The Swell Season @ The Salt Shed

The Salt Shed, a repurposed Morton Salt packaging and distribution hub, is Chicago’s newest concert venue; it is complete with shops, food trucks, and both an indoor and outdoor concert space. The Swell Season’s recent stop here was my inaugural visit, and I cannot wait to go back. The duo, made up of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, performed a sold-out show in late August and put a spell on every mind there. 

I first became aware of the group through their soundtracking of the 2007 movie Once (which my mom and I rewatched in preparation for the concert), directed by John Carney. In the film, two musicians meet and begin collaborating - I’ve listened to the soundtrack for countless hours and the movie was later adapted into a Broadway musical that I equally adore. At the show, they played many songs from the movie and the crowd responded thunderously – they too must’ve had the soundtrack on a constant rotation. 

Irglová sat behind a beautiful piano and Hansard stood in the front, a guitar always in his hands. Their voices and musical capabilities blended perfectly. Like a fruit smoothie on a hot day, it was utterly delectable. They sounded identical to the movie, which I was surprised by since it was over 10 years ago. Hansard had quite a gruff singing voice in the soundtrack, one that sounded difficult to maintain, but he hit every note and rasp just like I hoped he would. Irglová’s voice was beautiful and rang throughout the tall ceilings like clear Christmas bells. Their harmonies were perfect, and morphed together to form one voice. I swear, their voices must have been crafted at the same time, I couldn’t think of how else two voices could be so well suited to one another. Even though they're from different countries (Hansard is Irish and Irglová is Czech) and born years apart, they were destined to sing together.

Besides Irglová and Hansard, they also had a drummer, a cellist, and a violinist accompany them on stage. After one song, an audience member shouted out asking for ‘more cello’, which caused a littering of ‘more cowbell’ jokes throughout the crowd, but, lucky for us, the cellist obliged. 

Even though the venue was large and packed to the brim with over 3,000 people, it still felt incredibly intimate. They played for over 2 hours, and, at the end, it felt like they did not want to leave the stage. Glen spoke to us about Chicago and the time that he’s spent here. He name dropped beloved venues like The Hideout and The Elbo Room, and talked about crashing on someone’s couch in Roscoe Village for a few months. He immediately won everyone over and became an honorary Chicagoan at that moment. 

He dedicated their song, “The Moon” to ‘the girl upstairs’ as in the famous Morton Girl with her yellow dress and blue umbrella that’s painted across the roof of the venue. It has stayed intact as a part of the venue since it was so iconic and could lovingly be seen from the highway as you enter Chicago.

They pointed at people in the crowd and asked them questions as if they were in a small bar performing. In their song “Feeling the Pull”, Hansard played the harmonica and guitar at the same time, towards the end of the song, he tossed his harmonica in the crowd and asked the person that caught it to play to finish out the song– and they did! The crowd was respectfully quiet and let them have that moment. I couldn’t tell if the moment was prearranged, but I planned on just blissfully believing that it was random and just happened to be kismet. 

They played a variety of covers, like “Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison and a few to honor Jason Molina. They played “Vanquisher” and “Hold on Magnolia” and they brought out previous members of those bands who helped to play the songs. 

They performed a few new songs, which they then followed up by saying that they’re in the process of working on a new album. As a duo, they only have two albums besides the soundtrack to the movie. They each have had solo releases since, but this will mark their first album as Swell Season since 2009. 

As the rest of the band left the stage, Glen Hansard stayed and walked towards the front of the stage away from his microphone to sing “Say It to Me Now” with just a guitar and his voice with no amplification (just like the scene in the movie). I could hear him clearly even though I was towards the back of the room. It was unbelievable, and it was wonderful how respectful the crowd was and allowed the man to sing for us all as if we were in one big living room. 

My mom and I found ourselves humming the songs until we went to bed and woke up with them still fresh in our heads. It was a perfect Friday night in Chicago. Their tour has come to an end, but I recommend you watch Once so you can at least witness some of the magic these two possess.