The Belmont Vision

ISSUE: 09/13/07 > A&E > Damien Rice reveals, rocks on latest tour

Damien Rice returns to Nashville Thursday, Sept. 13, at the Ryman Auditorium. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and tickets range from $25-$45.

Here's to hoping intelligent Irish songwriter Damien Rice does not fall down that slippery slope so common to his rock contemporaries – alienating his audience. At a recent stop in New York’s Madison Square Garden, Rice delivered a concert that was three-fourths satisfying and one-fourth inexplicable.

You probably know his songs as the swoon-worthy soundtrack to films like "Closer" and television programs like "Grey’s Anatomy," but you should know Rice for his admirable compositions of emotional transparency and fervent emotion. He seems to relish the opportunity to lay his romantic struggles on the line. As he performed the track "Elephant" from his most recent album "9," he bemoaned, "What’s the point of this song or even singing? / If you’ve already gone, why am I clinging?".

The evening was filled with a great deal of material from his latest Heffa effort ("Coconut Skins," "Rootless Tree," "Me, My Yoke and I"), but fans attending the Sept. 13 Nashville show at the Ryman will be happy to know Rice also incorporated a few gems from his breakthrough American debut, "O." Listening to him first speak and then sing of the disparity between the lifestyles of the impoverished and the privileged during "Older Chests" was like witnessing poetry in motion.

His four-piece band accompanied him through the 15-song set with energy to spare, but diehard fans beware: the lone female onstage is cellist Vyvienne Long, not frequent vocal collaborator Lisa Hannigan. This came as a bit of a disappointment on tracks like "9 Crimes" where the desperate pleading ("Is that alright yeah? / I give my gun away when it's loaded / Is that alright yeah, with you? / Leave me out with the waste this is not what I do") becomes a one-sided argument sung solely by Rice. Long is given her moment to shine with a quirky cello ditty entitled "Random Man," but she does not lend her vocals to any other selection.

Rice claimed he was nervous this particular evening in front of his record label suits, but that did not stop him from flying by the seat of his pants and performing an impromptu song inspired by audience suggestions. We gave him the words "happy," "green" and "Joe," and he gave us a garbled eight-minute jam session of moody defiance. If he wanted us to be impressed by his on-the-spot lyrical ingenuity, it would have been helpful if we could have understood what he was saying. This over-the-top light metal session spanned two more songs (including the otherwise revelatory "I Remember") and detracted from what had been an exceptional evening of song.

But that forgivable (albeit painful) misstep in no way discredited the undeniable entertainment value of this Irish troubadour’s introspective canon of work. Clocking in right under two hours, the entire concert (unsupported by opening acts) was concluded with a welcome rendition of "The Blower’s Daughter," one of Rice’s most recognizable pieces. A heartbreaking ode to love and loss, it leaves the listener (and any attendee to Rice’s tour) begging for more

Andrew Cole, a junior, is filing stories for the Vision from New York City, where he is enrolled for the fall semester at Belmont East.

Sept. 13 , 2007