A figurative love affair

This weekend I had a whole glorious four days off in honour of the fact that I had tickets (a Christmas present from Stephen) to see Damien Rice play The Marquee in Cork. This was the cause of much excitement and so I thought I would write about my weekend away and also my love affair with Damien Rice's music (as opposed to the man himself whom I have never actually spoken to).

So I booked somewhere to stay and we went to Cork for two nights to mostly eat and drink and argue about directions. We stayed in Kinlay House which is technically a backpackers hostel but it's cheap and clean and central to the city. To be fair I think we were spoilt the last time we stayed there as we were given an ensuite room with 3 beds for a decent price just around the corner from the main hostel. I will admit to being a little disappointed when we were shown to our much smaller room this time with bathroom facilities just down the hall. All that being said I'd rather spend my money on nicer things and we slept well there despite the almost constant ringing of the church bells next door. We didn't do a whole lot of touristy stuff during our stay, mostly eating and a bit of browsing in the shops as well as a mandatory visit to Triskel Arts Centre to see a French Rom-Com. We ate out a lot and my favourite place we went to was Oscar's Cafe on Cook Street (just off Patrick's Street) where we had breakfast both days. They use Arbutus sour dough bread, yum.

Obviously the main event was Damien's show which I was really excited about. I think this was my sixth time seeing him live but it was to be Stephen's first. I first discovered Damien Rice before he released his first album 'O'. I was at ,ahem, Aslan in The Point and he was playing support. In my defence it was about 14 years ago and back then Aslan used to tour the country regularly when I was in my teens so when I saw that they were playing in Dublin on my friends birthday I got us tickets. At that stage Damien Rice was not particularly well known, he had an EP out (The Blowers Daughter) and a fairly loyal following in Dublin. I had certainly never heard of him but by the end of his first song I knew I was going to be a fan. Myself and my friend came away talking about great he was and how unfair it was that we had to wait two whole months for his album to come out (oh the injustice)

A few weeks later I found out he was playing in Waterford and it was so long ago that I can't remember exactly where he played but I got really excited and then rang my dad and begged him to drive me down. He played an amazing gig and one of my parents friends who had tagged along booked him for a festival in Clonmel a few months later. By this stage I had the album which I played all the time but by far my favourite song was The Professor on the Bsides of his Ep. Whenever I would put it on my friends would comment it was a bit depressing and could we not play something else. So then I saw him play Devanes in Clonmel for Junction Festival (2002) and it was quite an experience. Little did I know that it was one unlikely to be repeated now that he has reached a level where intimate gigs like that are unheard of. I remember none of my friends would come along so I went by myself and asked Damien to play the Professor towards the end of his set. A few weeks later I moved to Switzerland for a year and spent many an hour walking and listening to O while trying not to sing along too loudly.

Since then I have seen him play in Whelans in Dublin and in Cork  and have remained in awe of him. I always thought he sang beautifully with Lisa Hannigan and the gig in Cork (about 8 years ago) was the first one where I saw him perform without her. I will admit to being dubious about how he would sound without her but my doubts soon faded away.

Fast forward to last night, my first Damien Rice gig in many years. At this stage he has released many Ep's and three albums. I have all of them and have listened to them many times so my favourites are etched into my mind in a way that cannot be undone. I have seen him play many different kinds of gigs from intimate and paired down to full bands. I was watching the stage be set up and I wasn't sure if Damien was to play alone. I couldn't help wondering if one man could truly fill a stage like the one in The Marquee by himself. I didn't have to wonder for long. We were somewhere in the middle of the crowd and the stage was shrouded in mist so when the crowd began cheering I found myself stretching out to try and catch a glimpse of the man himself. He opened the show with The Professor and I sang along quietly so as not to ruin it for anyone else. I thought my face would split from smiling when he sang an extended version of La Fille Danse (kind of my favourite part of The Professor). At no point was Damien joined on stage by anyone else but hearing how his voice filled the stage, you could see no other musicians were needed. He played a lot of old favourites interspersed with some of his newer work and even filled some of the silences in between with anecdotes that made you listen to the song in question differently. He had a number of tricks at his disposal, a series of pedals by the mic that would alter his voice or play a part of the song on a loop to give the effect of two people singing and he used them all beautifully. I still remember at a much earlier gig watching him alter his voice by having a separate mic inside a toilet roll and that seemed to work pretty well but I imagine his budget has grown somewhat over the years so its no longer necessary. I loved that I knew every song and some of the older ones made me feel a little emotional. He still has the power to send shivers down my spine. I loved when he had the audience sing different parts of Volcano and it actually sounded quite beautiful and at the very end where he pushed the mic away and we all sang The Blowers Daughter. He's an incredibly talented musician and he had the crowd in the palm of his hand. I known I wasn't the only one who was blown away by that show. In fact our waitress told us this morning that she cried for the entire gig which seemed a little dramatic but we got her point. I'd happily go see him again, even after all these years he's still my favourite musician and that's not something I say lightly.