Why Glen Hansard is The Man and reflecting on Ed solo

samjam
samjam New York Posts: 9,283
edited August 2011 in The Porch
Was watching Water on the Road again today and could not help but think about how amazing of an experience it was to have seen Eddie solo. Those 2 NYC shows were such treats and I'm really happy and grateful that I got to see them!! Also was thinking back on how Glen Hansard was one of the best openers I have seen for any show that I have been to- so much respect for that guy! He also happens to be a really nice guy and a pretty good artist- I'll get to that later! Just wanted to share a the little story of how I met him and how I got the most unique Glen autograph out there!!

Prior to the 2nd Beacon show, my friend and I decided we wanted to show up early to try and catch Ed going into the theater. After thinking we had the right bearings but being wrong, we ended up showing up to the Beacon to hear that we had literally just missed Ed--by less than 5 minutes! Hard to hear, but we ended up hanging around a little bit and thinking hey- we got nothing else to do! Didn't even consider the fact that we might get the chance to meet Glen! After about 30/45 min of waiting, Glen came out of a taxi cab and graciously talked to the other few people that were waiting. When he came over to us, my friend and I complemented him on how amazing his music was and how hearing him live turned us into big fans, and just shared in some small talk. He was signing things and my friend had her tour program from the night before, so she turned to Glen's page in the Sniper and he signed it 'Sarah, Gra mor, Glen'. I had left my tour program from the night before in the apartment my friend and I were staying at and was wishing that I brought it because I though I had nothing else sign-able in my purse. Then I realized I did have my Uke Songs CD, but didn't want him to sign the front. Suddenly I came to the realization that he could sign the 'Sleepless Nights' picture page in the CD! The picture next to the lyrics on that page is the faded picture of Ed playing a uke on the beach. Instead of just signing his name, Glen drew a caricature of him playing a guitar next to Ed playing the uke, and signed it 'Gra mor, Glen'. What a nice, nice (and funny) guy and what a badass one-of-a-kind thing to own! Thanks again, Glen! :)

Here's the picture!! http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz71/samjam92/glen-1.jpg
"Sometimes you find yourself having to put all your faith in no faith."
~not a dude~
2010: MSGx2
2012: Made In America
2013: Pittsburgh, Brooklynx2, Hartford, Baltimore
2014: Leeds, Milton Keynes, Detroit
2015: Global Citizen Festival
2016: Phillyx2, MSGx2, Fenwayx2
2018: Barcelona, Wrigleyx2
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • PilateOfTheStorm
    PilateOfTheStorm Posts: 4,319
    nice story

    and cool drawing too - very great of him to do
  • territamu
    territamu Posts: 194
    What a great story and unique keepsake! I really enjoyed Glen's opening set (I saw them in Detroit) and wished some of the crowd was more respectful of him as he was playing. What a voice!!! And then he and EV together...WOW! I hope we get a DVD or bootlegs from these shows!
    I'll ride the wave where it takes me

    06/26/2011 - EV - Detroit, MI
    09/03 and 09/04/2011 PJ20 - Alpine Valley
    06/20 and 06/21/2012 - PJ - Manchester, UK
    11/13 and 11/16/2012 - EV - Houston, TX and Dallas, TX
    07/29/2013 - PJ - Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL
    11/15/2013 - PJ - Dallas, TX
    11/16/2013 - PJ - Oklahoma City, OK
    10/03/2014 - PJ - St. Louis, MO
    10/08/2014 - PJ - Tulsa, OK
    10/12/2014 - PJ - ACL Festival, Austin, TX
  • Jon Chorba
    Jon Chorba Posts: 268
    cool story.

    I never heard of Glen before seeing him in Philly. I've since bought "The Swell Season" and am enjoying the hell out of it!!!


    If You Like Crunchy Guitar Riffs, Powerful Vocals, Melodic Guitar Solos, And Meaningful Lyrics..then you need to check out one of the most refreshing new hard rock bands in quite some time...-->The Liberty Underground<--
  • RG306679
    RG306679 Posts: 82
    Glen hansard is the Man. The Frames and The Swell Season are both really great bands (although i'm gonna have to go with The Frames seeing as I'm Irish =P). Also, dunno if ye know this but he starred/played in the 90's film "The Commitments". Its a savage film about a soul band in Dublin in the 90's, really hilarious too. Anyway the reason i'm bringing that up is cos they recently did about four 20th Anniversary Tour shows earlier this year and it was fucking mental! First time they played in 20 years and it was in my home town!! :mrgreen:

    P.S. Grá mór is Irish for "Love" (technically "Big Love" but it would mean "lots of love")
    www.robinguiton.com
  • we-were-but-stones
    we-were-but-stones Posts: 697
    very nice to hear your story

    ive seen a few versions of falling slowly with ed ......wow!!!! :D
    Manchester 09
    Belfast 2010
    Hyde Park 2010
    Manchester 2012 N1&2
    Amsterdam 2012 N1&2
    EV Manchester 2012
    EV London 2012 N2
    Brooklyn 2013  N1&2
    Milan,Leeds,Milton Keynes,Denver 2014
    EV London 2017 N1&2
    Krakow 2018
    EV Dublin 2019
    Hyde Park 2022 N2
    Manchester 2024



  • Echoes 001
    Echoes 001 Posts: 58
    territamu wrote:
    What a great story and unique keepsake! I really enjoyed Glen's opening set (I saw them in Detroit) and wished some of the crowd was more respectful of him as he was playing. What a voice!!! And then he and EV together...WOW! I hope we get a DVD or bootlegs from these shows!

    I was at Detroit as well and was disappointed in the crowd when Glen was on, I was blown away by his performance and couldn't believe that people weren't more attentive to his playing, seemed like a lot of the people around me were not interested in him at all. I became an instant fan of him though. :)
    09-22-1996 Toledo, Ohio
    08-18-1998 East Lansing, Michigan
    10-07-2000 Auburn Hills, Michigan
    04-23-2003 Champaign, Illinois
    06-26-2003 Clarkston, Michigan
    05-22-2006 Auburn Hills, Michigan
    06-26-2011 Detroit, Michigan - Eddie Vedder

  • Callaway
    Callaway Posts: 635
    edited October 2011
    :|
    Post edited by Callaway on
  • JordyWordy
    JordyWordy Posts: 2,261
    Wink wrote:
    The knock I've heard from some friends is that if you've heard 1 of Glen's songs then you've heard them all. I think most artists you could say that about though.

    You could say it about most artists, and it hold for Glen on this tour, but the unusual thing is that on this tour Glen didn't really represent his catalogue very widely.

    Funny thing is that his material on this tour was more repetitive than it normally is. The songs he played opening for EV were all of a very similar style, a lot of them were written recently (Pennies, Become, Love Dont Keep Me, Song Of Good Hope). Which is cool, they are his solo songs, it's a solo tour, I can dig that.

    I was a wee bit disappointed he didnt do solo versions of some the Frames' louder songs in the EV shows, as he can make them work surprisingly well acoustically. Songs like Pavement Tune, Revelate, Say it To Me Now, Fitzcarraldo, Hey Day weren't played at all....or even their more nuanced songs, like Star Star, Lay Me Down, Headlong, Santa Maria, The Blood, or Heart Just Stops. He didn't play many trad songs either.

    Either way, point is the new songs arent very reflective of his catalogue or his previous solo sets.

    His most successful material outside Ireland (ie: The Swell Season albums) are by far the most repetitive of his albums. The Frames albums have far more variety on them - "Dance The Devil" and "For The Birds" in particular.
  • eldarion75
    eldarion75 Posts: 2,488
    That's a cool pic OP..he does those drawings frequently but they never show up in a pic with ed:)

    is anyone here called Laura?

    i've got the frames photo book signed by Glen with the same charicature if there is..

    got it for a friend originally but got her name completely wrong :oops:

    PM me :)
  • Hinn
    Hinn Posts: 1,517
    Fav Glen moment, and there's been some - telling him I went to 3 out of 4 shows Swell Season played at Sydney Opera House and skipped the 4th one so I can go catch Leonard Cohen a few blocks down the road, and him saying yeah, they cut short their set on that night too, cos he decided he couldn't miss Leonard so he jumped on a cab with Mar to speed down there to catch some of Mr Cohen too.

    He's one of us.
    115 bucks for half a haircut by a novice? I want my money back!
  • Callaway
    Callaway Posts: 635
    eldarion75 wrote:
    That's a cool pic OP..he does those drawings frequently but they never show up in a pic with ed:)

    is anyone here called Laura?

    i've got the frames photo book signed by Glen with the same charicature if there is..

    got it for a friend originally but got her name completely wrong :oops:

    PM me :)

    Glen's cousin appears. :)
  • Hinn
    Hinn Posts: 1,517
    Wink wrote:
    eldarion75 wrote:
    That's a cool pic OP..he does those drawings frequently but they never show up in a pic with ed:)

    is anyone here called Laura?

    i've got the frames photo book signed by Glen with the same charicature if there is..

    got it for a friend originally but got her name completely wrong :oops:

    PM me :)

    Glen's cousin appears. :)
    My friend is a one man street team who covers the efforts of 100 people.
    115 bucks for half a haircut by a novice? I want my money back!
  • eldarion75
    eldarion75 Posts: 2,488
    One and the same :)

    here's the show that was streamed online from Iceland the other night if anyone's into it..

    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DU6PWNDM
  • eldarion75
    eldarion75 Posts: 2,488
    Hinn wrote:
    Wink wrote:
    eldarion75 wrote:
    That's a cool pic OP..he does those drawings frequently but they never show up in a pic with ed:)

    is anyone here called Laura?

    i've got the frames photo book signed by Glen with the same charicature if there is..

    got it for a friend originally but got her name completely wrong :oops:

    PM me :)

    Glen's cousin appears. :)
    My friend is a one man street team who covers the efforts of 100 people.


    By the way, it's an honour and a pleasure to do that too :)

    but there've been unbelieveable moments/holidays and about a thousand shows..big huge memories, oceans of music and a megaton of great people.

    shit, i'm indebted and overpayed in kind :)
  • samjam
    samjam New York Posts: 9,283
    Was definitely a very cool moment, happy to be able to share it with you all! Since hearing Glen I've been checking out all that he's done and none of his projects have disappointed! Great stuff.
    "Sometimes you find yourself having to put all your faith in no faith."
    ~not a dude~
    2010: MSGx2
    2012: Made In America
    2013: Pittsburgh, Brooklynx2, Hartford, Baltimore
    2014: Leeds, Milton Keynes, Detroit
    2015: Global Citizen Festival
    2016: Phillyx2, MSGx2, Fenwayx2
    2018: Barcelona, Wrigleyx2
  • Grandma
    Grandma Posts: 259
    I went to the National Portrait Museum in London recently and saw his incredible eyes looking at me as I turned the corner:
    Glen_small.jpg

    This portrait is part of a temporary exhibition for the BP Portrait Award. Amazing in person. It's by Colin Davidson and called 'Thread the Light'. The caption made Glen sound like he's considered a national treasure.
  • thefixer9
    thefixer9 Posts: 9,376
    Wow!!! You are really lucky!!! :)
    Tres Mts- 3/16/2011
    Eddie Vedder- 7/16/11
    Brad- 4/21/12 (RSD Performance), 4/27/12, 8/10/12
    Flight To Mars- 5/23/12
    RNDM- 11/27/12

    PEARL JAM- 12/6/13 I have finally seen Pearl Jam live!
  • Hinn
    Hinn Posts: 1,517
    Thanks, I'll wander down there tomorrow to see if it's still there
    115 bucks for half a haircut by a novice? I want my money back!
  • dasvidana
    dasvidana Grand Junction CO Posts: 1,356
    eldarion75 wrote:
    One and the same :)

    here's the show that was streamed online from Iceland the other night if anyone's into it..

    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DU6PWNDM

    Awesome! Thanks for the link. I'm totally hooked on Glen now. He IS the Man!
    It's nice to be nice to the nice.
  • drummerboy_73
    drummerboy_73 Las Vegas, NV Posts: 2,011
    I've been into Glen/Swell Season since I saw "Once" a few years ago - one of my favorite Swell Season performances ever:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMYjCINcH9g
    Osaka, Japan (2/21/95), San Diego (7/10/98), Las Vegas (10/22/00), San Diego (10/25/00), Las Vegas (6/6/03), Las Vegas (7/6/06), Los Angeles (7/9/06), VH1 Rock Honors (7/12/08), Ed Solo (7/8/11), Ed Solo (11/1/12), Los Angeles (11/23/13)

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