These guys
won an Oscar last year for the
best original song category for a little movie called
Once. When they were in Toronto to promote the film over two years ago,
I sang with Glen Hansard. Two weeks before that, their all-amazing tour manager, Howard, pulled a serious ninja move to let the then-underage yours truly into the vicious Phoenix concert theatre to see the band in concert.
Tonight they played a 9-song acoustic set in front of a handful of people, and I was lucky enough to witness it. I'm still not quite sure what I did to be have the privilege to be there, other than sending a desperate plea at age 18 to be let into a gig.
Over a year ago my sister and I gave them a set of paintings (the bottom half is by me), wrapped in newspaper tied with a piece of yarn from a scarf I was knitting at the time.
When I saw Glen tonight, he showed me that same piece of string, tied around his wrist, been there since the night I gave it to him on November 23rd of 2007. As I am after every night I see them, I'm full of good music and lack words of thanks. The honky-tonk piano, so out of tune, did just fine for the evening.
Next up: Chad VanGaalen! I'm really, really banking on him to win the Polaris Prize. And then Bruce Peninsula, and then the Gaslight Anthem, and then Dan Mangan, then the Swell Season (again), then the Rural Alberta Advantage, take me into winter. I'm in love.
