I’ve been a very bad film critic as of late. Iron Man has been out two weeks and I haven’t seen it, much to my old office mate’s dismay (though to be fair I’ve made my views of superhero movies well known). Indiana Jones came out on Friday and I wasn’t first in line to see it. And… I guess Speed Racer came out too, though I don’t think I really need a simulated LSD trip right now. I’ve pretty much skipped the movie theater all together this month, and instead listened to some really great music.

Hopefully last year you saw this little indie movie called “Once“. If you haven’t, put it on your Netflix queue. It is a musical for everyone who hates musicals (or likes them). The only reason the film works is that the two stars, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, are so incredibly natural that you buy into everything that happens to them. They’re so good that I never want to see them in another movie again, as that would just prove that they were just acting.

Thankfully they aren’t going back to the big screen, but instead touring as “The Swell Season“, playing the music from the movie and their own original tunes. They came to the Uptown Theater in Kansas City on May 6th.

Getting to the show such an adventure – Parallel parking the Mini in a tight spot with a line of people watching (they applauded when I slipped between with ease – thanks Mini!), getting tickets to the sold out show at the last minute – that I didn’t believe I actually got in. The show was just incredible. The opener was somebody Hansard heard on the streets of Dublin and invited to come on tour with. After intermission the lights dimmed, and Hansard came out with a lone spotlight, walked to the front of the stage away from the microphone, and gave a thrilling rendition of “Say It To Me Now“. What would have been a high point to most shows was just a launching pad for the Swell Season. Hansard has incredible stage presence, and every song had an anecdote told in a thick Irish brogue. Irglova is much quieter, but no less talented, and together they made beautiful music.

On the 14th, Wilco came to Lawrence. I’m going to admit that I am not a Wilco fanboy, even if I listen to bands that are. I only have Hotel Yankee Foxtrot and I think it’s a good album.

It’s hard to turn down seeing a major act, especially when you can see them for free by sneaking up the stairway of the Lawrence parking garage. They put on a pretty good show, though I only knew three of the songs and the rest didn’t make me want to learn more about them. I’ll have to reserve my fanboy-ism for other things.

And then They Might Be Giants came to the Beaumont Club on the 24th. TMBG must be the fathers of nerd music, and a lot of my favorite music owes a lot to TMBG and their counter-counterculture ways.

Having seen them live, I can honestly say they rock HARD. They put on an awesome show. Having twenty years of music to reach back on means they can pick out their very best tracks for an incredibly receptive audience, though it also means their audience had once of the wildest demographics of any rock show I’ve ever seen including nerd parents and their nerd offspring. I think I knew almost 90% of their set, and I don’t even consider myself an TMBG fanboy anymore – but I did fit in well with the crowd.

Now that May is almost over I’d better start doing some animation again. Hopefully there will be a new Movie Monkey soon, unless summer tour season really takes off.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 24th, 2008 at 7:26 pm and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.