April 29, 2004 marked my longest
trek to a concert - over four hours to St. Louis to see Damien Rice. The
ride over was pleasant (but then again, I wasn't driving) and the venue
was top notch. The Pageant hosted the show which drew several hundred crazed
fans.
The Frames, a veteran rock band from
Ireland, opened up the show. The first song began slowly and built up to
a long, hard ending that just about blew me away. This lead singer announced
that this was the band's last night on tour with Damien Rice so things
might get a little crazy. He was certainly right about that. It's hard
to know how much of the craziness came from alcohol consumption and how
much came from personality, but The Frames played a wild 35 minutes that
was all over the map musically. Midway through their final song, the lead
singer threw his Telecaster on the ground and hurried to the side of the
stage where he explicitly told a man there what he could do with himself.
When he came back on stage, Lisa Hannigan was with him to sing back up
vocals and everyone in the crowd was left puzzled as to what had just happened.
The band finished up a solid set, which probably would have been better
had they not been intoxicated.
Of course, Damien Rice was who everyone
really came to see. When he and his band took the stage 30 minutes later,
the electricity in the air was palpable. The set began with the song "Sand,"
which few people recognized, yet everyone cheered for anyway. When moments
later the band broke into "Volcano," the excitement was evident. With this
song we learned one of Damien and his band's favorite tricks: long improv
jams. The conclusion of "Volcano" turned into one such jam which eventually
led to the alternative version of the song (which can be found on the "Volcano"
single). After a rather long story about a man who was pissed off, Damien
played "Amie" as a disco ball illuminated the entire venue. At the conclusion
of the song, there was the long sound of a spaceship landing and taking
off again. Everyone was silent as the sound faded.
Listening to O, Rice's only full-length
so far, one would think his live shows would for the most part be acoustic
and soft. While he does generally play acoustic guitar, Damien Rice certainly
does not always play softly. With a well-equipped effects board and a hidden
desire to be the next Jimi Hendrix, Rice and band jammed impromptu-style
for about 20 minutes on two cover songs. After they finally finished, Damien
said, "I know you're saying 'c'mon and play some f***ing songs' so I'll
do a few from the album now." Thus they launched into a slower version
of "Cannonball" to much applause. "Prague" came off as quite a rocker,
including a brief allusion to "Cheers Darlin'." On "Older Chests" the bassist
used a bow near the end of the song, giving the song a perfect atmosphere.
With "Woman Like a Man" Damien revealed
his dirty rocker side. "Cheers Darlin'" gave way to an impromptu jam that
seemed to have some kind of Jewish origin. Ordinarily it would have seemed
pretty stupid, but Damien Rice had everyone enthralled with the way he
could randomly pull these jam sessions out of nowhere. The final song was
"I Remember," which featured Lisa Hannigan's beautiful voice before giving
way to a vicious Damien and another long jam thanks to the band.
Of course, after the band left the
stage the cheering wouldn't stop. After about five minutes, finally Vyvienne
(cello) and Tomo (drums) came out and played a strangely entertaining version
of "Come Together." When the full band came back on stage for "Cold Water"
the audience erupted. The sad, soothing song was beautiful to these ears.
It was topped only moments later by "Eskimo." Damien had to leave the opera
singer back in Ireland, but Lisa Hannigan's gorgeous voice pulled the song
in a new direction that was even more amazing. Since it was the last night
of the tour for The Frames, Damien had them come back out to play a Pink
Floyd cover. Finally the evening concluded with "The Blower's Daughter,"
which found everyone in the building singing along. When the song suddenly
turned into Radiohead's "Creep," the audience excitement could not be contained.
Somehow Damien brought it back to the conclusion of "The Blower's Daughter."
Just then a young man screamed out "F*** it dude, go into 'Cannonball.'"
Damien laughed and led the band through one final jam before shutting things
down for the night.
I honestly must say
that this was the best show I have seen in my entire life. It blows my
mind that an artist with only one album could put on a two and a half hour
show as perfectly as Damien Rice. I'm already awaiting his next trip back
to the States. |
