Quiet – Artists at Work
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It was an entertainment twi-night double-header to remember on Friday. And not just because of the good stuff, which was plentiful.First, I caught a late afternoon screening of the surreal Bob Dylan tribute/biopic “I’m Not There,” which was a trip and a half, with multiple actors playing different elements of the American folk-rock icon’s personality during different stages of his life. It’s interesting to note that filmmaker Todd Haynes chose stars associated with the characters of Batman (Christian Bale), the Joker (Heath Ledger) and Queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) to help portray Dylan in “I’m Not There.” No one ever said that the Bard of Hibbing wasn’t a complex individual.The movie, with its non-linear approach to its subject, will certainly stimulate debate. There’s a lot of great music, including stuff by Dylan himself (although he only appears very, very briefly in a morsel of archival footage at the end), as well as covers of some of his songs by the likes of Eddie Vedder (“All Along the Watchtower”) and Stephen Malkmus ("Ballad of a Thin Man”) with the high-end pick-up band The Million Dollar Bashers (featuring Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo and drummer Steve Shelley; Wilco guitarist Nels Cline; Television guitarist Tom Verlaine; bassist Tony Garnier; guitarist Smokey Hormel; and keyboardist John Medeski). Plus, the soundtrack offers provocative selections from John Doe, Yo La Tengo, Richie Havens, Sonic Youth and Antony & the Johnsons, among others.Self-indulgent? Yes. Audacious? You bet. And finely wrought, well-acted, and beautifully shot. Worthwhile for music lovers and those interested in the socio-political tides of the late 20th century? Absolutely. Potentially infuriating to Dylan’s most fervent fans? That’s a given. I recommend it.From the screening room, I motored over to the Regency’s Grand Ballroom – which was known as the Avalon Ballroom way back in San Francisco’s psychedelic era. During the halcyon daze, the space featured bands such as Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin; the 13th Floor Elevators; Quicksilver Messenger Service; the Steve Miller Band, Moby Grape, and, appropriately enough, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band with guitarist Mike Bloomfield who played on many crucial Dylan sessions, such as those that produced the classic 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited.But it ain’t 1967 anymore, and my destination was the second of two sold-out nights of exquisite chamber-folk by the duo of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, a.k.a. The Swell Season, and their opening act, the brilliant and earthy Martha Wainwright. As many must know, Hansard, frontman with the rousing Irish rock band the Frames, and his partner Irglová, Czech singer and musician, are on a major roll owing to their starring roles in the acclaimed indie feature film, “Once,” which mixes romance, music and a touch of humor to heartwarming effect.Backed by bass, violin and cello, they were simply wonderful in concert, doing material from the film and their album The Swell Season, and throwing in a few extras including the passionate, witty, ever-anecdotal Hansard’s stunning solo cover of his countryman Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks,” and to further appease an extremely vocal Irish contingent in attendance, his attempt at a wee bit o’ “Danny Boy.” Speaking of audience participation of the unwanted kind, the show was seriously marred for me by an ongoing display of rudeness by various patrons that peaked during Wainwright’s performance, but reared back and messed up some otherwise marvelous moments in the middle of the Hansard-Irglová set.Martha - daughter of folkie and actor Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle of the McGarrigle Sisters, and sister of the clever/tender singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright – is one smart, sexy, tough cookie with a powerful voice and a randy way of strumming a guitar (really). She writes enticing, dryly witty songs that slip in some brutal honesty about interpersonal relations before you even realize what you’ve heard. And she was completely insulted by the ignorant fools in the crowd who stood in the hall and talked, laughed and ignored her as she tried to sing, play and be heard over the din. Without being a bitch about it, she even requested a little courtesy halfway through her set, was greeted by cheers from those who wanted to enjoy her talents, and then, was dissed by the jerks who went back to their thoughtless blather.I was embarrassed to even be in the same room as those creeps. You’d think that they’d be a little more respectful of Hansard and Irglová, since most of the paying customers were there to see the headliners – and probably only because of having seen the film. And it was a little better, until the ensemble played two significant numbers from “Once”: “When Your Mind’s Made Up” and “Falling Slowly.” After the whoops that greeted the start of “When Your Mind’s Made Up,” a 6-foot 3-inch lummox pushed past me to get a better look, bellowing “Let me through!” Then, upon the intro to the signature song “Falling Slowly,” a blonde woman behind me dialed up her cell phone and loudly proclaimed to her friend at the other end of the line, “They’re playing it now! You’ve got to hear it! Wanna hear it? I’ll hold up the phone.” Which is what she did for the rest of the piece.I don’t know how we counter such a lack of civility. I’m beginning to think it’s reaching epidemic proportions. Maybe we can’t stop it. Meanwhile, I’ll try to think of the positive aspects of the evening, like Glen and Markéta’s cheerful, harmonious encore version of Dylan’s "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," which they recorded for the soundtrack of “I’m Not There.”Thus, things came full circle, and the weekend got off to a pretty unforgettable start.To give you a (heh) Frame of reference, here’s a recent Hansard performance of “Astral Weeks” from Czech television:And, just because she was so brutally shortchanged at the Regency (and because she’s so damned fine), here’s Martha with her band on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” performing her glorious “When the Day Is Short”:
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