Mark Reviews: Once

First and foremost let me say this. I liked Once. It had a great story that didn't beat you with a stick. There was a love story, but the focus wasn't really on the love between the two musicians. Glen Hansard plays a hoover repairman who's real passion is playing music. While not repairing vacuum cleaners he performs on the street. At night he plays the songs he is writing and working on, it's then that he meets Markéta Irglová's character; an immigrant who loves playing the piano in a music store downtown. She becomes an instant fan of Glen's music and they form a friendship and maybe a little more as they write, rehearse and record Glen's music.

One of the most intriguing things about the film for me is the lack of names. Neither of the lead characters have names (at least not that I can remember, and not according to imdb). The music in this film is outstanding. Kind of like Kyp's review of August Rush, the music helped move the story along. However, in this film it was more because neither of the leads were actors, they truly were two songwriters. That for me adds a ton to the film, because when you see them performing, it's really them performing. Kyp and I had a brief discussion as to whether or not this should be considered a musical. At first (before I had seen it) I had agreed that it wasn't a musical in the true sense of the word. No big dance numbers etc... BUT, now that I've seen it I would have to disagree. The story is moved mostly by music, and you learn most of the back story through the lyrics of the songs.

So... that being said, I had one complaint... and it's not even a REAL complaint, more of an observation. While I did enjoy the film a lot, it felt like I was watching a bunch of music video's put together; I don't know if it's because a lot of it was shot with DV or what, but the it was a lot of slow pans as the character walked through the town singing... don't get me wrong, I loved it... just kind of not positive why I loved it this much.

must be the music

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Sic Transit Glory... Glory Fades

So, Last night Kyp and I ventured over to the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, MA. Brand New was playing which meant, most likely we'd get free tickets thanks to Jenni (both Kyp's sister and roommate of Brand New's tour manager). It doesn't really matter if we had gotten them for free or not... I most likely would've paid whatever the ticket price was to see this show.

Opening for Brand New were Thrice and mewithoutyou. Both bands played a decent set, I guess I preferred Thrice over mewithoutyou, simply because I was more familiar with Thrice's music. I think their downfall however was playing some of their newer music which seemed to fall upon un-appreciative ears. A mixture of synth, and voice-moding took Thrice's familiar hard rock punk sound and flipped it on it's head... and then bludgeoned it several times. However, they of course played "Artist in the Ambulance" and it was awesome.

Then Brand New hit the stage. Going into this concert I was very excited, however, I had heard concern from Val (my roommate) and one of my brothers that while Brand New is an awesome band, they don't get into their music enough in concert... there's no energy. Also there was the criticism that Brand New's newest album: "The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me" wasn't as hard as their earlier work: "My Favorite Weapon", "Deja Entendu". I got a little bit of video that maybe I can post up here, but nothing could be further from the truth. Brand New put on an insanely awesome show. They ripped through most of their new songs, and then also played a few of their older things. Both Kyp and I were pretty surprised that we didn't hear "Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades" or "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows". But despite not playing either of those songs... the concert was amazing. As an encore (according to Jenni) Jessie's cousin Shane who's the newest addition to the band came out and implemented some loop recording of guitar, and then about 10 other people came out and they just jammed for about 10 minutes to what sounded like a blend of several of their new songs including "Jesus" and "Degausser".

If you have a chance to see this tour (or Brand New in general) don't pass it up! You will not be disappointed.

I saved Latin
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