10/02/2025

Damien Rice – Bruce Mason Centre: February 9, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)

Damien Rice made a welcome return to Auckland playing to a sold out audience 20+ years after he was last in town.

To be fair, Rice hasn’t exactly been flooding the market with “product” over that time. His 2002 debut solo album, O, was a hit, as was the follow-up, 2006’s 9. Since then, there has only been one full length album…2014’s My Favourite Faded Fantasy and a handful of “B” sides.

But the lack of any new material didn’t keep fans away as the Bruce Mason Centre was sold out. And, as it turned out, rightly so, as those of us in attendance were treated to an extraordinary show.

With no opening act, it was just Damien, his songs and, as it turned out, his new collaborator, Brazilian cellist/vocalist Francisca Barreto who has filled the gap left by Lisa Hannigan who sang, played and inspired Rice over 20 years ago.

The lights dimmed at about 8:15 and an ominous pre-recorded voice comes on, welcoming us and urging us to “switch off your phone”. The instructions are heeded and the show goes on without a hundred little lights capturing videos and photos that will never be looked at again.

Damien Rice’s voice emerges from the fog-filled stage and he is seated at a keyboard singing Accidental Babies from 9, a break-up song that is generally thought to be about his and Hannigan’s split. One can’t help but wonder what it’s like to revisit that pain in from of a roomful of strangers all these years later. The sound and the performance still sound raw and powerful.

And that’s just the start.

Rice switches over to guitar and continues to bear his soul on Amie, from O.

“Relationships…yeah…they’re fun” he quips, noting that they are indeed good material for writing songs and suggesting that maybe he should share song writing royalties with his exes, before sharing, or maybe oversharing, a story of how his teenage-self conducted “hormone control”.

After a dramatic display of circular breathing that capped The Professor & La Fille Danse, Francisca Barreto takes her place behind her cello and the show really kicks in. Barretto’s cello adds depth to the sound and her harmonies texture to Rice’s lyrics.

Rice himself proves to be a genial, open host, happy to tells stories, interact with the crowd and then break our hearts with songs like The Blower’s Daughter and 9 Crimes.

The audience hung on to every lyric sung, every string plucked and every draw of the bow and spontaneously sang along as the mood fit.

The show seemed to come to an end after a version of Cannonball featuring two members of Rice’s crew who were brought out, seemingly to their surprise, to strum along with Damien and Francisca.

And then they were off…an hour and 20 minutes after they began.

And if that was all we got, I think everyone would have gone home happy.

But the audience demanded an encore and they got one.

Not just one quick send-off, but four powerful performances that made this night feel very special beginning with Damien and Francisca in dramatic silhouette, facing each other, over a purple background, singing a delicate Cold Water.

The other major highlight was I Remember which began with Francisca singing over Damien’s guitar and grew louder and more emotional when Rice took the vocal, finally erupting into a thunderous percussion and a truly explosive finale.

They audience was left simultaneously stunned and cheering.

They evening ended with the one “new” song, an unreleased tune called Behind Those Eyes that has been around since at least 2017. The crowd sang along, giving the show the warm, emotional ending it deserved.

At one point Damien mentioned that he was in a place where he has started recording and writing. Let’s hope he doesn’t take another 20 years to come back to Auckland or to make a new record.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Chris Zwaagdyk (Chris was only allowed to shoot first three songs, before Francisca appeared)