Damien Rice, (From 30th March)- WARNING: Very long and rambly post ahead
Damien’s gig was like how I feel about a lot of movies: When you’re actually in it, you don’t think it was all that good. In fact I found him to be fairly lacking in emotion at the beginning, and he actually caused my mind to wander during some of his songs, horrors! He was not in-your-face glorious like Jason’s was. It was certainly interesting, but didn’t grab you. But then, on hindsight, when you get home and chew it over, you do feel that it had something, and you want to go back and see it all over again, to re-analyse, thinking you may have missed out on some finer points. This was largely due to the adorable Childish, (see previous post) though he forgot the lyrics of the last verse. Bah.
What failed for me:
1) Do you think it is a huge and heinous crime for an artist to forget his lyrics onstage? Because that’s what Damien did, frequently. He sang only two verses of Lonelily, ironically forgot the beginning of “I Remember”, and sang only the first part of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. [which nonetheless was a very pleasant surprise because I love that song and always thought it would be apt for him to cover it, being the emo, religiously confused person he is] Ning says I cannot blame him as it was a mere innocent concert cover, but honestly, if you cannot sing Hallelujah in its entirety, you should not sing it all.
It’s like how I once went into a custom T-shirt shop. A customer had requested for a shirt that read LET THE MUSIC PLAY with the comment “An album should be listened to in its entirety!” Amen, brother.
An un-named newspaper said this forgetfullness “added to his eccentric charm”. It could work, depending on how you perceive it. But shouldn’t you be able to remember the songs that you wrote yourself? Shouldn’t he have prepared himself when he decided he was going to have a concert? Forgetting lyrics loses your audience’s trust, your connection. You want to bring a message, and how sincere can you be about it if you forget the message itself?
2)
Despite the billing, Damien Rice is very much a band. Without these added components he would be very good, going on excellent; with them, he becomes unstoppable.
-BarFly Club
The rest of his band did not show. For any other artist, just a man and his guitar would be a good thing. I very much welcome stripped down music, because that’s music in its purest form. It worked fabulously for Mr Mraz, because instead of having to contend with annoying electric guitars or synthesizers or drum sets and fancy lights, we could focus on his voice and words. But for Damien, it is a serious crime, and the quote expresses why exactly: Damien Rice is not a solo artist. “Damien Rice” is a band. One of the reasons that Damien is such a phenomenon is because he his “second voice” Lisa Hannigan to counter him, to argue. Having two points of view is dynamic and fascinating and and complete with Vyvienne Long on cello (the third voice), for quiet, melancholic musing, it is, well, whole, full circle, a personification of the idea of “O”.
When he’s alone, he has to sing both counter verses where the two-view style is crucial in songs like I Remember and Volcano. And when he also had to sing the cello part in the latter himself, it all falls flat.
3) Where it’s not his fault: He got better towards the end, when he did sing Cheers Darlin’ and Eskimo quite beautifully. He did The Blower’s Daughter to perfection, dragging I can’t take my eyes off you, flawlessly into Creep, before coming back again to his “Till I find somebody new” in a punchy, almost mocking way, which I enjoyed very much. However, I think a big part of my problem was that
a)I have listened to the album to death and analysed it to the last note. There were no new revelations, nothing to be discovered. There wasn’t much to surprise me. Music has to creep up on you and surprise you, at the right moment, when you least expect it, and there wasn’t much room for that here. Which isn’t a bad thing, because how many albums do you actually want to listen to death, from beginning to end? It was an incredible album.
b) Although the idea of him having a muse and him singing about just her and only her and how he can’t have her through the whole album is beautiful thematic unity, I have outgrown the idea and can’t help but think, “Gawd, why can’t you just get over her and sing about something else!” (Sudden flashback of Jude Law’s character in Gattaca going “you’re boring me” in perfect arrogance) Which is also why I appreciated Childish so much. It breaks this mold.
What worked for me:
1)Aesthetics. The hippie clothes and bad hair, how he looks like he’s been travelling for a very, very, long time when this is in fact his first concert in bloody ages, the rug, the candles, and ooh, the candelabras. Incredible fun.
2)He ain’t no showstopper, but it’s all good. He is an insecure, awkward creature, so much like Craig Thompson only through music- his talent is so much bigger than himself, he doesn’t know quite what to do with it. He doesn’t quite know what to say to us, either- He can’t stop putting himself down, and not in a smart-ass way, you feel that he actually believes it:
(On introducing an unreleased song to be on his new album)- “I’m not sure whether it’s going on the album at all, we recorded it, and it was shit, then we recorded it again, and it was still shit- I’ve been on a break for one and a half years, and if you don’t keep singing your range kind of goes off- and there are some parts in this song that go pretty high- just telling you first in case it’s shit”.
(Post-Lonelily) “That was rubbish- the first two verses over and over”
(On Childish): “The world was all about me, me, me. I thought it was okay and normal at first, until I realized that I was only hanging around with other singer-songwriters and we were all dicks.”
He also swears compulsively, even more when he forgets things. His ineloquence make him all the more fascinating.
And how when the concert ended he was all “Erm. Bye.” with an awkward wave, awkward pause, minced off.
In short, Damien is a fascinating character study. Heh heh.
3)Request compliant: Showed his sincerity, which could be mutually exclusive from the part about him forgetting lyrics, but well, singers are weird creatures. He did much more song requests that audience members yelled out than I think were really required, and furthermore rare stuff where he had to play some experimental chords on his guitar before he could remember, like Accidental Babies. That was very nice of him indeed. And going to sit on the edge of the stage to play Lonelily just for the person who requested it and asking for the mic to be cut because he was embarassed that he couldn’t remember the words was a potentially uncomfortable yet lovely, unscripted little moment.
4)Explains his art. He bothered to explain his songs to us. I especially loved that! It’s always wonderful to hear about a work of art from its source. Even if in his own rather stumbling way, it was very sweet and sincere of him.
5)His pretty accent. Of course, the Irish accent helped. Sorry. 
In short-
Yay
1) Endearingly awkward
2) Explains- Sincere
3) Does requests- Sincere
4) Hippie
Nay
1) Forgets lyrics- lacks sincerity
2) No band
3) Emo, “World revolves around me” mentality…
…Though Damien insists he’s not like that any longer. I can’t wait for the May album, then, to see whether he’s really changed.
Or is just a little older, that’s all.
