This past weekend, the Frames passed through Chicago, unbeknownst to most of its eight million residents. With a show at the Metro on Saturday night and a solo performance by lead singer Glen Hansard at the Hideout on Sunday, those that were in attendance witnessed the artistic brilliance of a true musical performance. Though they perform for tens of thousands in Ireland and just as many in Eastern Europe, the Frames’ popularity is only sprinkled throughout the United States. Frequenting small venues, like the Hideout here in Chicago or Arlene’s Grocery in Manhattan, the Frames may be quite possibly the best-kept secret in music.

With five albums, and having self-produced both the most recent and another forthcoming album, the band members have been playing together for over twelve years. Their name derives from the bicycle frames packing Hansard’s house as a child, where he would fix all the bicycles in his neighborhood. Four of the band members, Hansard, Joe Doyle, Colm MacConomaire, and Dave Hingerty, grew up in Dublin and have known one another since their youth. Simon Goode, a native Chicagoan, has recently replaced David Odlum, who left the group to focus on his production work.

Hesitant to embrace fame, the band has battled through numerous moral and artistic challenges, choosing in most cases the road less traveled. Hansard claims that only the recent success of their latest album, For the Birds, has ended the high probability of spending nights in a van. He adds that they have “somewhat avoided fame” largely because of stubbornness and an unwillingness to compromise. In the music industry, “art and compromise do not go together.” Since its recent rise to the producer’s level, the band now fully controls its direction and destiny: “The realization of a dream about music which [we] continue to have and cherish,” Hansard said.

Determined to avoid commercial suicide, the band has maintained an eclectic sound and has found great success with extremely dedicated followings in Ireland and abroad. The band frequently tours as a group, but Hansard often plays solo and tours solo as well. The Frames recent strut through Chicago marks yet another annual visit to one of their favorite towns.

Concert #1

October 6, The Metro—-

In casual vintage attire the Frames took the stage around 11 P.M., playing to a crowd where maybe 50 percent of the people hadn’t known who the Frames were five minutes prior to their entrance. Hansard picked up his fifteen-year-old acoustic guitar and started off with two more-famous pieces, “Plateau” and “Lay Me Down.” The lack of a decent atmosphere was overcome by Hansard’s ability to perform and play to a crowd, but didn’t go unnoticed by avid Frames fans. University of Chicago graduate student and native Irishman David Clifford said, “I’ve seen them so many times, and this show was okay, but way too short.” The Frames seem better built for intimacy where the audience and fans can produce the moment together.

In order to understand the Frames’ style, you might try to imagine how a song might sound if it could flawlessly rise and fall between soft plucking and whispers about the fallacies of love or the music industries’ shortcomings. As soon as you have settled into a song, the intensity will rise and then climax with a beat matching your own pulse rate, then abruptly move back again into a soothing calm. Probably best categorized as a mix of modern rock and folk, the Frames delivered an artistic message contained within incredibly entertaining guidelines.

A MAROON interview was arranged to follow the performance. The accessibility of the band was clearly evident in my brief conversation with Doyle, the bassist who came out to the main floor to listen to the next band, and in Hansard himself, who took the time to sit and chat amidst a group of fans. His perspective on the lifestyle he leads is impressive, as is his persistence in hoisting the his music onto a pedestal independent of commercialization. He clearly understands, however, that “the music needs to pay the rent;” a reality that keeps a lot of talented musicians from the spotlight.

Concert #2

October 7, The Hideout—-

Live music does not exist apart from the venue in which it is performed and at the Hideout, on the city’s northwest side, distinguishing the musical experience from the venue is tricky. This performance was carefully planned to reflect the time, the place, and the music itself.

The Hideout has been around since 1890, since when it has been transformed from an Irish neighborhood’s pub, to a place to eat favored by mobsters, to a steel workers hangout, to the current showcase of eclectic music and open-mic evenings often led by Billy Corgan. Most of the songs Hansard played were either works in progress, unrecorded favorites that most of the crowd was familiar with, and a few covers, including an Irish ballad and a Van Morrison tune. The unpredictability of Hansard’s voice is perhaps what is most appealing. The way he chooses to deliver his songs varies from each song and within each song, so you are constantly confronted with his huge range of ability.

The evening didn’t finish without audience participation; we complemented a chorus and snapped our fingers for an a capella version of a song called “Devil’s Town.” Most enjoyable, however, were the frequent stories that preceded a song. We learned that Hansard has written songs about eating an abundance of eggs on holiday, the moment when vampires capture their victims, the moment between standing on the roof and actually hitting the ground, and the moment between deciding to pull the trigger and actually pulling it. One song was written about how “making a mix tape is the best way to say something to a person you hardly even know.” It was an unparalleled experience, one that Hansard seemed to appreciate as well. “If I had a choice,” he said “this is the way it would be.”