Soft, sweet and slightly exotic, Swell Season and “Once” film Czech star Márketa Irglová is back, but sans Glen Hansard for the first time in her musical career.
Irglová and Iranian singer and drummer Aida Shahghasemi performed at the 9:30 club Nov. 28 to a calm, seated audience of young Washingtonians.
Hansard first invited the Czech-born Irglová to sing with his band, The Frames, when she was 13 after hearing her sing at a family party. From there, she and Hansard went on to become The Swell Season and released their eponymous album in 2006.
Fame arrived to the duo following “Once,” the indie film that featured their music and provided the setting for Irglová and Hansard to fall in love. For the song “Falling Slowly” in “Once,” Irglová became the youngest person to win an Oscar for a musical category at age 19.
Irglová and Hansard produced one more album, “Strict Joy,” following their breakup in 2009. Irglová then moved to Manhattan, marking a new chapter in both her personal and musical life. She married Tim Iseler last spring and dropped her first solo album, “Anar,” in October.
Anar is Farsi for “pomegranate,” which Irglová chose because the fruit symbolizes abundance, which she found in artistically stimulating New York City.
Possibly her greatest find in NYC was Iranian singer and drummer, Aida Shahghasemi, who added an exotic Middle Eastern flavor to Irglová’s delicate, chamber style piano ballads. Shahghasemi is a fitting replacement for Hansard in Irglová’s current tour promoting “Anar.”
Justin Jones opened the show with raw, soulful acoustic guitar and harmonica songs destined for an 8tracks rainy day playlist.
The audience, including Irglová, was shocked when Jones explained that he has been a 9:30 club bartender for the past nine years and was asked several days ago to cover for the original opener on the condition Jones could find someone else to cover his shift at the bar.
Jones entertained the audience with sarcastic jokes in between each set, and it is worth seeing at his upcoming free shows in local D.C. bars and clubs.
Shortly after, Markéta Irglová quietly walked on stage in simple jeans, pink sneakers and a teal sweater. Her extremely sweet personality, demonstrated when she expressed how she wanted to thank every 9:30 club worker by name, perfectly matched her soft angelic voice.
She sang several songs from her new album, like “Go Back,” the most weighty song on it, “Only In Your Head,” about good and bad thoughts that can cheer or haunt you, and “Your Company,” which showcased the beautiful vocals of percussionist Shahghasemi.
Indeed, Shahghasemi stole the stage in several songs, including “Dokhtar Goochani,” an Iranian song. She performed a brilliant solo on her daf, a large Kurdish drum played with the fingers. Shahghasemi also added exotic vocals to fill the hole in Swell Season songs like “If You Want Me” and “Falling Slowly” where Glen Hansard’s gritty voice should have been.
The tenderest moments include a Czech song Irglová spontaneously played for the Czech audience members and her encore performance of “The Hill,” her beautiful, crowd-pleasing solo from “Once.”
