Photos by Ty Hyten
The Scene: Damien Rice’s rise to popularity came some twelve years ago with the success of his 2002 album, O. In the long time since his last visit, Rice’s life has taken some major turns and so have the lives of his fans, who, he joked, had probably had babies since the last time he played Boulder. That seemed pretty accurate, given the predominantly late-thirties audience filling the sold-out Boulder Theater. The crowd respectfully mingled about, as you’d expect, and guarded prized railing spots. Time to enjoy drinks before Rice took the stage was short, as both bars at the theater were closed during the set, per the artist’s request. That was a bit of a let down on a Friday night, but ended up resulting in welcome silence during quiet moments.
Opener: Galagalactic. It’s still unclear to me if Galagalactic is the moniker of the singer or the band name of the pair who opened the show. In the age of Google, you can find more information than you’d care to read about even the smallest of artists. Not these guys. With the exception of a Bandcamp page with three tracks, there is absolutely no information to be found. The singer bowed a cello and her collaborator played guitar and tambourine while he creeped around the dark stage. The dainty, delicate voice of the singer was very similar to one time Damien Rice collaborator, Lisa Hannigan. Though the vocal was nice, the dark, atmospheric and slow moving music ultimately failed to capture my attention or my heart.
Damien Rice: It was seven years between Rice’s last record and last year’s My Favourite Faded Fantasy and in that time Damien Rice sort of stepped off of the map. He mentioned during Friday’s show that there was a time where he was playing the biggest shows of his life and making great money, but was terribly unhappy. In the hiatus after 9, he also split with longtime girlfriend and collaborator Lisa Hannigan, whose parts were missed on Friday.
Rice stood in the center of the stage, lit only by a warm spotlight and accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. It is hard for any man to hold an audience of one-thousand, captive with just a guitar, but he had no difficulty during his lengthy, emotional performance.
He opened the set with a fan favorite, “9 Crimes.” The gentle restrained hum of his voice was enough to lock the audience in. The only other sound I heard was the girl behind me saying “I’m going to cry through this whole thing” to her boyfriend. That gentle hum soon strayed into stronger, bolder territory as Rice followed with “Coconut Skins.” The soft acoustic strumming soon transformed into a booming, bassy, distorted monster upon the end of the nine-minute “It Takes A Lot To Know A Man” via a soundhole pickup that Rice used for dramatic effect throughout the set. A small amount of the set was also spent with the broken, distorted signal of a Strat on songs like “I Don’t Want to Change You,” which was devoid of the strings on the record, but somehow turned me into a fan of a song I was on the fence about.
The sorrow in Damien Rice’s voice was authentic and his self-deprecating musing between songs kept the audience afloat. This held true in a highlight of the night, a song from the new record, “Trusty And True.” Rice played an Irish folk influenced rendition, accompanied only by the breathy sound of a hand-pumped harmonium. Rice’s strained, groaning vocal on was raw and gorgeous and the live version put the recording to shame.
Highlights of the night included the bawdy, grungy “Woman Like a Man” from his B-Sides album and “Amie” preceded by a story of misunderstanding the intentions of a female friend who had asked him to stay the night. Another standout was “Elephant.” Antique stage lights poured over the crowd as Rice belted from behind plumes of smoke. The dynamics and rawness of his voice were unreal.
The set ended brilliantly with a lengthy encore. The set wouldn’t have been complete without gorgeous “The Blower’s Daughter” followed by “Volcano.” He was joined by opener Galagalactic on the latter and joked that he’d need to help her out with the words. It wasn’t a joke, her voice filled Lisa Hannigan’s perfectly, but she relied on Rice guiding her, in her ear. The encore also included another from B-Sides, “The Professor” which Rice played while standing on a bar stool, for the short people in the crowd, he said. I think perhaps the wine he was drinking from a bottle on stage had reached him at that point. I suppose the bar wasn’t closed for him. Before playing the last song, he filled his glass and handed to a fan in the front row, then played “Long Long Way.” The song crescendoed to an impressive end, then tricked out with cello produced spaceship noises and Rice singing into his guitar’s soundhole.
Damien Rice’s return to the stage was worth the wait and a chance to see something remarkable. If you can still get a ticket to his co-headliner with Iron & Wine at Red Rocks on August 10th, I highly recommend it.
Energy: A
Musicianship: A
Sound: A+
Stage Presence: A
Set/Light Show: B-
Overall: A
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