last photo by eudaemonia

I was never lucky enough to catch Damien Rice play with long time collaborator, Lisa Hannigan (The first time i saw Damien was with a full band on a co- headlining tour with Fiona Apple in 2006). But, i always felt that their voices worked perfectly together and it added a different dynamic to the typical singer songwriter dynamic. As a result, once Lisa was severed from the band, Damien’s music has completely changed and it was missing the element that distinguished him from other songwriters.

It was 8pm when Damien started to play and about half of the theatre was empty. So, i left my 14th Row seats and found an empty one in the 4th row. I thought that all the conflicting shows across town (arcade fire w/ LCD Soundsystem at the Bowl) had something to do with this but by 8:30pm the crowd started pouring in. No one came to claim the seats so i was extremely lucky to be so close for the entire set. The temporary drummer Brendan was so talented!

During, first half of the set Damien wasn’t interacting much with the audience and he didn’t seem to be into the show.It was probably because the audience was distracting and quite rude. Perhaps the most disappointing part was when Damien started to play “Accidental Babies” on the piano and before the first verse he stopped playing it and decided to skip it (its one of my fav. songs off of 9). However, after “Volcano” he started interacting with the crowd more and started to tell the stories behind the songs VH1: Storytellers style. I really love stuff like that and the concert was made extra special when Damien unplugged his guitar and microphone and did “Cannonball” solo. I was fourth row and his voice really carried. I was wondering how everyone behind me was able to hear. He ended his set with “cheers darlin’” complete with acting out the story behind it, drinking, smoking cigarettes and a beautiful fake snow scene.

Set List:

The setlist:
1 Rootless tree (first half rhodes/second half piano)
2 Older chests
3 Cross eyed bear (so so so beautiful, goosebumps)
4 Insane (never heard this song before but it is insanely good)
5 Elephant
6 Accidental babies (aborted)
7 Yoke
8 Never leave you (Vyv)
9 I remember/bang bang
10 Delicate
11 Volcano
12 Childish (i couldn’t help but think this song was about himself or Lisa. story)
13 The professor (with 3rd verse Ouvrir les seines!!! and story)
14 Amie (crowd request and there was a story)
15 Coconut skins>Jam
16 Woman like a man (story)
17 Cannonball (unplugged)
——
encore
18 9 crimes
19 The blower’s daughter
20 Cheers darlin (story)

You need to watch this- its Damien performing “Cannonball” and def. my favorite part of the show.
damien rice @ The Greek 9/19

Add to My Profile | More Videos (this is my recording so sorry about the shakiness)

this is footage of the same track i found on Youtube but this is from farther away:

—————-
Now playing: Metric - The Twist
via FoxyTunes