May 7, 2015 in 101 Things To Do List, 50 Concerts, Entertainment, Live Music, Music

Damien Rice at McCaw Hall (04.21.2015)

#46 GO TO 50 CONCERTS OF 50 DIFFERENT BANDS/MUSICIANS (11/50)

Concert 11:

04/21/2015 at McCaw Hall (Seattle, WA)

Damien Rice with Special Guest Marketa Irglova

 

I am an extremely lucky person. I mean, how often do you get the chance to see musicians like Damien Rice and Marketa Irglova play a venue like McCaw Hall for free. Yes, FREE! Its rare, and I am lucky that it happened to me. An old friend/concert buddy of mine messaged me the day before the show and asked if I, or anyone that I knew, would want a ticket to see Damien Rice the next day. When I asked the price, she said free. I didn’t have any money so this was perfect!!! I told her I would have paid, had I had any money but she said it was okay. I will make it up to her sometime. But anyways, I was going to have an amazing experience and all thanks to a friend. Lucky girl.

I was running a bit late the day of the show because I had a gym workout, so once I got home it was a mad dash to take a shower (so sweaty and smelly, it was in everyone’s best interest.) and get ready. I still ended up leaving a bit late but lucky for me, when I got to McCaw most people were still in the lobby. I took my seat and it was perfect. 17th row, center. I mean, it could have been closer but I’m not complaining because..freeeeeeee.

So I have to admit, I didn’t know that Marketa was opening and when she stepped onto the stage, she like of looked like a child. When she started to sing I was completed soothed and instantly felt all the tension and stress of getting to the show fade. It took three songs for me to figure it out, and by figure it out I mean she said her name and then she played a Swell Season song and I got really excited!!! (Yes, that excited that it warranted three exclamation points). She has the most beautiful voice. I have a major girl crush on her now. Not only does she sing beautifully, she plays piano and she has an accent, and a cool one at that. She played a few more songs and then walked off the stage to a standing ovation. That’s right, a standing ovation. The opening act was so amazing she received a standing ovation. If that was any indication of what was to come, then I knew I was in for a treat.

I have never seen Damien Rice play. I own his music and truly enjoy it, but never got a chance to see him. Either money issues or just already had plans. But tonight, it was different. I was finally getting to see him! Eeek!!! But first, I needed to hit the merch table while there wasn’t (hopefully) a crowd. I had a to wait a bit but then I grabbed Damien’s new album on vinyl and a copy of one of Marketa’s cds. I only knew her from the Swell Season and Once so I needed to catch up. I didn’t end up grabbing her latest album, I grabbed Anar instead. I was taken by the colors also, I didn’t actually know which one was the latest.

Back to my seat just in time for the lights to go down and for Damien to walk on to the stage. I should mention the lighting. The only light shining on the stage was a few small spotlights from lamps or low hanging lights on the stage. Mostly only one at a time were on, but there were times when maybe 6 or 7 were on. I only remembered it happening when he played Volcano and but I’m sure it occurred many other times. It was during Volcano that he asked if anyone would like to sing with him. He asked the venue to turn up the lights so he could see the crowd and then invited people to just come down. He said about 50 or so people, he had way more than that and people just kept coming even though the stage was full. At one point he said “I think we have enough people” but there were still people coming and he said okay we have room in the back. A lady came down he front and jumped up waving her hands and shouted, “I’m here”. Damien laughed, as did the audience, and said “Oh,  you’re here.  We saved a spot for you there,” and pointed to an open space in the front of the stage near where she was. She jumped up and sat right down.

A note for all musicians that want to invite the crowd on stage to sing with them and have a moment…People will try to touch you and take pictures with you. Yes, even on stage with everyone looking. They will hold up the show. Damien apparently did not thing this would happen. People kept trying to take selfies with him and talk. I think at one point he even said “No Selfies” haha it was funny. People eventually settled down and he explained how it was going to go. Half that group would sing one part, the other half would sing another part, and the audience would sing the last group part and Damien would sing whatever he wants. Kidding, he would sing the main part. It actually sounded pretty great from the crowd. The people on stage really got into it and Damien had us clapping and stomping. One guy stood up to stomp, clap and dance. It seemed appreciated.

After the song Damien dismissed the crowd and people again tried to talk to him, take pictures, shake hands, hug and etc. Out came the “No Selfies” remark again and you could hear him just saying okay, thanks and goodbye. I think he even said, no touching. Oh fans. Someone left their glasses on stage and Damien cracked some jokes and even put them on. It took awhile for the person to finally come and get them. After much prodding and joking by Damien. Then the show was back on track.

Damien addressed the crowd saying that if they had come to the show thinking, “I had a shit week, Im having a bad day, Im going to go see Damien Rice now”, referring to the fact he plays more melancholy songs than uplifting songs, then they were out of luck. He was not in a sad mood, he was in a good mood. Someone would have to hurt his feelings to get him to that. He does have happy moments. He was quite jokey all night. He made jokes about sex and masturbation, bodily function jokes, love and heartbreak jokes. He was jovial. I wouldn’t say that meant he played fast uplifting tunes but you weren’t going to leave the show wanting to slit your wrists. I laughed so much more than I expected to.

He talked about how the happiest people write the saddest songs, because they shit out their emotions. They get it out of them so that they aren’t holding it all in. He continuously compared songwriting to shitting. I think you had to be there to really understand why we laughed and at the same time were impressed by how he candidly talked about his life and his process. He talked about emotional constipation and etc. Anyways…

I can’t recall all the songs he played but he played Volcano (as mentioned earlier), Older Chests, The Professor & La Fille Danse, 9 Crimes,  The Blower’s Daughter, Long Long Way, and Colour Me In. There were others but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. Before we knew it and Damien as well, it was time for the show to be over. For the encore we pretended he left the stage. They just turned the lights off while we all cheered. He didn’t ask us to cheer but we did because none of us wanted it to end. The stage lights came back on and he asked Marketa to come out and play a song. He left the stage and she played one last song. Then he came back out. They played Long Long Way together and I’m pretty sure he ended with Colour Me In. I just know when he played it, it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever heard.

Since I don’t have any great pictures from the night I decided to end this post with a link to Damien singing Colour Me In. I absolutely adore this man and his music.

 

Damien Rice (www.damienrice.com)

Marketa Irglova (www.marketairglovamusic.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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