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Damien Rice @ MSG

At the Damien Rice concert at Madison Square Garden, courtesy of HYB. (Thanks!) Our group met after work at the WaMu Theater for a night of music by the Irish troubador.

But first: another wristband!

I was last at this theater in December — back when in it was still known as “The Theater”; this time, we staked (or more accurately: snaked) out prime spots in front of the stage, in a large standing area cleared for general admission. As we waited for Rice to emerge, HYB’s friend F and I got a preview of the tunes via BC’s iPod.

After nearly an hour of anticipation… Rice at last!

Both BC and HYB had seen him in concert a handful of times, but this was my (and F’s) first time. The first I heard Rice’s music at all was back in April 2004 through CL who had declared “O” her new favorite album. I remembering listening to a few tracks then: songs that sounded desperately sad to me (as, truth be told, just about everything did at that time) – including the one haunting tune I would come to remember and recognize later that year in the film Closer.

I’d pegged Rice then as a bit of a brooder, so it was a pleasant surprise that he turned out to be as dynamic and charismatic a performer as he was: at times, even raucous – quite a feat, when seated at the piano, accompanied by a cello. His interstitial banter was full of amusing chatter and self-deprecating anecdotes. At one point, he took up the Mad Lib-esque challenge by impressively improvising an entire song, based upon suggestions from the audience: adjective, color, name and chord became “Happy Green Joe,” in A.

Is that a halfie drummer?

Towards the end of the concert, the audience was rocking so hard that the floor beneath our feet buckled and swayed in an ominous (but ultimately harmless) wave.

And for the encore: that first of Damien Rice’s songs I ever heard, better known as “The Blower’s Daughter“.

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