| 91-08-1? | Sin-E New York, NY, America |
| Verified |
| Setlist: 01. Sweet Thing Notes: | Exact date not known, but mentioned by Steve Cummins as having started playing at Sin-E in 1991, and in particular with Glen Hansard in August 1991. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/the-night-jeff-buckley-played-trinity-ball-after-watching-the-late-late-1.2859804 https://www.stevecummins.com/features/jeff-buckley-the-irish-connection There is also a picture of Glen and Jeff on stage at Sin-E, but unconfirmed if its from this date. Based on Glen Hansard's recollection of staying at a hotel on 57th Street during the film's promotional launch, the performance almost certainly occurred mid-August 1991, specifically during the week of 12–18 August 1991 'In the summer of 1991, Jeff Buckley was hired as a roadie and guitar tech for the film-based band The Commitments, who were performing around the United States in support of the movie’s media previews. Glen Hansard—whose band The Frames had formed a year earlier and who would later garner fame for the music of the film and Broadway musical, Once—played the role of guitarist Outspan Foster. Hansard and Buckley became quick friends. When they got to New York, all that Hansard and Buckley wanted to do was knock around Greenwich Village and retrace Bob Dylan’s footsteps. After returning to his midtown hotel, Hansard got a call from an old friend from Ireland named Shane Doyle, who had opened a café bar in the East Village called Sin-e (which translates from the Gaelic as “that’s it”). He asked the guitarist if he could persuade the Commitments to come down and play; Hansard said he didn’t know where everyone was, but he and his friend Jeff would love to stop by. Doyle penciled them in for a midnight set, and they were thrilled to have an actual gig in the Village. “I remember singing ‘Sweet Thing’ by Van Morrison,” said Hansard, “and Jeff came up and started singing the second verse. He got really into it and just started going—the cafe was packed, people were stopping and looking in through the windows from the street to see what was happening. He was instantly a star in that moment.” It was Buckley’s first visit to Sin-e, a place that would assume mythic proportions in his legend. Sin-e had no more than a couple dozen scattered tables, and no real stage, just a small cleared space where a couple of musicians or poets could set up. As the name indicated, the bar, which Doyle and Karl Geary opened in 1989, was initially a haven for New York’s young Irish community; U2 and Gabriel Byrne were known to visit, and Sinead O’Connor, at the height of her fame, could sometimes be found cleaning things up behind the bar. Hansard recalled that after the set, Buckley “stayed and hung out at Sin-e, washing dishes—he always liked the idea of doing that before he went on, he felt like it grounded him before going onstage.” He told Hansard that he wasn’t going to continue with the Commitments tour—that this time he wanted to stay in New York.' -- Alan Light, relix website, 14 November, 2016 |