• Posted on Jul 24th 2010 1:30PM by Jonathan Dekel
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Calgary's Prince Island adopted the state of Virginia's slogan for just under an hour on Friday night as the Swell Season melted hearts across the sold-out crowd of 12,000 with their earnest love songs.

Performing both as a duo -- as they do on the majority of songs in their Academy Award-winning film 'Once' -- and with a backing band, Irishmen Glen Hansard and his Czech ex-girlfriend, singer and pianist Markéta Irglová, performed a pitch perfect set that captured the mood of the relaxed festal setting and surely ignited romance among the captivated audience that stretched out beyond the island, where fans who couldn't get tickets listened from the mainland shore.

Performing a selection of songs from across their catalog, Hansgard and Irglová delivered their songs with just the right amount of gravitas, walking the fine line between deep intensity and overwrought intensity with exact precision.

In fact, their performance and harmonies were so powerful that when they performed the musical couplet of 'Minds Made Up' and the breathtaking 'Falling Slowly,' several audience members began to cry.