Stadthalle, Cologne, Germany16th May 2025
The Swell Season - “UK & Europe 2025”
Czech singer Markéta Irglová and Irish singer Glen Hansard are a very interesting duo. Under the name THE SWELL SEASON, the two artists will release their third album ‘Forward’ in June 2025 after 16 (!) years and already tour Europe as a quartet (the duo is joined on stage by a bassist and a drummer) ahead of its release, stopping off in Germany three times along the way. We were part of the party in Cologne’s Stadthalle.
With ‘Factory Street Bells’ and ‘People We Used To Be’, the band opened the almost two-hour gig in the completely sold-out Stadthalle with two songs from the upcoming album. And even if the new songs are only familiar to fans who follow the band on social media or streaming platforms, they already generate some initial enthusiasm. And ‘People We Used To Be’, this sad song about the fact that we humans change over time and this causes friendships to break up, turns out to be the first highlight of the evening.
In the course of the concert, Markéta Irglová, Glen Hansard and the two additional musicians present a nice mix of the two studio albums that the duo released a long time ago, the ‘Once’ soundtrack with THE song ‘Falling Slowly’, for which the artists won the Oscar for best song in a film in 2008, a few new tracks, some of which the enthusiastic audience were able to enjoy for the first time ever, and a handful of cover songs, mainly from Irglová and Hansard’s solo work. The band set another highlight with ‘When Your Mind's Made Up’, which Glen Hansard announced as ‘If You Don't Like My Potatoes, Why Do You Dig So Deep?’. For the first time, the audience sings along loudly.
A little later, the Czech singer, who sits at the piano throughout the entire evening, has the stage to herself. She is clearly delighted that her cousin, who has lived in Cologne for a long time, his wife and their child are in the audience. Especially about his child, who, according to her tongue-in-cheek statement, still enjoys listening to her music, unlike her own children. Then she talks about Cologne, about the many sheep she discovered along the Rhine river on her day off. She would have loved to have jumped over the fence and hugged the animals. But there are rules in Germany. And in passing, the Czech woman sets the mood for the next song, talking about death and how so much is left to the children in the event of death. Set the stage for ‘I Leave Everything To You’.
THE SWELL SEASON kick off the brilliant finale with ‘This Gift’. The comparatively lively track from the Irish singer's repertoire ensures that the entire audience, which had been seated up to this point, rises from their seats and celebrates the song. ‘Falling Slowly’ is by far the duo's best-known song. Occasionally, the audience is drawn back to their seats and, together with the fans who are still standing and most of whom are filming with their smartphones, the song is sung along in its entirety.
But that’s not the end of the evening. Glen Hansard asks a street musician, whom he once met in Santiago de Compostela and recognised in the audience, to join him at the microphone. The street singer sings ‘Her Mercy’. During the final ‘Gold’, it gets a little more crowded on stage: the Irish singer brings a boy on stage who has asked for a photo together. Meanwhile, his Czech partner brings a little girl and her cuddly toy onto the stage. A beautiful finale.
There’s nothing wrong with the concert itself. However, the Stadthalle as a location is a strange choice. The whole hall has so little concert flair and is more reminiscent of a school assembly hall. And it doesn’t help the mood and atmosphere when there is a clearly recognisable fire extinguisher hanging on the wall at the back of the stage and two of the doors for the busy audience traffic to the toilet or drinks counter squeak so loudly that every minute a fan from the audience turns to the door in an irritated manner. That could certainly be better.
Setlist
01. Factory Street Bells
02. People We Used To Be
03. If You Want Me
04. Fitzcarraldo (The Frames cover)
05. Stuck in Reverse
06. When Your Mind's Made Up
07. The Moon
08. One of Us Must Lose (Glen Hansard song)
09. Pretty Stories
10. Feeling the Pull
11. Low Rising / Into the Mystic
12. I Leave Everything to You (Markéta Irglová song)
13. Two Tongues
14. Spirit
15. Great Weight
16. Hundred Words
17. Fallen from the Sky
18. This Gift (Glen Hansard song)
19. Falling Slowly
20. Her Mercy (Glen Hansard song)
21. Gold
All pictures by André Wilms
