Czech Mates

To all intents and purposes, playing to a capacity 1,200 crowd at this Czech theatre seems like a hometown gig for The Frames. Not that there are many ex-pats present – I can count the number of Irish voices I heard on one finger. But rather that the people of the Czech Republic and of its capital in particular have embraced the band’s warm, emotive songs as if they were their own. Earlier that afternoon, we witnessed a group of American students being turned away from the ticket desk: this is one gig that sold out long before the night itself.
The venue is all simple black backdrops and chrome handrails, ultra-modern and hip, and the band take to the stage similarly endowed, each of the five dressed in plain black shirts. But tonight they’re a different Frames than the band we’re used to. With violinist extraordinaire Colm Mac An Iomaire back in Dublin on paternity leave, former Mary Jane Simon Goode plays as a second guitarist, while Rob Botchnik proves his worth as an axeman of some repute, having learnt all Colm’s four-stringed salvos on the electric guitar.
“There’s a point in all your dreaming,” sings Glen Hansard, and the opening lines of ‘Dream Awake’ seem very real tonight, as the band get their just desserts outside the ould sod. And it’s not as if they make it easy on themselves, peppering the early part of the set with tracks from Burn The Maps, which only got its international release five days earlier, including a cascading ‘Finally’, a furious ‘Sideways Down’, a soaringly beautiful ‘Happy’ and a magical take on ‘A Caution To The Birds’.
For their part, the predominantly Czech audience begin the night in deferential mode, bordering on reserved: even the scary looking dude beside me wearing a t-shirt with the legend ‘Kill Everybody’ seems downbeat. However, Glen Hansard proves that he’s the consummate frontman when he needs to be, winning the crowd over through a mixture of natural charisma, warmth and obligatory audience participation.
The crowd rise to him, and they’re soon singing along with gusto during a barnstorming ‘Fake’, a lively ‘Lay Me Down’ and especially a stunning ‘Pavement Tune’. Even the ‘Kill Everybody’ guy is singing his scary heart out, right into my left ear: when Glen bursts into a spontaneous rendition of Rammstein’s ‘America’, he pogos with such vigour that I’m convinced he really is going to do exactly what it says on his t-shirt.
By the time their almost two-hour set is finished, KE guy is screaming for more just as loud as the other 1,199 punters who have witnessed the absolute joy of The Frames in full flight. As one punter, Tomas, put it on the band’s website: “I heard the bird, flew with it and I found myself having a pair of wings. Thank you.”