Concert Review: The Swell Season at the Uptown

The Swell Season is a decent, hardworking band with the misfortune of appearing to be a shrewd marketing ploy -- one molded by a creative team with a weakness for schmaltz: Veteran troubadour Glen Hansard collaborates with angel-voiced young songstress Markéta Irglová. Beautiful music is made, love blossoms and an Academy Award follows. This story, of course, is available on multiple platforms. A number of the resulting songs appear in the feature film Once; on the soundtrack to that film; on an album by Hansard's band, the Frames; and on an album by Hansard and Irglová's band, the Swell Season. The smitten fans who bought all three albums and the movie itself must have infinite listening capacity for the song "Falling Slowly."

Photo by Conor Masterson/theswellseason.com

The Swell Season (Hansard and Irglová are second and third from left)

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At the risk of spoiling the movie, Glen and Marketa's characters don't end up together. And after a real-life romance, they're not together anymore offscreen, either. What's left is the Swell Season, a new album called Strict Joy, and a very satisfying live show. This is where a marketing team's ideas simply wouldn't be enough. A successful second album? That's too unbelievable for today's jaded consumers.

The Swell Season consists of Hansard and Irglová backed by the Frames, a wholly professional group of musicians who give some jangle and heft to the two intertwining voices. Soon after last night's twee opener, "Fallen From the Sky," the full band kicked out a couple of new jams, "Low Rising" and "Feeling the Pull." "Low Rising" sounds suspiciously similar to Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic," which means it is suspiciously similar to awesome. "Feeling the Pull" has that travelin'-down-the-road feeling only an acoustic guitar and a harmonica can provide.

Onstage, Glen Hansard is a red-headed bundle of wild earnestness, like Alexi Lalas singing "Rockabye." Hansard dedicated a song to an old woman he met on an elevator whose son had died in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The frontman claimed to truly appreciate playing in front of such a large, adoring audience. If the Swell Season is any indication, Ireland's chief export is sincerity. In fact, I believe Ireland won the gold medal in sincerity at the 2008 Summer Olympics. His lyrics have an emotional directness that makes you believe every song and story must be based on a real relationship, as though he's making his text messages visible to the world without editing them to appear more intellectual or edgy. Musically, this directness is layered and thoughtful enough to avoid sounding too obvious.

Irglová added some mystery and delicateness to the band's sound through her vocal harmonies and piano. The minor-key melodies on which she sang lead were the cool shadows in an otherwise sunny set. Toward the middle of the show, she and Hansard were alone onstage for a cover of Tim Buckley's "Buzzin' Fly." The tension between her airy harmonizing and his tormented strumming conveyed the emotional strain that can come out of a relationship -- and the beauty.

Opener Rachel Yamagata played sultry singer-songwriter fare about failed relationships. Her resumé includes appearances on Ryan Adams and Ray LaMontagne albums, as well as on the iPods of heartbroken 19-year-old girls. Full disclosure: I may have listened to her songs "Reason Why" and "1963" on repeat in college.

As for the setlist: I diligently wrote down the songs in the dark balcony of the Uptown Theater, then got home and realized half of what I wrote was illegible. The Swell Season played all the songs you'd expect from the movie Once, quite a few from their solid new album, and probably a few old ones from the Frames.