here’s a better video of the dylan cover.) 
5. For me, Leave was the most powerful song of the night.  Glen singing “Let go of my hand \ you said what you have to \ now Leave \ Leeaaveee …” Unforgettable.

And now for something completely different:

I was reading about Lewy Body Dementia (LBD, sort of like Alzheimers) today and put on the Once soundtrack for some background music.  Falling Slowly came on and froze me.  (If you want to listen along with me, download an mp3 of Falling Slowly.)

I had been reading lines such as the following:

• “An early typical sign of LBD is occasional loss of attention and alertness”
• “Persistent difficulties with short-term memory and recalling specific names of people or objects show up much later in LBD.”
• “…may have more difficulty responding appropriately during a conversation, such as finding the right words to express themselves or staying on the topic.”
• “…there may be signs of depression, such as increased irritability, poor concentration, lack of attention during interactions, sadness or a negative mood, poor appetite or sleep…”

All the while I was listening to Swell Season singing “I don’t know you” … “Words fall through me \ always fool me \ and I can’t react” … and

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can’t go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I’m painted black

It’s probably a stretch that the song is about dementia … I even heard Glen explain Falling Slowly as about ’seeing a girl across the room at a party and wanting her’ … but the meaning changed for me just now.

Important lesson: much like Helvetica (the font), a good song (like a good font) can hold many different meanings for many different messages to many different people. 

p.s. Here’s a poor quality cellphone picture I took at the show:

Is there anything better than that moment in a movie when the main character lets down their guard, sings from their heart, and transforms through a song?

No, there isn’t. The Magical Transforming Song Moment (MTSM) combines music, story-telling, and visuals into one powerful moment.  The MTSM has it all.

You know it’s a good MTSM when the first few notes settle your mind, the first verse slows your breathing and opens your mouth slightly, and 2nd chorus sends a shiver up your back as you witness - at that very moment - the character transforming.  That’s a good one.

And here are two such scenes to enjoy…

Stranger Than Fiction
Harold Crick is an IRS employee who discovers his life only when he is told that he is going to die.  Although the plot is cliche, the premise to achieve it - hearing someone narrate your life — is novel.   The turning point for Harold discovering ‘life’ comes in a MTSM:

About a Boy
Will is a playboy who doesn’t care about anyone else … until Marcus stumbles into his life and complicates things.  Will rescues Marcus from making a fool of himself at a school assembly during a great MTSM.

What makes these MTSM work?  The song and cinematography are obviously critical … but I think it’s the story-telling aspect that really makes ‘em work.  And with regard to the storytelling: lots of things matter, but the never-gonna-happen dramatic foreshadowing is critical:

• About a Boy explicitly narrates that Will never thought he’d be singing with his eyes closed … but there are many more: Will says he keeps the guitars around to “just look cool” (not to play) and there’s another scene where he just mumbles through a christmas song with Marcus’s family.  All of these mis-directions make the MSTM what it is.
• Stranger Than Fiction foreshadows Will’s coming MTSM with his trip to the guitar store. What’s slightly more subtle is that when Will chooses a guitar to represent himself at the guitar store, he purposefully skips past the acoustic guitars because they “are for a guys who wear their heart on their sleeve” (that’s paraphrased as I don’t feel like going back to see the particular scene).  And when Will sings for his love, what guitar does he use?  Of course.

Building up a character so that an MTSM is the furthest thing expected from the character is what makes it wonderful.

As a question to readers: is their foreshadowing in your own life-story indicating you’ll ever perform a MTSM?

further exploration: you can buy Stranger Than Fiction or About a Boy.