Whelan's in Dublin was the scene earlier tonight for an emotional gig by the enigmatic singer-songwriter – who promised that a new album is on the way, later this year
Damien Rice made a triumphant return to the stage in Dublin earlier tonight. The singer-songwriter, whose independently recorded debut album O sold in excess of two million copies, and spawned numerous hits, played a powerful two and a half hour set in Whelan's, the legendary Dublin venue that played a crucial part in nurturing the singer-songwriter movement in Ireland. Whelan's is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary.
The gig was announced less than a week ago and sold out within a minute. Tickets for the show were like gold-dust, as fans desperately sought to gain access to the 450 capacity venue. Despite failing to procure tickets, crowds gathered outside the venue tonight in the vain hope of picking up spares; none were forthcoming for a gig that is sure to go down in local music industry lore as one of the special ones.
For most of an enthralling and hugely generous 150 minute set, Rice performed alone with his guitar – though he was joined onstage, on and off throughout the evening, by percussionist Shahzad Ismaily. His sound was also embellished by the judicious use of pedals, adding colour and depth to the music. Along the way, he told an expectant crowd that a new record was almost ready. "We're currently mixing it," he said, adding that the final track selection had not yet been made.
One of the most emotional moments of a powerfully moving set came when Rice responded to a song-request from the audience. "I heard someone call out for 'Cold Water'," he said, before asking a female member of the audience, "was it you?" Following a brief exchange, during which it was established that the girl could indeed sing, Rice was joined onstage by not one fan but two – who between them handled what had been Lisa Hannigan's part on the original recording.
Making no concessions to unnecessary glamour, the singer was dressed in a green t-shirt and jeans. Looking lean and impressive, he performed at least three previously unreleased songs, and confirmed that – at long last, fans might reflect – he is gearing up for a new burst of musical activity.
Leaving the stage, the singer thanked the audience for coming. He doffed the cap to Whelan's for hosting the gig. And then he promised: "The album will be out in the autumn."
On tonight's evidence that is a prospect greatly to be anticipated. The word for now is that Damien Rice is back – and back to his best. Long may it continue...
Hot Press' Rosie O'Brien was there to snap all the action – click here for the full gallery
My Favourite Faded Fantasy returns to the summit
Read More The Kildare man turned in a performance of 'Trusty & True' last Friday.
Read More The returning singer-songwriter will perform in Dublin, Cork and Galway next July.
Read More He was the hottest singer-songwriter on the planet and then, suddenly, he vanished from view. Back after an eight year hiatus, in a fascinating interview, Damien Rice discusses his long quest for inner peace, working with Rick Rubin and his attempt to patch things up creatively with Lisa Hannigan. Oh, and his sense of humour...
Read More Listening to it is like being wrapped in a warm duvet!
Read More Kildare chart-topper pops by Dave's New York studio
Read More
In our new cover feature, the Kildare-born singer-songwriter also discusses My Favourite Faded Fantasy, the catharsis of songwriting, and how he filled the past eight years.
Read More
Damien Rice performed a slew of songs from his new My Favourite Faded Fantasy album this morning on Santa Monica’s legendary KCRW radio station.
Read More
Starring Aphex Twin, Damien Rice, Culture Club, Banks, Run The Jewels, Nine Inch Nails, Ed Sheeran, Hookworms, Die Antwoord and some avant jazz/space rock. Why not, eh?
Read More
The star is Kingdom-bound next month for the TV musicfest.
Read More Damien Rice playing at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre on 3 November 2014.
Read More Damien Rice delighted a sold-out Bord Gáis Energy Theatre last night; check out our photos from the night, and a flavour of the reaction from the capacity crowd.
Read More One of the most eagerly-awaited albums of 2014 has landed!
Read More Impressive comeback from Irish folk star.
Read More Damien Rice has premiered the video for ‘I Don’t Want To Change You’, the lead single from his My Favourite Faded Fantasy album which is released on October 31.
Read More The Yukon Bar and its accompanying venue, opened in 1989, are no more after October 1.
Read More Ornate box-set available in limited numbers
Read More
'I Don't Want To Change You' follows the title track from his forthcoming My Favourite Faded Fantasy.
Read More
Team Hot Press has been chain listening to ‘My Favourite Faded Fantasy’, the title-track from the long overdue new Damien Rice album, which drops here on October 31.
Read More The man who broke through with the astonishing debut album, O, is back with a new record...
Read More The Kildare songwriter has tweeted a tracklist, while Amazon seems to think there is something to pre-order...
Read More "...Fans of Damien Rice have been waiting a whole seven years for the melancholic singer and emotional projectionist to grace an Irish stage. Well, the good news is that he’s back – with a vengeance. "
Read More Last night's show in the famous Dublin venue was an emotional one, and Hot Press was on hand to capture the action.
Read More
Here we enumerate what the singer-songwriter played to a packed and expectant Whelan's
Read More The acclaimed singer-songwriter will be helping the famous venue celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Read More Adele is at No.1 but there's a surprise new entry.
Read More In 2000 he was a young musician with nothing to tie him down. The intervening decade was a remarkable one for Damien Rice, who scaled the heights with his wonderful debut album, released in 2002, and simply titled O. But far more important to him than all of that is the fact that he loved, and then lost, an extraordinary woman by the name of Lisa Hannigan.
Read More Damien Rice will perform live on Sunday, March 7 in California when the film When The Dragon Swallowed The Sun is shown at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Read More Damien Rice has broken a three year silence to speak to Hot Press, in an in depth interview that appears in the Hot Press Annual, which hit shops today.
Read More
Get ready for the acoustic lilts of Damien Rice and other artists at the November showcase of the Little Noises Session in London.
Read More Damien Rice contributes a new track, ‘Making Noise’, to the Songs For Tibet – The Art Of Peace compilation, which receives its Stateside release on August 12.
Read More Damien Rice is among the celebrities calling out for a million people to sign up in support for freedom in Burma.
Read More An acoustic live record stripped back to its bare essentials, Live From The Union Chapel, in its simplicity and frankness, showcases the essence of Rice.
Read More You wait years for a Damien Rice live album and then two come along at the same time!
Read More This is the cover of Damien Rice's forthcoming album Live At Union Chapel.
Read More Damien Rice has added his voice to calls for a UN intervention in Burma.
Read More A picnic mood prevailed as the late summer rays caressed the crowds, many of them sprawled on blankets spread around the unfamiliarly dry grass.
Read More Fionn Regan and Damien Rice have both announced shows in Cork.
Read More Damien Rice is to release a download-only single to coinicide with his headliner at Marlay Park later this month.
Read More Damien Rice warms up for his Marlay Park extravaganza with a Royal Theatre, Castlebar show on August 23.
Read More Don't miss your fave bands - we have the timetables of the Foo Fighters, Damien Rice and Kaiser Chiefs concerts taking place at Marlay Park, Dublin.
Read More Damien Rice has pulled his Japanese Fuji Rocks and Korean Pentaport Festival appearances this weekend due to fatigue.
Read More It seems there’s no rest for the wickedly successful, as Damien Rice announces his US/Canadian tour for this September.
Read More The full Glastonbury line up has been unveiled - and there's no shortage of Irish talent playing the celebrated festival.
Read More The full line-up for Damien Rice's outdoor show has been revealed.
Read More Damien Rice and Snow Patrol have both been confirmed for the London leg of Al Gore’s Live Earth extravaganza, which takes place in multiple locations on July 7.
Read More Damien Rice is to headline the acoustic stage at Glastonbury Festival.
Read More The long wait is over with Damien Rice finally confirming an Irish gig in Dublin’s Marlay Park.
Read More Yes, the one with all the swearing on it – with all the swearing removed. A snaggle-toothed bile-dripper ‘Rootless Tree’ was the slow-burn stand out on Rice’s 9 album; cleaned up for radio, the song retains its haunting reach. Points are deducted for the recycled card sleeve, though. There is such a thing as trying too hard, you know.
Read More Having sold-out four UK Dates in March, Damien Rice has confirmed a return trip to Blighty in October
Read More RTE's series of live music Other Voices begins straight after Christmas with an hour-long Damien Rice special.
Read More The singer/songwriter will hop across the Irish Sea to play four concerts in March.
Read More Without wishing to trash the Hot Press party line, our Damien has always left me perplexed, uninterested and wondering what all the fuss could be about. Might '9 Crimes' be the record to change all that? Actually it might. This is lovely stuff, once again led by the twin muses of Lisa Hannigan’s voice and Vyvienne Long’s cello, although you have to wonder at the strategy of releasing it two weeks after the album.
Read More While Mr Rice is a notoriously camera-shy chap, we shouldn’t mistake this reticence for a meekness of character. Far from it – because from beginning to end, 9 is a serious statement of authorial intent.
Read More Having previously announced that he wasn’t going to tour his new 9 album, Damien Rice has announced a 10-date US tour, which kicks off on November 13 in LA’s El Rey Theater and then takes in New York, Oakland, Boston, Upper Darby, Washington and Chicago before winding-up on December 20 at Minneapolis’ Orpheum Theater.
Read More It's been over four intriguing years since Damien Rice's extraordinary debut album O was launched. That record went on to become a huge underground international hit, selling in excess of 2 million copies. Now his long-awaited follow-up – the similarly simply titled 9 – is finally ready to hit the shops. So how did Rice so successfully capture the collective imagination? And will the latest instalment in the Rice musical biography propel him to even greater heights? Hot Press talks exclusively to some of the key players in his remarkable rise and rise.
Read More Hot Press has been given an exclusive first listen to the new Damien Rice album, which is released here by 14th Floor Records on November 3.
Read More Damien Rice’s 9 album hasn’t even hit the racks yet, and he’s already actively piecing together the follow-up!
Read More As reported last month in Hot Lress, Damien Rice is getting his new album into the shops before Christmas.
Read More Damien Rice has confirmed details of his long-awaited follow-up to the two million-selling O.
Read More Damien Rice is to play two dates in Dublin ahead of his Electric Picnic performance.
Read More Damien Rice has confirmed the full list of US dates he's playing during the summer with Fiona Apple.
Read More In what is one of the most sensational developments of the summer festival season, Damien Rice has been added to the line-up for Electric Picnic. However, Hot Press can reveal that, in addition to performing, the Kildare troubadour has committed to an even more ambitious role in the event.
Read More There was no getting hammered and doing fuck all work over Christmas for Damien Rice with the Kildare man journeying to Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize Concert.
Read More Having graced the Closer soundtrack and made the cut for the OC’s illustrious collection, Damien Rice is doing very nicely out of compilations these days.
Read More Damien Rice is set to try his hand at staging a music festival in Ireland this summer
Read More Damien Rice has emerged as one of the most distinctive and independent voices of recent years, achieving a remarkable level of success and artistic respect with O – the debut album that was recorded on a shoestring in his own bedroom. Famously media shy, he agreed to talk to Hot Press about the Free Aung San Suu Kyi 60th Birthday Campaign, and the beautiful tribute single ‘Unplayed Piano’, recorded with Lisa Hannigan. But, tape rolling, he talked about a whole lot more, giving the most candid and complete insight yet into the real Damien Rice.
Read More Damien Rice's cover version of 'When Doves Cry' appears on a new compilation from Australian radio station Triple J
Read More Exclusive to hotpress.com: the artwork for Damien Rice's new single revealed
Read More O has reached its peak in the UK albums chart, fuelled by the appeal of 'The Blower's Daughter' on the soundtrack to Closer
Read More Though a charity gig hardly makes for the perfect barometer, it is still perpetually astounding to note the evolution (or devolution?) of Damien Rice’s live audiences.
Read More Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Natalie Portman are the new stars of Damien Rice's new 'Blower's Daughter'
Read More Myanmar's military junta has banned the album demanding the freedom of political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi.
Read More Not content with joining superstar ranks in an upcoming benefit album, Damien Rice is to be the subject of a before-he-was-famous documentary
Read More Damien Rice has announced details of an under-18s show at Whelan's, Dublin on the afternoon of Saturday September 18.
Read More The trouble with Damien Rice these days is there isn’t just enough of him to go around.
Read More Chasing a pink elephant? Damien Rice's B-Sides album is coming soon to a store near you and here's what to look for...
Read More Damien Rice launches his new 'Lonely Soldier' single next week with an in-store performance at HMV Grafton St.
Read More Organizers of the When Bush Comes To Shove gig have announced a second date at Vicar St., on June 20, to meet continued ticket demand
Read More Damien Rice and Christy Moore have collaborated on a new single, 'Lonely Soldiers', which will benefit the Irish Anti-War Movement
Read More Roll up, roll up! Damien Rice plays his homecoming gig at Vicar St. on May 31
Read More Patrick Hedlund catches up with Damien Rice and The Frames in Boston and finds they’re having more success on-stage than in the bowling alley. Additional reporting Stuart Clark
Read More American readers that missed out on tickets for his sold-out tour with The Frames can catch Damien Rice up close and personal with David Letterman tonight
Read More From Iceland and Tennessee to the BRIT awards, Damien Rice is hot international property
Read More The fact that he has a bizarre Swedish dance outfit as support is largely a testament to the clout of Damien Rice’s newfound celebrity.
Read More Tickets are selling fast for the Bam earthquake benefit gig which takes place January 28
Read More Mr Rice has been added to the bill for the Victims Of Bam Earthquake benefit, which takes place January 28
Read More Following the re- release of his much- acclaimed album, 'O', Rice will be touring with some special guests in the new year.
Read More Congratulations to Damien Rice who picked up the prestigous US prize last night
Read More Things are going up and up for Damien Rice, and not just in the charts...
Read More With a self-recorded and self-released album – called simply O – Damien Rice has emerged as a major force in Irish music. But that’s just the start of it: the record is now in the charts in both the U.S. and the U.K., and with the kind of momentum he has generated, the feeling is that it might just go all the way.
Read More Damien Rice has been announced as a finalist for the US Mercury equivalent
Read More Damien Rice nominated for the US Shortlist Music Prize
Read More Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan have contributed songs for the soundtrack to a new Irish film
Read More "Emotive and positively full of subtlety and passion and light and shade"
Read More
Jools, Letterman, platinum discs, fan hysteria – it’s all very nice and much appreciated, you understand, but for Damien Rice the bottom line remains the song – and doing things his way.
Read More O garners rave reviews from heavyweight US press
Read More Damien Rice to appear on The Late Show With David Letter man and plays New York Bowery gig
Read More Confirmed as the second headliner to Coldplay, gigging at Glastonbury, T in the Park and V2003... It's a busy time in the Rice camp
Read More His album has gone platinum at home, but now Damien Rice is set to go global with distribution deals for Europe and the US.
Read More Damien Rice takes in the UK, Amsterdam and USA with latest series of dates
Read More
Damien Rice to appear on that most hallowed of music-telly mainstays, Later With Jools Holland (this Friday, 29th November, BBC2, 11.30pm)
Read More News, reviews, an interview and streamed audio: everything to delight fans of vowel sounds. O yes
Read More Damien Rice barrels through Dublin, Galway, Belfast, Limerick and Cork as part of his five date Irish tour
Read More "Only Bob Dylan comes close to such cracked passion." Who's been on the business end of such purple praise, you enquire? Our own Damien Rice, in UK reviews of debut album O, that's who
Read More
Damien Rice has just released his debut solo album and says he's already 'making it'. Pilau talk: Fiona Reid
Read More Listen to 'Volcano' from Damien Rice's debut album O, out today nationwide
Read More Damien Rice launches his brilliant debut album "O" at Vicar Street. O yes he does
Read MoreFor information including benefits, key facts, figures and rates for advertising with Hot Press, click below
Advertise 
