9 September 2018 // Ballintubbert, IE // Come On Up to the House

Poster by Lauren Varian

Support: David Kitt and Bitch Falcon

Setlist: Dance the Devil, Seven Day Mile, A Caution to the Birds, Perfect Opening Line, Sickbeds, God Bless Mom, Stars are Underground, Lay Me Down, Rent Day Blues, Keepsake – Walk Like an Egyptian (Bangles), Pavement Tune, Underglass, Monument, Your Face, Santa Maria, Trying, Revelate, Friends and Foe, Heyday (Mic Christopher), Star Star – Twinkle, Twinkle – Hotellounge (dEUS) – Beautiful Widow (Sparklehorse), Fitzcarraldo, Red Chord, Rob: Lovevolve, Devil Town (Daniel Johnson)

[Thanks to Avril, Anne-Kathrin and Courtney for the setlist.]

Band: Glen Hansard (guitar), Colm Mac Con Iomaire (violin), Joe Doyle (bass), Rob Bochnik (guitar), Dave Hingerty (drums), Romy (piano)

Notes (by Courtney):
During only the second song, Glen shouts, “One!” in response to a guitar flub, and the few hundred of us in the Footsbarn tent know instantly: 1) The band is underprepared; 2) They are gonna enjoy it; 3) We are invited in. Spontaneity is where The Frames have always shone. Intimacy is their home.

The count reaches 20 by Keepsake, when Glen’s guitar sacrifices itself to the gods. The tally is abandoned. We surrender — not just to the swell of Red Chord, or to Heyday’s peak, but to the endless mountain. To the ship on our back.

If any band has earned the right to a full night in the Messy Room, it’s The Frames. If any band has mastered the balance of light and shade, the serious and the silly, it is The Frames. Are we weeping from joy, from sorrow, or from laughter? Yes.

A few photos below by Sascha Bett & Ivi Rebova (full set here) and a fantastic set by Fleur Neale here at Flickr.