It was a long and passionate performance a week ago from the Czech-Irish band Swell Season and its flair and atmosphere were highlighted by the compelling acoustic features of Polish Radio Wrocław's concert hall. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the creative due behind the act, were met with an enthusiastic reception of a room filled to the brims with fans, drawn to the first gig in Poland by the Once soundtrack authors. Luckily, their own engagement matched the level of anticipation in the audience giving rise to an explosive mixture that is a guarantee of a great concert.
Unlike some other listeners, I was glad that a big part of the concert was based on the latest album, Strict Joy, which I find a delight, rather than just smash hits from Once. Glen's voice sounds even more powerful, aching and engaging live than it does when you listen to the records and I reveled when the band went on to play my favourites, such as Paper Cup or Feeling the Pull. There is simplicity to Swell Season that touches you straight to the bottom of your heart with tender melody, considerate, original lyrics and this straightforward feel of travelling street musicians. There is also plenty of positive energy emanating from everyone on stage, particularly Glen, who might be a modest-looking bloke but detectably takes pleasure in connecting with the audience by trading jokes, telling anecdotes or simply making noises. I can barely imagine what he had to feel like when one fan threw himself from the roof of the stage to meet death mere feet away from where Glen was standing during their concert in Saratoga, California.
In the end, before they left the stage after half an hour or more of encores, they hadn't only managed to play out all their Once anthems, but also a couple of covers, including Dylan's You Ain't Goin' Nowhere and Van Morrison's Into the Mystic, both sending shivers down my spine, plus a series of crowd-pleasing sing-alongs. The response was a standing ovation a few times over and the room full of beaming faces, of fans and artists.
The funny thing was that there was a group of Czech people sitting next to me and at one point in the concert, Marketa said her family had come from her hometown to see her in person since she currently lived in New York. She dedicated one song to her sister who'd brought her new boyfriend with her. The hapless bloke seemed a little out of place there, especially in the second part when fans' roaring and clapping kept the performace going and going, to his visible dissatisfaction.
The act of the evening were supported by Bratislava's Longital, a young, electronica-driven duo whose leader played the guitar with a violin bow and spoke suspiciously fluent, idiomatic Polish. Towards the end of the gig, they came on stage to redo one of their songs with the Swell Season.
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