As scenesters, we are leery of sincerity, and so it was with some trepidation we found ourselves in a big Liberty Hall crowd for the earnest Irish troubadour/busker/Academy Award winner Glen Hansard last night. But were we won over? Well, mostly yes. If you can resist a show that ends with 14 or 15 folks (including the opening band, a string section, and a bunch of Levon Helm's backing band on horns) jamming out to The Band's "Don't Do It" while passing around a bottle of whiskey (Jameson's?) kindly supplied by Liberty Hall even though the bar was closing down at the time....well, then, you are made of sterner stuff than us.
Other highlights:
The two Irish lads in opening band The Lost Brothers seemed completely delighted with the theater ("There's some crazy-ass pictures on the wall here.") and LFK in general. And their "Moon River' tribute to Andy Williams, who just passed away, made Chip cry a little...and then recover and recite his favorite Nelson line from The Simpsons about six times: "I didn't think he was gonna do Moon River, but then, bam, second encore!"
Hansard's response to the woman who shouted "I still love you!" about halfway through the set: "Still? Did I do something wrong?"
A cover of "Astral Weeks" (indeed, much of the evening as a whole had a very Van Morrison-y vibe...why can't more evenings have a very Van Morrison-y vibe).
The Lost Brothers returning to the stage with Hansard and company to sing some Everly Brothers.
Lowlights:
Reserved seating at Liberty Hall was a true clusterfuck once the lights went down, with employees constantly shining lights during the opening set to help (annoying) latecomers crawl around in the upper balcony. Finally we grew annoyed and went downstairs.
We thought for sure local troubadour/busker Tyler Gregory would eventually emerge from the darkness to busk an a cappella tune with Hansard on stage at the end. No such luck.
Visit I Heart Local Music for a nice photo gallery.
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After a month of intense (Winter's) Boning, Read Across Lawrence will finally climax this weekend with a Daniel Woodrell Q & A session this evening at Liberty Hall (7:30) and a screening of the Winter's Bone film adaptation on 35mm Sunday morning at Liberty Hall's Film Church (11:30).
And have you seen the sweet new logo for Film Church?
You'll also want to drop by 715 and sample some of their Winter's Bone-inspired venison dishes. Chip is very disappointed, however, that they are unable to serve up the novel's signature dish: squirrel. 715 is also serving brunch at Film Church.
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If you're in need of even more literary fare, drop by the Lawrence Public Library at 7:30 on Friday for their unveiling of the winning entries in their Banned Book Trading Card competition. PLEASE tell us that BARRR submitted some kind of fucked-up take on A Clockwork Orange??
Full details here at the Facebook event page.
You should also check out the Final Friday picks from Larryville Artists blog, which offers guidance for your downtown picks here and info about the Campus Art Walk here . Apparently a Jayhawk will be "yarn bombed" at 5:00 pm in the Union.
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And the top music pick for scenesters is obviously GBV at the Granada on Friday. We hear they get just as drunk now as they ever did!
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