Damien Rice

Damien Rice

Prior to seeing the man perform I was no fan. Sure I have bought the CD etc and always found it to be a little boring to say the least. My wife booked tickets to see the man in Reading for last night.

The only way to describe the gig is brilliant. Damien was charming and his backing band awesome.

The music came alive for me through the passion and dedication from all band members. The live performance was far better with what I believe are more raw and original versions of all songs compared to the CD release.

If only the same was produced in the CD releases I would become a huge fan.

I will without a doubt return to see Damien again.

I wish we could get our money back. Damien Rice didn't sing any of his older hits...like: "CAN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF OF YOU"

Why Damien? Damien used a special effects microphone that sounded like a cheap tinny sound system with screeching loud off-tune yelling and without any video feed screens for this large outdoor theatre. Otherwise, everything dragged on like a sermon at a funeral. Put it this way...when people were leaving early, we commented to a mom of 5, "Why didn't they use the video feed screens to see the artists?" & her great response was "Would you REALLY want to see them large?"

When I went to go see Damien Rice at the London Palladium on the 20th june I was not disapointed. The gig was for Aung San Suu Kyi but before the night I didn't care, just seeing the best singer song writer since Lennon and McCartney was good enough. He came on at nine dressed in a casual shirt and just normal trousers and opened with blowers daughter part 2 which I was not expecting as it is not one of his best. After about 3 songs and a performance of women like a man which was so much better live. He had a long conversations with the crowd. Then took the request of old songs or new songs. He played some more but had some very long 10 minute solo's which started to bore the crowd. After nearly 2 hours he explained that he will play an encore but he has to show us a film first. He then played I remember and forgot the words and had to refer to the audience.

Overall paying £20 just to see him was enough but to put on a show as good and as long as he did was the best bargain I ever got.