[DawnAC321]

And one more for the Boston crew...

"Overcooked Rice difficult to digest
By Christopher Blagg
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

No musician likes to be a slave to audience expectations. But Irish balladeer Damien Rice was a bit too preoccupied with breaking free of his softy tag Monday night at the Orpheum. Sometimes it’s prudent to just stick with what got you there.

Touring in support of his sophomore release, “9,” Rice took as much time fiddling with loops, wah-wah pedals and distortion effects as he did finding the emotional core of his songs. The sold-out crowd may have screamed allegiance at every turn, but it was obvious more than a few fans wanted less edgy posturing and more of the Rice they thought they knew.



The show got off to a pleasant start, with Rice strumming the obscure “Sand” solo. Vocalist Lisa Hannigan joined in soon after to trade verses on the lovely “La Professor and La Fille Danse.” The pair’s vocal interplay and harmonies were outstanding.

Unfortunately, Rice’s need to flex his anger muscles popped up early and often with tunes such as the menacing “Face,” which found the singer screaming into his microphone to the point of distortion. Granted, a set composed entirely of Rice’s quieter tunes would make for a rather sleepy show, but his attempts at mixing things up seemed forced.

Rice’s penchant for morbidity and depressiveness remained, exemplified by the interminable jilted-lover piano ballad “Accidental Babies.” The dreary mood was immediately lightened with cellist Vyvienne Long’s mock-serious interpretation of the Flaming Lips’ “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.”

A silly death-metal version of Rice’s big hit “The Blower’s Daughter” may have been funny for one verse, but he kept up the gag for the entire tune, prompting a woman in the crowd to shout for the singer to “sing it the proper way.”

Perhaps the most poignant moment came on the encore, when Hannigan emerged by herself and sang the mournful traditional ballad “Blow the Winds Southerly.” Rice and the rest of the band returned to finish the show with lovely versions of “Cannonball,” “9 Crimes” and “Rootless Tree.” For Rice, the lesson is clear: Keep it simple, stupid.

Irish cult hero Glen Hansard, the lead singer of the Frames, opened with his new side project, the Swell Season. The talented songwriter’s rakish charm and dynamic presence combined with his band’s autumnal grace were enough to upstage the young upstart headliner."

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musi...ticleid=171713