Ok, so I just got back from seeing Damien Rice at Beacon Theatre with Amanda Giordano. It was really, really good. Probably about 384,201 times better than this summer at Jones Beach. I think that Damien & co. just don’t have the type of music that can really be appreciated at a place like Jones Beach. The emotion & musical intricacies that really make the music so outstanding are just lost in a big outdoor venue like that.
Anyway, the show was awesome (yeah redundancy!). He interacted with the audience a lot, which is always great. He called himself an “over-analytical depressive fucker” at one point and kept saying that it was weird that he got to write songs about being such a fuck up & then get paid to play them for everyone. He told us about the inspiration or moods he was in when he wrote certain songs. He said that his chatty state meant he was in “very strange form,” since he usually doesn’t even realize an audience is there, but tonight he was “aware of every single little [thing].”
There was a guy who was sitting a few rows behind us who kept calling out “DAMIEN!” really loudly. After the 4th song, Damien answered him back & made a couple jokes. Then he asked, “The person who just said ‘DAMIEN!’ [imitating his tone], what did you want?” The guy said, “I’m Dan from Long Island [of course the obnoxious guy would be from LI] & a little “Elephant” would be nice.” Damien looked at Lisa, who was ready to start singing the next song, then went, “Well, then, your wish is my command” and busted into the song as Lisa went to straight chill at the piano.
The set list:
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Woman Like a Man (no Lisa, but still AMAZING. Video link of clip here)
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Insane
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I Remember (Lisa sounded absolutely, absolutely flawless; just gorgeous)
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9 Crimes
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Elephant [directly into]
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The Blower’s Daughter (I got almost all of it on video, click here)
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Cannonball – An acoustic, no microphone, Damien-only version. Definitely the most powerful song of the night. I can’t even describe it, I wish that I got it on video, but after “BD,” I only had 33 seconds left & wanted to save it in case they did “Delicate”.
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La Professor (Lisa sang the 2nd verse, changing all the “I” pronouns to “he”)
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The Animals Were Gone
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Coconut Skins
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Amie (Crazy spaceship effects at the end; it was really intense)
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Eskimo Friends
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Volcano
Encores
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Rootless Tree (my favorite song from the new album; the one that I wish had come out 4 years ago so I could’ve discovered it then & made it my anthem, ha. I only have part of it on video cause “BD” took up so much memory; I wanted to get the first half, but was busy trying to call Brian so he could hear it
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Me, My Yoke & I
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Accidental Babies (just Damien & the piano; it was very Fiona-esque a la “Parting Gift”)
Amanda & I had great seats. I had been trying to get tickets since she asked if I wanted to go about a month ago and it was sold out. I know that some times tickets will be released a few days before a show because they’re held for radio stations, etc. and we both really wanted to go, so I tried again at like 6:30pm Mon night and we got center orchestra seats in row G. Yeah, I hate me too. SO worth the – what $57 after Ticketmaster was done raping us? SO worth it.
Finally, because no NYC story is complete without a random subway experience: Not only were NONE of the ticket machines taking cash nor were they reading anyone’s credit/debit cards on the first THREE swipes (think 90% of a sold-out Beacon Theatre crowd trying to get into a subway station & like 90% of them needing to buy a subway pass, ugh), but when we finally get onto the 2, this guy gets on & starts making the following announcement:
“Everybody, I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize for my appearance. My name is Steven & I am HIV positive. I am homeless & cannot afford medical shots. I can’t live in a shelter since I was attacked. Now I am forced to ride the subways at night for a 24-hr McDonald’s [I'm NOT making this up]. I’d like to take this opportunity to ask for your help. I am now going to recite some poetry for you…”
And he did. He recited some lovely Jesus/life is a wonder poetry. I just turned to the chick sitting next to me & said, “Of all the cars on all the subways in all the city and he gets onto ours.”
[Update: here's Rolling Stone's review of the concert]
