I'd been waiting all week for last night's Damien Rice concert, and to be honest, my expectations were really high. I think I may have put forward on more than one occasion that I was expecting the best live show I'd ever seen.
Well I definitely wasn't disappointed. The concert was, in a word, amazing.
The show opened with Damien walking onto the stage, acoustic guitar around his neck, and launching into a new song (well one that's not on either of his two albums at least). The reaction of the crowd was pretty weird - because he's not in a lot of magazines, or featured in videos, I think a lot of people weren't really sure it wasn't a roadie until he opened his mouth. In fact, Narelle's friends were sitting up the front and to the side, and said afterwards they saw Damien trying to get backstage before the concert and the security guard wouldn't let him. He responded with "but I'm in the band" and eventually got through.
After the first song finished, his bassist and cellist joined him on stage for the next one. After that one finished, his backup singer Lisa Hannigan walked onstage, and was greeted with more applause than he was when he first appeared. They then played Volcano, which was one of the early highlights, and then 9 Crimes, with Damien moving from guitar to piano for this one. I'm not sure if she'd be all that great as a solo artist, but I found myself looking forward to the verses where Lisa would sing on her own.
Perhaps the only downside to the concert was that they didn't bring their drummer along with them. "Tommo" was, according to Damien, off doing something "important and beautiful". I assume that meant he was having a child, but who knows.
Anyway, I thought I was going to really notice the absence of drums but it actually didn't bother me all that much. It definitely gave the other instruments more room to shine. Damien's guitar playing was just amazing, the sounds he was getting out of the one acoustic guitar and a few pedals, it was like a one man band.
The band played most of the key songs from the two albums - my favourites were 9 Crimes (especially the first verse with Lisa, which just gave me chills), I remember, Woman like a man and Volcano. What really stuck out though was how many of their songs I didn't know - often they would segue into a new song, and I would wonder where it came from. To be honest, I wouldn't have been overly surprised if someone told me they made up half the stuff backstage.
The dynamics of the show were great too - one song Lisa sang a capella, and the cellist performed a solo version of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes near the end - stuff like this broke the concert up nicely and stopped it from becoming too same-ish. Within the songs too there were a lot of different dynamics - going from loud and chaotic to quiet within a few seconds.
Definitely the best show I've been to in a long time, if ever. And if you still need further encouragement to get on the Damien Rice bandwagon (there's still some room at the back), check out this live version of 9 Crimes . . .
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