If you came to the world of Glen Hansard late, perhaps via "Falling Slowly", the song that bagged him and collaborator Marketa Irglova a 2008 Oscar win for Best Original Song, you might be forgiven for thinking his songwriting pallete runs only to intense, tremulous declariatives.

But long-time aficionados will tell you The Frames can bring the rock with the best of them.

They'll also tell you The Frames are one of the greatest live bands you will ever see. To see them for the first time playing to a home crowd, or a transplanted Irish one as with with this gig we filmed in Sydney, is simply, well, a revelation. Not so much an audience as a congregation of acoustic acolytes determined to sing every word of every song.

During the two hours or so The Frames play, there’s a journey to be taken. Hansard is your conductor in all senses of the word. He takes your fare and takes you there. He orchestrates the route as he conducts the energy of his audience and channels it back tenfold. And every now and again he’ll unleash a song of such raw emotion that you can only succumb to the sentiment, raise your hand and testify.

The best of these is arguably the rousingly anthemic “Revelate”.

Ostensibly a song of simple regret and a plea for redemption, the insistent, staccato chant drives towards an explosive chorus that is as big as anything fellow countrymen U2 have ever written. Worth noting too is the extraordinary playing of violinist Colm Mac Con Iomare which elevates the song to another level entirely.

The version they played at this Sydney gig is as good as any you’ll see or hear. With the unlikeliest of intros to what he’s about to ignite, Hansard delights in riffing off Australia's own Dale Kerrigan character from The Castle. Then, with the briefest of count ins, we’re off and running.

Turn up your speakers and watch “Revelate” and the whole Sydney show HERE