The Frames @ The Forum,Melbourne (20/08/2007)

Thu 30th Aug, 2007 in Gig Reviews

This was the fourth time that I’d have the absolute pleasure in witnessing another of Ireland’s blessed musical acts – The Frames – and their performance tonight was nothing short of being the best I’ve seen and heard them belt out their brand of melodic rock. Having viewed the featured Glen Hansard film Once just recently at the Melbourne International Film Festival; this only served as another beautiful reminder as to why I find Hansard and his Frames mates to be at the top of the list of my all time favourite bands, in terms of the emotion they can wring out of me every time.

Stepping out onto the breathtaking Forum stage with all of its classic European aesthetic surrounding’s, The Frames would launch into material from back-catalogue albums Fitzcarraldo, Dance The Devil and For The Birds (all albums which feature songs in most live Frames shows) and can be heard on the 2003 live album Set List. Hansard led his fellow Irishmen through classic songs, ‘Revelate’, ‘Lay Me Down’, ‘God Bless Mom’ and ‘Star Star’ (again with a cameo part given to the 1960s penned ditty, ‘Pure Imagination’ which featured prominently in Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory).

‘Santa Maria’ just broke my heart with its weeping guitar sounds, the textured rhythm’s, Hansard’s vocal, and the general mood that enveloped the crowd throughout the eight minute monster which reached a phenomenal crescendo with its rise in Colm Mac ConIomaire’s electric fiddle usage hitting frenetically gorgeous moments of pleasure and stress relief. The breathtaking ‘Fitzcarraldo’ which not for the first time involved the audience members on the now common-placed Frames sing-a-long sessions, or rather back up harmonies, was another treat that didn’t disappoint.

In the way of The Frames most recent studio albums, Burn The Maps and The Cost, the band played material such as ‘Fake’, ‘Sideways Down’ and the schizophrenic ‘Keepsake’ to go along with ‘The Cost numbers’, which also featured in Once, such as the melancholy ‘Falling Slowly’ and ‘When Your Mind’s Made Up’ – both songs were given the live treatment that they were deserved of – there was no – œmixing it up’ for interests sake by the band and we can all be grateful for this.

And that’s the most important thing you will ever get out of The Frames’ music – the belief, the honesty, the warmth, the songs, the brilliant, brilliant songs that can pull you in like a ferocious tiger nestles her cubs, before setting you free to fight your own battles out in the big, bad world. When Hansard kicked off the boys in a splendid rendition of the Bob Marley made famous 1974 classic ‘No Woman, No Cry’ (played out of respect for the people of Jamaica who had bared the full force of Hurricane Dean) the chills up and down my back shot straight up to my neck and then down again to my legs before performing the same repetitive pattern that when I think about it, lasted for almost the entire duration of the show! Bob Dylan!? Give me The Frames any day.