damien live on 30th march

[alumni]

http://www.sistic.com type in 'damien rice'
in singapore

[administrator]

thanks alumni.

[Beevers_uk]

* No Photography, Video recording and Audio recording is allowed for this event !

[Yetzirah]

who wants to make a weekend-trip to asia?

[Bumpman]

It's a pretty inventive place to pick for the first show since the recent spate of recording, i'm sure it has something to do with there not being as many people showing up expecting to hear the songs they know or something.

Anyway i'm packing my bags for asia.

[SisterMidnight]

this is like some secret underground ninja gig or something... does damien even have a very large fanbase in singapore??

i suppose he might have chosen such an out of the way place because of a lack of tapers, too...

[Angela]

He doesn't want to see us or what?

[Arpie]

Of course he doesn't! He's a contrary git; surely this is obvious by now? He clearly intends to drift back into obscurity, whereupon he'll start selling a new album to an eclectic scattering of people who happened to be in the right venue to witness one of his occasional surreptitious and impromptu performances.

As he had it 'f**k everybody...' ('in the nicest possible way'.)

[grania]

hi guys.

i'm a singaporean who went for his gig just yesterday. i lurk around but decided to post this when i saw it. damien has a pretty large fanbase in s'pore, especially after the film Closer. O is doing very very well in sales here and his tickets were sold out within a day. the 600-seater theatre was all full and the concert was brilliant. the audience comprise a good mix of locals and expats, and most are young adults to working professionals who came from work.

anyway he told the audience why he was in singapore. he was celebrating the 25th birthday of a friend named Louis. and he was bantering about how weird it is that time flies so fast. =)

anyway i totally forgot about recording the gig as i went for it straight after school. so had to make do with my phone's voice recording. quality is quite poor for some songs, but i'm happy. =)

[Cali]

hey grania, welcome to the igloo. you are so lucky!!! do you know if he played any new songs and did you see anybody taping the show?

[Luoooooooo]

The official site has more information.

And to be honest, you wont be exited by the setlist...

[cille]

Originally Posted by Luoooooooo

The official site has more information.

And to be honest, you wont be exited by the setlist...

spoilsport

[kythe]

Damien sang ONE new song. Unfortunately (and I am kicking myself for this), I screwed up on recording the setlist at some point, and I don't recall any lyrics from the song.

What I do recall, is that Damien introduced the song as having a number of high notes, which he jokingly warned that he might not be able to reach (having not sung in a while).

He also revealed that he hoped to include this song on the new album, and that he'd attempted to record this song two or three times previously, but trashed it each time because it was '****e'. Then he warned us that this performance of it probably would be '****e' too.

That said, he did pretty good. It did NOT sound angry, which was a wee bit disappointing.

[Cali]

Originally Posted by kythe

He also revealed that he hoped to include this song on the new album, and that he'd attempted to record this song two or three times previously, but trashed it each time because it was '****e'.

do you remember his exact words? what else did he say about the new album?

[kythe]

Originally Posted by Cali

do you remember his exact words? what else did he say about the new album?

That was the essence of what he said - I can't recall exactly though. He didn't mention anything else about the new album I'm afraid.

[juliaann]

Wow Damien sure got a fantastic review...

Damien Rice makes hearts cry out with odes to life
Kenny Santana, Contributor, Singapore, qnoy2k@yahoo.com

For the past month, Singapore has played a role as Southeast Asian's music hub by hosting wonder boys from Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience to Jason Mraz in the successful Mosaic Music Festival. This Thursday, musical gem Damien Rice hit the town to mesmerize 600 fans in an intimate, off-festival evening concert at the Suntec Theatre.

The gig sold out only in three days, proving Damien Rice's power over the Singaporeans, who had already bought 9,000 copies of Rice's album O. Fans were not disappointed, as he came to sing, to cry out, and simply to blow everyone away.

To warm up the audience, Rice chose The Professor & La Fille Danse from his EP, B Sides. Followed by more familiar songs, such as Delicate and I Remember, Rice gave his songs life on the stage.

Screaming out his true-to-life lyrics while jamming his acoustic guitar, Rice also made the stage rock from his stomping feet -- so hard that you could feel his heart yearn and yell, and that it had been bruised.

Rice's Accidental Babies includes a verse that goes: Well I know I make you cry/And I know sometimes you wanna die/But do you really feel alive without me?/If so: be free/If not: leave him for me. Sang back to back with Cheers Darling -- And I die when you mention his name/And I lied, I should have kissed you/When we were running in the rains -- it feels like an ode to jilted lovers.

More a singer than a performer, one didn't expect Rice to dance or make a gag on stage. But he did, in his own way.

At one point, Rice took requests from the audience: "What you want me to sing, new or known songs?"

He also gave brief but soulful explanation on the songs he performed, such as for Cold Water: it's the song when he reaches out to his mother and God. Cannonball is about desiring someone close to you that you cannot have.

During this time, Rice sat on the floor as he sang and then got back to his feet for the following songs. He often left his verses unsung to have the audience happily shout it out to him. He moaned about his messed-up life, and how his songs were all his own.

Honest, a genius and totally real, Rice looks just an ordinary guy next door who only happens to be a talented writer-singer.

Rice has always been known for his lyrics and subtle music. Rolling Stone said his songs "has the quietness that leaves a dark and long-lasting impact", while The Guardian praised them as "gorgeous and understated, never too introverted to include a lovely melody".

It's obvious that his folk rock has inspired many people.

During the Singapore concert, while his music is not of the kind that makes the whole audience sing along, one could see couples lay their heads on each other, or a girl cry softly as she said to her friend, "It's so sad."

They're indeed sad, but they also carry a warmth, intimacy, tenderness that make them sound like lullabies of life: life that hurts and loves.

The show hit a high note with Unplayed Piano, in which calls for the freedom of Myanmar democracy leader Aung Sang Syu Ki.

In addition, Rice included in the concert a new, as yet untitled song from his upcoming album. Before he began to play, he warned the audience that the song "could be sh**e."

"Just in case," he added, "if it is really sh**e."

But no, it wasn't. Rice had it just right, just like his final encore of the highly awaited The Blower's Daughter from the soundtrack to Closer was a perfect closing. He played it with a cover version of Radiohead's Creep in the final line of the song, and got back again to the much-remembered refrain: I can't take my mind off you/I can't take my mind/My mind...my mind/'Til I find somebody new.

For almost two hours, Rice took the audience on a roller-coaster ride of his feelings, life and love that seemed to be ours, too.

Never once has a concert so moved me like this one -- nor made me cry.


link here

[SilentNight]

thanks

[SisterMidnight]

thank you, juliaann! what a great review!

it's nice he's asking if the audience wants to hear known or new songs.. i would have called out for both

[Mattien]

3 Damien vids from Singapore concert on youtube.com -- low quality.

[Sniffer]

Sounds like the same old thing. Again.

[paulmepaul]

Hi there! This is my first post, I'm a Malaysian who caught Damien in Singapore and loved every second of it! Here's another review of the Singapore gig, complete with a couple of pics too, that says the experience quite well:

[Excerpt]
"The audience was sold, and showed it with a raucous standing ovation while awaiting his encore, which he duly obliged with another four songs, including the infectious little ditty ‘Childish’, which prompted an audience clap-along. As his plaintive lyrics to perennial favourite ‘The Blower’s Daughter’ soared in the enraptured theatre, there seemed no better way to close the evening, except for Damien to segue into the chorus of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’, which delighted the crowd to no end."

[Review]
http://www.think.com.my/review.cfm?rev_ID=219

[MsCher]

juliaann - nice review

paulmepaul - welcome!

i wish i were there!!

[StatQuo]

I read on damienrice.com music forum, a review from another fan who was there:

Sketches wrote :

'm a huge fan of Damien and have been performing his stuff even, so it was quite surreal when I found out he was coming...I got my $68 ticket (urgh) as soon as the ticket outlets were open and was pretty hyped up about it, hoping that he'll really do something from his new album, or at least take on his older stuff with a fresh approach...but Damo didn't blow me away at all for some reason...I've got quite a lot of his bootlegs so I have been following whatever he's been doing (which hasn't been much, anyway)...and last night most of it was pretty much the same old...

Maybe I was expecting too much?

I guess it was more of a rock concert, in the sense that maybe he just wanted to please the fans here. I'm quite sure everyone else loved it (standing ovations, screaming girly fans, good press review just came out today, etc) but I'm not sure if they realize how long he's been missing in action and that, as his followers, we really should be getting something more than a bunch of songs he wrote about 5 or 6 years ago...Which are all fantastic and mean so much to so many people, but aren't they getting a little stagnant by now?

Am I the only one who feels this way?

And he forgot lyrics for about 4 songs, I'm not sure if that was staged, the audience loved it because it was kinda sheepish-charming-whatever but it was kind of a turn off for me because he seemed so underprepared...And I think I hated hallelujah...sorry! Sad He went on to talk about how "****" his new songs were (before he played Blower's Daughter Part II), and that he recorded them once and "they were ****" and that he recorded them again and "they were still ****", and okay that's funny but argh...Do you know where I'm coming from? Damien can have his usual charm and the fame that he's gotten from O and all that other stuff like collaborations with Herbie Hancock, but now all I really want from him is to recapture that spark that made the first album so special, and turn it into something bigger for the next record; everything else besides the music doesn't really matter anymore...

Sigh I never thought I would've said all that...

At the end of the concert all I got was the impression that he happened to come down to Singapore for a friend's birthday, and that he might as well do a set to earn himself a bit of extra cash hohoho...

Whatever the case I hope he'll come up with better songs soon (Prague-ish stuff?), if not everyone will just lose faith in him eventually...

And oh, yeah...where the hell was Lisa?

[gregamiepgy]

So near and yet so far!!! To live in Malaysia and not get to drop by Singapore

Anyway, here's a review that appeared in a local daily today (damien wore his patchwork shirt) :

Melancholy man

By DARYL GOH



What does Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice do when he wants to warm up for a big summer tour with Fiona Apple in the United States? He announces a two-hour solo show in Singapore and catches everybody by surprise – even his record label Warner wasn't aware of his visit to these parts until late.

Rice should be in the studio finishing up a new album but sometimes recording schedules can be changed for a few days in the sun.

Damien Rice performing at his sold-out concert in Singapore. – Picture courtesy of The Straits Times Singapore / Asia News Network
The 35-year-old musician’s intimate show at the Suntec Theatre in Singapore last Thursday was a definite rarity with an air of a secret gig to it. Word has it that Rice was on a personal holiday to the island nation and decided to take out his guitar for this one-off date.

His most recent live outings – the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway, and the Tibet House benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in New York – were sizeable gigs, but in Singapore, Rice left the band at home and took to the stage with just a guitar in hand and a spontaneous set in mind.

For the 600 fans that snapped up tickets for this sold-out show, this was a singer-songwriter in a holiday mood. At times there were flubbed lyrics, a tuning crisis mid-set and a rusty but no less steely performer on the decks that hasn’t toured since late 2004.

But it didn’t really matter, Rice has been in the business long enough to work his way into the hearts.

Actually, he didn’t need a songbook since the crowd responded enthusiastically to everything Rice did and shouted out lyrics and requests.

He was clearly performing for an audience of fans. It was, after all, polite Singapore and not a crowd of hard-bitten, miserable Arab Strap fans in Glasgow, Scotland.

For better or worse, the lonesome Rice pulled it together with a stash of sad-sack narratives.

With a couple of lit candelabras on stage and a lonely barstool at the ready, the concert mood couldn’t have been more low-key.

Yet it looked like it was going to be one of those weird edgy nights when Rice, appearing rather sullen and aloof, strummed through early numbers La Professor & La Fille Danse and Delicate, while remaining distanced from the star-struck crowd.

Dour from the start, Rice clearly wasn’t anxious to impress – instead he was a picture of a downbeat bloke needing to transmit the emotional depths of a song to the audience. To many, it was beautiful misery – and the romantic torment so divine.

Between the disturbing bitter-sweetness and heart-broken menace played out in this darkened hall, Rice kept the pace relentlessly intense (talk about a holiday gig!). He wasn’t the sort of artiste for everybody. The Tesco-going masses can have James Blunt, but for the few at the Suntec Theatre, this was a show where the darker moments of despair brought on the biggest thrills of the night. <LOL!!>

All corners of his debut O were revisited. From the feverish rush of I Remember came a heartbreaking jolt, and indeed Rice could get unsettlingly loud, barely needing a microphone to get his anger and frustrations across this small venue.

With a cracked voice always threatening to jump off the ledge, what this man needed was some crowd interaction to settle in. As he fell to his knees and went into a wordless, gentle howl of yearning to conclude Amie, Rice finally loosened up.

He cracked a slight smile, squinted at the crowd and blamed “jetlag” for the melodrama.

Divided between middle-aged yuppies that only knew the words to The Blower’s Daughter (his biggest hit from the movie Closer) and obsessive indie geeks who knew the words to every Rice song, B-sides included, this devoted audience sprung to life.

The more daring ones from the cheap rows came forward to seat themselves on the aisles near the stage. It was starting to get truly intimate here and after some banter and asking if there were any requests from the crowd, Rice stood relaxed and ready to oblige.

He told the soundman to shut the PA system as he launched into the obscure Lonelily while kicking his heels and sitting on the edge of the stage front. Accidental Babies was another hung-up on love rarity that was nailed with eager audience participation.

Scattered through the 18-song set were untitled new tracks and highlights like Cannonball and Unplayed Piano, a song that Rice lovingly dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi.

Perhaps the peak of the night for many was the deeply moving Cold Water done with the hall lights dimmed out. But there is no denying Rice’s stirring rendition of Hallelujah (from Leonard Cohen) was an apt show closer. As expected, the standing ovation was immediate as Rice strolled backstage. A few minutes later, he returned with a four-song encore that included the touching Older Chests, a small tribute to a close friend’s dog that had just been stricken with cancer in the US. That very much summed up the overall tone of the concert – whether you like Rice’s music or not, hearing him live is a gloriously heart-twisting experience, both beautiful and disturbing.

[PenguinBoy]

coool, penguin loves damien rice

[thirsty]

.." a spontaneous set in mind..."hohoho, now thats' funny
same old same old...rice by numbers

[alumni]

ass. You expect what now?

Originally Posted by thirsty

i personnally have'nt heard any of these unreleased songs, i prefer to listen to an artists official releases.....though at the same time i'm hoping that hes been a little more productive over the three years....otherwise it kinda looks like backtracking......

[Cali]

Originally Posted by alumni

ass. You expect what now?

[SisterMidnight]

Originally Posted by gregamiepgy

So near and yet so far!!! To live in Malaysia and not get to drop by Singapore

Anyway, here's a review that appeared in a local daily today (damien wore his patchwork shirt) :

thank you

i'm so glad i'm in the "obsessive indie geeks" and not the "middle-aged yuppies" category...