Given a fresh lease of life with the release of their fourth album, For The Birds, The Frames have slowly but surely clawed their way back from being but a memory to being a rock band very much in the here and now.
Employing a full-frontal assault, and fusing essentially folk musings with a mixture of post-rock sensibilities and Pixies-like intensity, on Friday night they came across as somewhat more than local heroes made good.
Using a sequence of archetypal amateur snapshots as a backdrop to the music, The Frames music is now as big as the stages they tread on.
Whether mouse-quiet or tiger-loud, there is a visceral quality to their music that defies the usual cliches. Front man Glen Hansard appears to revel in their new-found freedom from the strictures of the corporate rock industry, awed by the beauty of several moments.
Friends come and go (David Kitt, Paddy Casey), cover versions are sung (The Waterboys' Whole Of The Moon, The Pixies' Debaser and - please don't ask - Rolf Harris's Two Little Boys). Fists are raised in transcendental salutes and celebrations. Hugs abound.
Above it all, a band that many had been written off as unambitious and occasionally pretentious prove themselves capable of mysteriously turning around their fortunes.
An amateur-hour, no-safety-net busking ambience might prevail (which, indeed, might prove to be their biggest self-styled beautiful mistake), but, really, when a gig is as good as this, virtually anything is forgiven.
The Frames tour Ireland throughout April. This week they play UL, Limerick, April 4th; Curracloe Hotel, Wexford, April 6th and The Lobby, Cork, April 7th. For further dates, see The Ticket each Wednesday