Swell Season at the Mountain Winery - August 19

I don’t know how to classify this concert, but I feel compelled to write about it. I enjoyed seeing The Swell Season in 2008, when the movie “Once” was just starting to make some waves in a limited set of theaters. I found the stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova to be as likeable on stage as their on screen characters (which isn’t surprising since they aren’t really actors) Hansard was funny in his awkward sort of way and could have carried the show with this stage presence and wonderful musical talent. Irglova was shy, but also amiable and very talented.

When they appeared on the schedule for the Mountain Winery, I knew that I’d find myself there somehow. My parents happened to be in town the same week and given their love of the venue, it was a slam dunk that had to happen. I felt as if this was venue was made for them given the intimate nature of their songs and interaction with the audience.

They came prepared with several tributes, starting with both of them covering a song written by the preceding act, Black Francis (they joked about telling him not to sing this particular song). Hansard led a song he wrote about a woman he had met by chance in a Chicago elevator, who had lost her son in the World Trade Center (He joked that she had never heard of The Swell Season, The Frames or Once when asking him what he did). Marketa led a song thanking the finance’ of their band manager for letting him spend so much time on the road with them and sharing the joy that he brought to their band. Marketa talked about how scared she was to ride up to the Mountain Winery in the bus, given hair pin turns that led to beautiful yet scary views, and was trying to think good thoughts after questioning how they were going to eventually descend in the dark. They had their violinist perform a solo rendition of a 300-year-old Irish song from Mayo county (The violinist himself was from just south in Connemara). Hansard had the crowd join him in performing part of the first song written by his lead guitarist (who had left the stage), which was a comically trite, head-banging type of number (something like, “play, play, play to the maximum!”). They mixed these tributes with familiar favorites and songs from their new album that I gained more appreciation for. The concert had all of the intimacy and fun that I had envisioned.

This all came crashing down, literally, when a man leaped from the top of the Mountain Winery’s main building, which stands behind the stage. My dad and I thought that it was a heavy piece of equipment that had fallen from the set (my mom didn’t see it happen) and I was ready for Glen Hansard to turn everything comical again, but he was as shocked as everyone was, when he saw that it was a person who had then slumped to the hard wood.

They told us to stay in our seats as a crowd surrounded the man and you could see someone vehemently applying CPR. The Mountain Winery crew appeared dumfounded on how to proceed, but they eventually put a curtain around the scene as we saw the flashing lights of emergency vehicles appearing. There was a question to the audience as to whether anyone knew who he was, which gave us the first indication that it was a suicide. Later the police were looking for anyone to step up with answers as to how this tragic event happened.

We noticed some people crying (some sobbing) and hugging in the plaza that they had directed us to. On our way out I noticed someone vomiting in the bushes. But most of the crowd was subdued and avoided panic, which was a pleasant surprise, given what had happened and the fact that we’d be trapped in a remote location for a while. My parents and I were calm though my mom asked several questions, thinking out loud, to try to understand what had happened. I didn’t want to think about it or engage my curiosity; mostly because I didn’t think anything good could come of that. I was disappointed that the concert had ended this way, but somehow I accepted this person’s need to go out in such grandiose fashion. I didn’t need an explanation. I just wanted out.

We sat in the car for an hour as we waited for an opportunity to go back down the hill, which I tried to make better by playing Swell Season and Frames songs, making some guesses as to what songs they would have finished with. There didn’t seem to be much to talk about, though we all felt it had been a bizarre evening that had started wonderfully. I felt bad for the band and the people who were deeply affected. It struck me that this was the first time that I had ever seen a person pass in front of me, though I was a good 100+ feet away. I woke up at 3 AM with the dark image of this person, tumbling down to his death.

The next day we filled in the blanks by Googling the appropriate terms and seeing the story unfold in Mercury News. This man was with a friend and had left his “personal items” on his seat before climbing to the roof of the winery. This friend had no idea that he would be high diving from the roof above and in front of him. Nobody will forget this concert, but I just can’t put myself in this friend’s shoes as this tragedy became clear.