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.
