Damien Rice | Live at the Orpheum Theatre Boston- 4/7/15Empty Bottle Evenings

Apr092015April 9, 2015April 9, 2015No Commentby Bake

Damien Rice | Live at the Orpheum Theatre Boston- 4/7/15

Posted in Music

After listening to Damien Rice’s latest album My Favourite Faded Fantasy I envisioned seeing him live surrounded by a full orchestra at grandiose theatre. When he announced he was playing at the aging, medium-sized, dilapidated Orpheum in Boston, I thought, ah good enough. I’ve heard artists sound great there before and I could still see Rice playing the band leader as a string quartet filled the space, while thunderous drums highlighted the emotional intensity of his work, and angelic background singers harmonized with the man and his audience as one. Yeah. Rice decided to go in a different direction on this one.

Upon opening the show with an acoustic rendition of the title track to his latest album where he eschewed the mic and let his raw voice be heard, Rice proudly announced musically that he was going to do this shit himself. While he did eventually step up to the microphone and plug in his guitar he continued his one man band for the next 90 minutes. Impressively he was able to make enough noise by himself that at times it felt like he wasn’t alone: like The Whites Stripes only cut in half. While Rice does fit the mold of the singer-songwriter troubadouring over his acoustic guitar, he became the master of the pedals live. One pedal to switch between acoustic and electric, another to switch from electric to super-metal. Just asked your local Guitar Center rep about that last one, they’ll know exactly what I mean. Along with fancy footwork needed to switch between songs (sometimes between verses), Rice had also prerecorded certain vocal and musical parts. Screw The Supremes, Rice was harmonizing with himself that night.

And he sounded great. His voice was stunning even as he switched between falsetto and folk-singer-not- squeezing-his-testicles. But still I wondered why he decided not to bring a full band. I know he has a reputation of not being easy to work with, but could he really not find musicians to travel with him? Did he not want to pay anyone else after 7 years off the grid? I mean, we all have bills to pay. Maybe he just loves himself a whole bunch and subscribes to the theory if you’re going do a job right, you better do it yourself. Whatever his reasons, I can’t understand why he would have the Swedish/Icelandic female folk duo My Bubba open for him and not utilize their powerful voices. He knew that these two women could sing and there were even two microphones set up on the stage to his right that he strangely never used. I would have bet anything that they would come out to join him for “9 Crimes” or “Volcano”, but they never showed. Instead Rice sang (well admittedly) both the male and female lead vocals. I guess when Rice comes back around in another decade I’ll know that if I’m paying to see Damien Rice that is exactly what I am going to get.