Twelve months is a long time in music. At this same venue one year ago, even the most fervent well-wisher could not have foreseen the events of 2007. Who could have guessed at the grand splash The Frames would make internationally? By now the details have passed into folk song and legend – stories are told of the little movie that could, the one that gave Steven Spielberg “enough inspiration to last the rest of the year.”
Looking around this evening, an inductivist might conclude that the Once effect rippled still. The assembled mass includes a healthy smattering of German and Czech, and a spectrum of enthusiasm that stretches from high priest to ingénue, legal drinking age to failing liver. But Vicar Street veterans know that tonight’s strange fruit would be there anyway. Like The Pogues gig on the other side of Xmas, The Frames at Vicar Street on New Year’s Eve is now a fixture of the season and quite the place to be. Look here, it’s the corporate crowd, the guys and gals who probably sat in traffic jams for Barbra Streisand last July. Look there, it’s a friend of your father.
From the balcony you can see and hear that this is a house divided, a tale of two audiences, the best of fans and the worst of fans. Some have come for a Big Night Out and some are attending a revival meeting. Polite verbal skirmishes break out as the latter ‘shush’ the former to no real avail. They may not be able to extinguish that giddy Hogmanay vibe, but the carnivalesque conditions don’t bother The Frames none, nor indeed Sunflower Caravan, the delightfully Dadaist outfit from Prague who provide support.
‘Hardworking’, ‘professional’, ‘authentic’ and all those other adjectives we’ve come to associate with Glen Hansard and his merry band are well earned this evening. Their passion for music and performance soars up and over the smatterings of chattering. Even these casual spectators start to succumb, falling slowly under the spell of ‘Star Star’, ‘Skylarkin’ and ‘Suspicious Minds’ as the Frames hardcore rise in song to greet every well-loved word. ‘People Get Ready’ segues into ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and back again, the crowd singing with such gusto they must surely have drown out the nearby Christchurch bells.
The band plays fiercely on until all souls are won. We all know a friend of a friend who walked into a bar in Idaho or Mullingar to find The Frames singing out like they’re playing Croke Park. Tonight’s dedication is more impressive still.