Wow.
 

For chrissake...I've been an eskimo friend since inception but forgot my password and the webmaster here is lazy so I had to create a new account...

Review:

I went to three Damien Rice shows in 2004 - Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and New York/Beacon. I snuck into the Cleveland show during The Frames soundcheck and ran into Damien. I spoke some French with him (specifically that Lisa was stunning) and he told me to stick around after the show. We kicked it and he put me on the list for the New York show. Pretty stand-up guy. Never kept in touch with him. Anyhow, fast-forward to my fourth show...

Tickets said doors opened @ 7pm but they opened around 7:20. I drove up from San Diego and there was a one-block line around the church at 5:45. There were three sections, each were general admission. There was only one line for both box office and tickets, so it took forever to get in. Interestingly enough, they sold beers. I had a gold circle ticket (closest section to stage/alter), so I made the hasty decision to buy a $15 dollar 24oz, luke-warm Lagunitas IPA. Sign reads, "No Beers in Sanctuary". Chug the beer in 1 minute and head to gold circle. Wow...This church...I grew up Catholic and did the entire CCD bit, so I've seen some churches. Outside of Europe, this was one of the nicest/most ornate. Instead of pews, there were movie-style velvet seats. I hunker down three rows back and eat an edible.

Damien comes out and seems comfortable (no rambling, no retelling of same old stories) He is going in and out of songs pretty fluidly. I couldn't tell a harsh audio problem from being so close but his equipment and the monitors were giving him fits during the first three songs. He was clearly aggravated, shooting glances at his sound tech, and then audibly saying how he was annoyed. I thought this was great because I prefer the more pissed-off songs in his catalog and he channeled his frustration into I Remember, WLAM, Rootless Tree. He started bleeding from his finger at some point during WLAM. While his sound tech fixed a guitar chord, he went to piano and was bleeding all over the keys while asking for a napkin. . Rootless Tree was an audience request. His lingering frustration with the audio + sweat and blood all over the piano - it was the first of a few powerful moments of the show.

The second powerful moment was next. Some idiots kept saying, "Take Us To Church, Damien!". Damien thought it was dumb but basically says, OK. He requests all the lights be turned off and when it is completely dark, some basic bitch yells "Boo...". No one laughs and then Damien goes into Delicate. As I sit watching The Box performance from last night, I thought the constant camera glow from people recording with cell phones was really annoying ---learn how to dim the brightness on your camera phone, morons. Delicate was the only song that no one recorded. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, so I closed my eyes for 3/4 of the song. After your eyes adjusted, the only light you could see was at the top of the cathedral of the huge stain glass jesus portrait behind Damien.

Third powerful moment was Trusty and True. I'm a grown ass man and I nearly cried while the backup singers sang.

At this point we are getting close to closing songs. Some very smart guy yell requests Sand or Insane. Damien makes some comment like, you guys really like the old stuff huh?

ENCORE:

Damien solicited crowd on where to start - guitar, wine, or piano. He, almost reluctantly, accepted crowd's request to drink. Dude got hammered...I thought I chugged wine fast. It got a bit awkward when the woman stayed at the table too long but it was funny to see damien try to freestyle a drunk song. The song was so bad though (a part about throwing pennies into a wishing well). The funny parts were him repeating "Cheers to Dying" and something about eating people's souls.

We were so close to hearing the full Favorite Faded. He said is still a work in progress but it sounded like a complete song to me. Just think it's a confidence/repetition thing.

Never heard this particular Blower's Daughter story.

Volcano was fun.

Great show. Amazing venue. Considering buying tickets to Chicago.

thanks for sharing these!

The Liveleak vids have been pulled due to copyright infringement :(

amazing!!!!!! thank you for sharing!!

are the links still working? says files deleted cos of copyright infringement

damn! i didnt get to watch these fast enough and now the files seem to be removed

I only got to watch Trusty and true :(

I only saw Volcano... the others were already pulled when I saw these links :(

ahahahah goddammit. i didn't know liveleak took videos down like that. youtube literally was not working for me today. uploader isn't working. hmmmmm. any other suggestions? vimeo i hit my weekly quota cap just with The Box.

Trusty and True

My Favourite Faded Fantasy

all the recordings belong to tessalasset. you guys better be quick be4 they're removed again

Excellent review! When they turned the lights off, he actually played Cold Water, not Delicate. Delicate was the second or third song in the set. He did Cold Water into Hallelujah, and I cried with my eyes closed. Absolutely gorgeous.

I forgot about his little jam during cheers darlin. "Cheers...TO DEATH!" and then chuckles to himself and says that's pretty good. Hahah.

Also for the peeps who weren't there, his story about Blowers Daughter was how it was all a lie, he COULD take his eyes off her, but it made for a good song, and sometimes you just have to lie.

Here's what I'm dealing with. I get that first page when I click upload in the top right corner. Then I'll click basic uploader, get the next page, enter that info, and then it doesn't go anywhere when I click upload video. Just eventually times out.

Youtube BS

Wow I've never had someone make a mirror of one of my videos before. Awesome! Hopefully that stays up somehow? I'm even considering reuploading and just not mentioning Damien Rice whatsoever in the descriptors.

Edit: OHHHH someone uploaded my video to youtube. Hahahaa alrighty then. Obviously it's just something wrong on my side with youtube. This is so frustrating.

here are the songs I uploaded on youtube, HD. you should take a rest tessalasset. What you've done are more than enough :smiley2: Thank you for making my day :hello2:

My pleasure. I wish everyone could have been there.

Thank you Tessa and acquadigio!

Thank you so much Tessa & Acqua! Watching now :)

I love hearing the Obnoxious Fan yelling "OHHH YEEEEAAAAHHHHHHH" when the choir starts to walk on stage. He was pretty annoying through much of the show, but in this moment he was dead on.

what about I Dont Wanna Change You? How was it? Read no comments so far, anyone recorded it?

I LOVED it. That's probably my favorite of his new songs. I wasn't planning on filming anything by the time he got to this song so I didn't get it, unfortunately. Changed my mind a little later on in the set. There were SO many people filming last night tho. I'm sure every single song will turn up eventually.

He kinda whistled the violin parts in the song. It was cute.

trusty an true sounds much better than other time he played it last year

Oops. It was Cold Water.

thx

Trusty & True sounds identical, hasnt changed a bur, course the choir sings better here than the audience

I realized while I can't upload them for some reason, I can send them to you guys to download. Here you go.

I love this song with the choir too, but I just wish the part: "Come let yourself be wrong. Come it's already begun" could last longer, like forever if possible. That part he sang with the audience last year was so raw and honest, yet still sounded deeply powerful which brought tears to my eyes

thought it was different, i just rememebr hating it and now i kinda like it but havent heard it since last yr or so