26 February 2009
Damien Rice @ Citibank Hall (São Paulo) - Part II
)Published on February 26th, 2009 @ 09:42:19 pm, using 727 words, 460 views
Damien Rice is ready to step in and fill a hole whenever I need him to. You can’t ask much more from your favorite singer/songwriter. And you need not ask - that’s precisely what made him your favorite in the first place.
[Click on the thumbnail for a larger view]
There was, one rainy afternoon - as I lay in bed mesmerized listening to O for the first time, feeling like an instrument myself, the chords inside me strummed to create around me the most comforting atmosphere of melancholic serenity - there was in that rainy afternoon (which may not have been rainy at all although it should have been) a karmic connection between his sound and my ears, a matching and weaving of sensibilities. A ’symbiotic’ exchange with gaping recognition as my sole input.
And since then, he’s been stepping in and filling blanks. He’s been to me the reliable ‘friend’ who’ll finish your sentences, or place a hand on your nearest shoulder that tells you… nope… not alone… not you.
There was once a broken heart and this sweet and clumsy redheaded Irishman with a genius gift for music was there to belt out through a little something called Elephant everything I could only feel. And I belted out right along with him. As many times as it would take to reach catharsis. Sometimes in tears, sometimes questioning myself, sometimes retracing my steps. His voice and guitar blasting in my ears or filling up the room and working its teasing then soothing magic.
This past December, just as I suffered a crushing blow, he came up with the mini South American tour to include not my city but another I could easily get to. And thus, he again came to fill a blank, this time as a real live comfort in a real live concert.
Up on the intimate stage of Citibank Hall in São Paulo on January 30th, he was lighthearted, funny and impossibly sweet… He spoke of the clouds in Ireland as I had spent 40-plus hours marveling at the clouds in São Paulo… He shared a few of the hearbreaks that came to inspire songs…
He played The Professor & La Fille danse, Delicate, Sand, Amie, Woman like a man, Elephant, I Remember, Coconut Skins… Sprinkling personal stories and good advice in between (the ‘bathtub advice’ instantly comes to mind which struck me as his own take on the Tyler Durden effect on one Raymond K. Hessel - see the video below).
He asked for every light on the premises to be turned off and played Cold Water in absolute darkness save the candles onstage, just as it should be played (it occurred to me then) - as the prayer I’ve always believed it to be…
He played Hallelujah (another prayer of a song imho) which made and makes me wonder how spine tingling a duet with the late and much missed Jeff Buckley might have been.
He invited the audience up to the stage to be his choir during Volcano…
He did Rootless Tree and then walked to the edge of the stage to perform a dazzling accoustic version of Cannonball which was to ‘end’ the show.
Minutes later he was back for an encore that featured Tom Jobim’s Desafinado (in a duet with Brazilian musician Max de Castro) Yes, he did give Portuguese a shy and gracious shot! And a pretty good one at that! Click on the link to check out the video and see for yourself.
He also played the song that started it all (for me anyway): The Blower’s Daughter. And downed a few glasses of wine to reenact one of those song-inspiring heartbreaks that, after aged like wine, become funny… Cheers Darlin’.
And then he was off somewhere else on his brilliant musical blank-filling crusade. And I, back to the hotel to the lingering sound of Sand in my ears, my blood laced with a shot of pure elation, holding as tightly as I could onto the remnants of a memorable… MEMORABLE… MEMORABLE… night.
For more photos of Damien’s concert in São Paulo click here
Damien Rice - Delicate/O
This post is the creative work of Iris Watts Hirideyo and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Damien Rice, photography, music, concert, São Paulo, Brazil, Volcano, videos, youtube, Portuguese, clouds, Ireland
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