Once (2006)

I loved, loved, loved this movie. The story was totally unrealistic and yet somehow completely realistic at the same time. Once, which won the World Cinema Audience Award for a dramatic film at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, is sort of a musical. It chronicles the lives of two poor musicians, who within the course of a week meet, collaborate on an album together and fall in love.

Once stars The Frames’ Glen Hansard and Czech musician Marketa Irglova. I am a huge fan of Lay Me Down, a single by The Frames. All the music from the movie was composed and performed by Hansard and Irglova, and it’s beautiful modern rock music. It’s the kind of music that you feel like you could fall into and swim around in. There are pretty acoustic guitars and lovely piano melodies. The lyrics are honest and chronicle the pain of unhealthy relationships, being hurt, losing love and wanting love. Some of the songs do sound a bit like the Coldplay style of ballad, but it’s so much more passionate and evocative. (You can listen to the whole soundtrack free at www.foxsearchlight.com/once/) And Hansard performs some amazing vocal feats of octave jumps that sound almost operatic. The songs are brimming with emotions. I just can’t say enough good things about the music.

It was really interesting to see a movie where the main actors are not really actors at all, but musicians. The film was made on a teensy, tiny budget of $150,000, and the street scenes in Dublin were shot without permits and with a long camera lens. The film wasn’t overacted, and certainly not over-produced. At times it felt like you were watching someone’s home movies, and it was very refreshing compared to the summer blockbusters. I felt like I was watching something that was really happening; a real week in real people’s lives.

So what I found unrealistic about the film is mostly the way the characters meet. Hansard’s character works for his father fixing vacuum cleaners, and also plays his guitar on the street at a busy Dublin shopping area. Irglova’s character, who is a cleaning lady who also sells flowers on the street to support her young daugher, just approaches him one evening while he is playing and she starts asking him questions about his music and himself. This seems very dangerous to me as a girl who grew up in New York city. You don’t walk up to the street musicians, you don’t make eye contact with them, and you certainly don’t start talking to them. But maybe that’s why I don’t have a cute Irish boyfriend. Maybe not.

What I found very realistic about the movie is that the characters do not get together in a romantic way. They don’t even kiss. They both have just come out of painful relationships, and in the end, even though the characters really and truly connect and obviously love each other, they each go back to their past relationships. Hansard’s character goes to London to get back together with his ex-girlfriend who cheated on him. And Irglova’s character moves back in with her estranged husband. To me, this is reality. There are no fairy tales. People stay in unhealthy relationships, and for so many reasons. They think they can’t do any better, or they stay together for “the sake of the children,” or because it’s familiar, or because they simply don’t want to be alone.

The Everybody Fields and The Kamikaze Hearts at the Parting Glass, April 27, 2007

A great show. I had never heard either of these bands before attending their performance at the Parting Glass last Friday night in Saratoga Springs, NY.

The Everybody Fields are a trio from Johnson City, Tennessee. They are an alternative country, bluegrassy, rootsy folk band driven by harmonizing instrumentals and two strong, soulful vocalists. Their sound reminds me of Neko Case’s solo album “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.” Imagine sitting on your couch on a rainy Saturday afternoon, looking outside your window, and feeling a little bit melancholy, and a little bit hopeful. Those are the feelings The Everybody Fields’ music evokes. The band is made up of Jill Andrews and Sam Quinn on vocals, guitar and bass, and Josh Oliver on keyboards and guitar. Andrews and Quinn’s vocals were both full of emotion and passion, and while their voices are very different technically, (Andrews voice is strong and clear, and you just know she can really belt out a song, while Quinn’s voice is more classically country sounding) they harmonized really well and in interesting ways.

Their nine-song set took the audience on a great emotional journey, starting out with a very upbeat song, then into sadder territory, and lightening up again at the end. The lyrics were poetic and honest. And while Andrews and Quinn were dressed in a very hipster fashion, I was initially a bit thrown off by Oliver, who looked like he could have rolled out of bed right before the show, and didn’t seem to mesh with the group’s image. But I was incredibly impressed by his performance. If I were a song, I would want to sound like his electric guitar solos. They were evocative, seemed technically challenging, and sounded just like my heart felt. And what more can you ask from music but than to help you understand and express your own feelings? I haven’t heard either of their albums, “halfway there: electricity and the South” (2004) or “plague of dreams,” (2005) but I’m looking forward to listening to them, as well as to “nothing is okay,” which is due out on Aug. 21.

The Kamikaze Hearts were the main act for the evening. Based out of Albany, NY, this group of five guys mostly all sported the typical dirty hippie look of long hair and full beards. A combination of an Indie rock and folk sound, the Hearts are driven by a strong drum and bass section, which is complemented well by a couple of acoustic guitars, keyboards, a lap steel guitar, a mandolin and a banjo. The music was really high energy and some of it was very radio-friendly sounding. The band, made up of Bob Buckley, Nate Giordano, Matthew Loiacono, Troy Pohl and Gaven Richard, were joined last Friday by Frank Moscowitz on the keyboards. The band sounded good together vocally and had a very strong sound. And after eight years of playing together, you could tell they were very comfortable with each other. It was like we were watching them practice in their garage. They had great banter between each other and the audience, and even started songs over a couple of times, to the amusement of the audience.

What I found very interesting musically was hearing a rocking solo played on a mandolin, which looks like a teeny, tiny guitar and is about the size of a yukelale. I was also impressed by the drummer’s ability to sing lead vocals for several of the songs while keeping a really strong and solid rhythm. And the lead guitarist’s voice sounded very familiar to me, though I couldn’t place from where. The banjo added a lovely dimension to the music. The only problem I had was that by 11:30 p.m. I was getting sleepy and the band was less than an hour into their set. They played for more than an hour after that, and I found that I couldn’t keep up with the high energy level of the music.

My group ate dinner at the Parting Glass before the show started. It was cafeteria-style seating in the room with the stage, and we were able to keep our table for the whole show. For $9 I had a big cheeseburger with Swiss cheese, mushrooms and a side of steak fries. Served on a poppy seed Kaiser roll, it was cooked well and had just the right amount of greasiness. Many people ordered the fish and chips, ($8.50) which looked delicious. It was a large piece of white fish, breaded and baked, and served in a basket on top of a large serving of steak fries. It looked healthier and tastier than the greasy fish and chips I remember eating in London. The Parting Glass is an Irish pub, is decorated with old Guiness posters, and has a very good, comfortable feeling. Our waiter was friendly and attentive.